Always Carry a Gun in the Woods

Because even when there are no bad guys, there are wild animals.

Apparently I'm No Longer Welcome Here

Washington State is a pretty great place. The Democrats are trying to change that as quickly as they can, now that they run the joint. I was planning on staying, and we'll have to see how these things play out, but between the "Assault Weapons" ban proposals and other gun control, and the new call for a state income tax, it doesn't look good.

I have a mountain of student loan debt, and I'm not hanging around here to help with their liberal utopia at the expense of my future. Nope, no thanks.

The major question I have is whether or not the Republicans can ever reclaim at least one house of in the state legislature, or the governorship. I'd really rather see the house or the senate switch hands, but I can't see that happening in my lifetime. I have no idea how they'd ever manage it. Right now the Dems have a 65% to 35% advantage in the senate and a 64% to 36% lead in the house. We're turning into California north. Depressing.

Bubba Gun Culture

Kevin links to this piece on what it's like to take a CCW (concealed carry weapons) permit class in Kentucky. Turns out everyone in the class but the author was a southern GOP bubba, and they used the word nigger. Twice. I wonder if any of that's true, he has no evidence, so I'll have to take his word for it.

In Washington State where your humble author resides, there is no requirement to take a class in order to obtain your CPL (concealed pistol license). I took a gun safety class anyway a few years ago when I'd just moved here from Canada and renewed my interest in firearms. My class was hosted in the Seattle (former) suburb of Bellevue at Wade's Guns.

This class was very well taught by an instructor who specializes in not only gun safety, but competitive pistol sports and self defense. He had no mullet, but did have a mustache. He never once mentioned politics. Two of the persons attending the class were women, and rather petite at that. The four men in the class besides myself were more or less ordinary, three were white and one was Asian (to be honest, this was years ago and I think there were four men and one was Asian, but I don't really recall), but one was kindof a dumbass (this one I won't forget, ever) and confided in me, with a big grin, that he and his buddies had shot a hole in their ceiling the other night while goofing around with a pistol that one of them possessed. That was NOT encouraging, and did give me pause to consider that some people ought not to own firearms. The problem is how to decide who those people are. Needless to say, in general, I am not qualified to make that decision.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the class... since it seems to be important, I'll relate that while most of us there were white, nobody used the word "nigger," not even twice (in fact, the ONLY times I've heard the word spoken in public where by black men as part of a greeting to other black men). Two of the guys who run the range appear (they still run the range and still appear) to be of Asian descent though, so maybe someone there was thinking about "chinks," but was too distracted by the women in attendance to say the GOP associated bad word. When we finally went to the range, it was a smidge dissapointing, as we got a whopping five rounds in a .38 special, and another seven rounds in a 9mm Glock (barf, I hate Glocks, but that's for another time...). I rectified that situation in my next range trip when I had finally gotten my Beretta 96 and a thousand rounds of Miwall Reloads.

The last thing I have to relate was that the especially petite dark haired woman reminded me of McCall from TV's "Hunter." She even did the gun up and out thing with the revolver which got a couple smiles from the instructor and your humble narrator. Heh.

Anyway, it was a good experience, I found out that guns are waaaaayyyy louder in real life, especially indoors, than on Teevee, and I got to take a class from a guy who was almost neurotic about checking the chamber or cylinder of a handgun to make sure it wasn't loaded. That was a good habit that I learned from him. He was also neurotic about muzzle control, as in being sure not to point the gun at anyone. Also excellent. I've been around folks with especially poor muzzle control, and it is frightening. I did speak up and rectify, I hope, those situations, as any good gun nut should do.

Snow Day in Seattle

This is what Seattle looks like outside my front door today at 6:52 AM.

I'm Famous!

Well, sorta. I got quoted in the online edition of the NY Times. I'm referred to as "someone identified as Ben, who said: 'I’m going to have to side with NY on this. I blame everything on NJ, it just makes life simpler.'"It's obviously part of the liberal conspiracy. But who cares, I'll be rich and extra famous by tomorrow!

Major hat-tip to Say Uncle.

New Addition to the Blog Roll

I don't know why I never had Heartless Libertarian on the blogroll, especially considering that he's local to Washington State. Anyway, there he goes.

Oh Mercy

Ninth stage makes a funny

Reminds me of some other things Hitler has done:

Hitler uses ribbed condoms inside out, so he gets the pleasure.

Heh heh. Dang, but that's funny.

Springfield Pistol Upgrade

About the same time last year I got two new Springfield 1911's because I couldn't pass up the great deals that I got. A TRP Armory Kote and a Black Stainless. The TRP is THE best pistol I've ever shot. The trigger is light and crisp. The weight is perfect. The sights are spot on. Couldn't ask for more.

The Black Stainless is another matter. It looks good and accuracy is good, but the trigger feels like every component is covered with coarse grit sandpaper. It might be that all the components are coated with the same matte black stuff that covers the outsided of the gun. Whatever it was, it was unacceptable (yeah, I know, I'm changing tense, but I can't go back now...)

To solve the problem, I ordered a full set of trigger components from Ed Brown. I went with the stainless perfection sear and disconnecter and stainless hardcore hammer and strut. Of course, the hammer and strut did not come with a pin to put them together (d'oh!) but the local store stuck one in there for me for $3, so that was OK.

When I finally got around to assembling the components, the hammer and sear didn't fit together in the dang gun! The hammer wouldn't go down all the way, the sear was blocking it somehow. I tried a few times with no luck, and then I got the bright idea to try them in the TRP. Turns out that they fit perfectly in the TRP and smoothed up the trigger even more! Not bad. Better yet, the TRP components fit fine in the Black Stainless, and what a difference that made. The pistol is now enjoyable to shoot. Well, at least it's enjoyable to dry fire. I'll take it to the range later this week.

I know that Cynlinder and Slide makes a nice drop-in trigger set, but I decided to go with Ed Brown. It seems you get a little more for your money, and I'm not dissapointed.

UPDATE: Pics! Here's the hammers back. I like the stainless on the otherwise black TRP.


Hammers down. Pretty nice.


A good looking set of Di-Fi twisters.


A close up shows the superb finish on the Ed Brown Hardcore hammer.