Libercontrarian

Crushed between the wheels of capitalism and big government.

Uh-Oh - A New Addition To The Family...

...of Libercontrarian arms, that is:

I went to the annual Collector's Show at the Tanner Merchandise Mart, and was told that I would see hundreds of thousands of firearms that I had never seen before.

They weren't kidding.

There were collectible guns there from every era in humanity's age - jezails, every kind of musket you could imagine, nineteenth-century arms in NRA Excellent condition, guns from the World Wars, NFA stuff - you name it, if it was a collectible built before granpappy stormed off to Fight The Hun, it was pretty well-represented at the Collector's Show.

I spotted this little gem, a clean, crisp Pietta-made 1851 Navy Colt repro (in non-historical .44-cal) for $100, and said, "Uh, I can't help myself. I think I'll get into black-powder pistols..."

After buying powder, shot, caps, and wads for this handsome beast, I was out another $60. I'll be touching off this handsome gun today sometime and will report back about the joys of black-powder shooting.

posted by: underwhelmed at May 24, 2006 08:22 | link | comments (2) |

Loadings for 8mm Mauser and .303 Brit

Trying two new 8mm mauser loads for my new Yugo M48 - 170 grain Speer Semi-Spitzer soft point on Winchester case, CCI 200 large rifle primer, and 50.8 grains of Varget and 50.0 grains of Accurate Arms 2520 in the same setup.

I had some luck with some oddball Remington 185 grain Pointed Soft Points (they have this wacky cannelure fairly high on the bullet; I think it's designed around hunting 8mm rounds like 8mm-'