*headdesk*

In the time it took me to grab my company truck and pull it around to the loading dock this morning, I heard a caller into a local radio morning show give her account of what she should be referring to as, "The Day My Brain Ceased To Function."

She was out one evening, and strangely got a call from her own home number. When she answered it, her ex-boyfriend was in her house instructing her to get home quick or there would be trouble.

So she did.

And, lo and behold, what does she find when she arrives to her humble abode? She enters the house to find her ex-lover there with her father's shotgun pointed at her. He then proceeds to threaten to kill her and then himself. After a few minutes of this, she moves in and "wrestles the gun from him," breaking her thumb in the process. She (%^! finally!!!) calls the police. They arrive in a hurry, just in time to take statements before she lets him go without pressing charges.

???

So a uniformed officer parks his squad car outside her house. The ex learns of this when he starts calling her every 20 or 30 minutes. Then he's calling to find out if the cop left yet. After about four hours, the officer leaves, and on the next phone call, she tells him the cop left.

????????

Most fortunately for her, moron tells her upon learning of the absence of immediate law enforcement that he is at their old apartment, and he's sliced his wrists. She feels bad for him (????????????????????????) and calls 911, who dispatches EMTs who ultimately cannot find him anywhere.

...

SO, can anyone find where the little missus went wrong here? A cookie for anyone who thought to themselves, "Well, there's a crazed ex-lover in my house where I have at least one firearm demanding that I come home immediately, 'or there'll be trouble.' Why in the holy hell did she not call the police???"

Look, y'all. I'm not so completely cold as to be thoroughly walled off from matters of the heart. I understand love, longing, and feelings of guilt over a failed romance. But, unless this guy just mystically snapped, she had to know ahead of time that this guy's elevator didn't go all the way to the top floor. When he opens the conversation by feloniously (hey, I made a word. Sweet!) being inside your house - a la Breaking and Entering - in the first place, all kinds of red flags and flashy blinky lights should be going off around your pretty little head that warn you of Danger Ahead. If his first demand is for you to arrive poste haste "or there will be trouble," then guess what, sister? There already is trouble!

Everything else that happened after that point can all be chalked up to It's Amazing You Are Alive At All.

Folks, let me be the first to say that I firmly believe in the Righteous Power of the Almighty Boomstick. But in this case, personal defense wouldn't have involved a gun in hand whatsoever! A simple call to Da Poe Lease that ended with, "Gimme a call when you've got him under lock and key," and conflict would never have occurred! You wouldn't have had to think about breaking concealment, your draw, front sight or trigger pull. The fine fellers of the local law enforcement group would have done all the gunny stuff for you!

Personally, I'm all for someone else confronting the armed bad guy if I can help it. Particularly when it's several someones with shiny badges and Glock Foe-dees and sticks and tazers and handcuffs and stuff.

I'm just sayin.



tweaker

Ur Doin It Rite

We've got some nice grocery stores in Texas. Don't laugh. We take our groceries seriously in these parts. Those of you living in parts of the country where your choices are limited to Kroger, Brookshire Brothers or Albertson's? To you I offer my sympathy. To those in the know, you can appreciate how H.E.B. treats its customers.

Tonight's grocery run presented us with an opportunity to sample a freshly grilled Prime Angus Chuck Roast, butterflied and grilled before our eyes by a friend of a friend who is a professional chef. Dude is made of awesome. So is rare red meat:) Next to the grilling stage was a lady sampling a trio of wines, so naturally I stopped there as well. I told her that the particularly full-bodied Merlot was to my liking, and that the Cabernet Sauvignon was a bit sweet for me, but would likely be appreciated by The Wifey.

I was wrong about that last part, and she sent me on a beverage run. While I was away, The Wifey stepped past the wine lady's stand. She asked The Wifey how long we'd been married. "About 10 years," The Wifey replied. The wine lady then told The Wifey how I still react to her as if we were in a new relationship, and complimented her on having "a good guy."

And when The Wifey told me this, she blushed and cried a little.

I guess I'm doing something right.

I love you, Honey.



tweaker

Feel-Good Movie of the Summer

Critics say:

Expect over-the-top, mindless cartoonish violence. This isn't a sensitive tribute to our men in uniform like Band of Brothers, it's Army of Darkness with Nazis instead of skeletons and zombies.

And I'm totally good with that.

h/t to Tam.



tweaker

Better Late Than Never

*click to embiggify images*

I was sure I'd be getting hate mail by now, but it looks like the other blogmeet attendees have posted up nicely on the events of last Saturday.

As it turns out, four guys is plenty of fun at the firing range. Particularly when, between the four, you end up with ten pistols, six rifles/carbines, and around 1200 rounds of various caliber ammunition.

I learned a few things at this little soiree. First, Murphy is a good enough shot to make you look bad. Srsly. That said, if you EVER have the chance to go on a lead-flinging expedition with the man, take it. A finer range buddy, there is none. In addition, he was instrumental in the sighting in of my AR. Thanks again, Murph!

Next, I MUST HAVE a Springfield XD45. I mentioned this as a possibility after shooting my brother's XD9. Now there's no question. It's like it was made for me. It's the precious. We needs it.

Also, when the range is hot, never, EVER remove your eye protection. I did not. That said, if I had, I would likely have a very damaged right eye. We had two lanes, and there was a Dad at the lane to our left with a couple single-action .22 wheelguns and his son and daughter. One of them squeezed off a round, and some manner of projectile flew sideways out of the cylinder and right into my right cheek, exactly one inch below my right eye.

That. Shit. Hurt. Fortunately, no major damage.

I learned that ranges that are primarily for hunting tend to have stricter rules. Slower rate of fire, benchrest only, crap like that. Their range, their rules, but it still kinda sucks. The warning you read about at Murphy's? Yeah, that was me:)

I learned that the 7.62x54R round is pure, unadulterated evil. The Mosin-Nagant M44 carbine is a gun that truly kills on one end and maims on the other. The muzzle flash is impressive at worse, and monumental at best. WOW, that thing is fun to shoot!!!

The CZ-52 (7.62 Tokarev) was not nearly as vengeant on the shooter, but with a blooming flash of its own, the East Bloc pistol was a hit all its own. Fun to shoot, and brass all over the place that created weird looks on the faces of the brass-whores on the range. That pistol ran good, but needs some TLC. Another post...

I learned that 10% can pull off calm in the face of pretty explosive circumstances. He experienced a case head separation for some reason that let off quite the report and blew the magazine out of his Kel-Tec Sub 2000 (which, BTW, was two tons of fun to shoot. Want!). Aside from leaving quite a bit of spent powder on his hand, he was none the worse for wear. Phew!

I learned that I am mo-happy with my AR. That is hands-down some of the most fun I've ever had behind a gun! I'm so stoked; I've still got a ton of ammo for it! I may be forced to go shoot it up next weekend;)

Oh, and one other thing. Next time, I need to let everyone know how to find us next time we go! Every one of us that was there uses an psuedonym for blogging, and only one of us posts pictures of his face. If I'd caught that sooner, then Sabra may have joined us as well. Sorry, Sabra! I'll make it up next time, I promise!

Folks, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the meet. We're so totally doing this again sometime. Better planning, better hours perhaps. We'll keep you posted!

Murph, Firefighter4884, and 10%: thank you for making this a great time. I'm honored to know you all. I can't wait to do it again.

And to all who wanted to come but couldn't, maybe next time! We'll try to coordinate with Miss Phlegmmy so our meet isn't the weekend after hers, and maybe we'll get some rock star bloggers at ours!



tweaker

Blogmeet Attendees

Alrighty, folks. The blogmeet is getting close! I'm excited. Like, seriously excited. I'm gonna have a blast.

Hopefully y'all will, too. So, in an effort to make sure that I get enough real estate to accommodate everyone, I need to get a head count before I head out there Saturday morning. So, if everyone who's going to attend this Saturday's festivities would please comment on this post to confirm their attendance, that would help a ton. I'll be checking this post up until I leave for the range, so just get back to me by then and I'll be set.

For the purposes of my laziness, please limit comments on this post to confirmations only.

Two more days!!!



tweaker

One Step Closer

The Big Brown Truck of Happiness saw fit to gift me today! I am now the proud owner of 60 rounds of 180gr FMJ Winchester Metric Caliber 7.62x54R! And I thought the 7.62 Tokarev cartridges looked wierd...

Only thing left now is to clean up the receiver/barrel assembly (which I ended up not doing last night due to circumstances that could probably have been easily controlled) and put the Mosin back together!

If all goes well Saturday, I may have to acquire another one of these things. They're pretty friggin neat. Time will tell.

More to come...



tweaker

Boomstick Update

Oh, JOY!

So, within minutes of my last post, I heard the familiar roar of FedEx diesel. I opened my front door, and to my surprise lay a brown box full of Wolf 7.62 Tokarev ammunition for my CZ-52!!! Happy, I am. I quickly loaded seven rounds into the magazine and cycled them through the CZ without issue (I was kinda worried about the extractor). For the record, those rounds look strange to me. The cartridge looks identical to a 9mm Luger up until where the Luger would crimp the bullet; then it necks down to accept a .30 caliber bullet and is a full 6mm longer overall. I can't wait to shoot this thing!

The Mosin ammo is due to arrive Wednesday, so I'm patiently awaiting that.

In other Mosin news, total clean metal parts (completely stripped, cleaned, lubed, and reassembled) now include the entire bolt assembly, the mag body/trigger guard, and the floorplate/follower assembly. Tonight we begin deconstruction and cleaning of the receiver/barrel assembly.

I did get some help, though. After looking for entirely too long, I found an original Mosin-Nagant cleaning kit at Amazon, of all places. The kit includes the necessary tool for guaging firing pin depth.

More to come...



tweaker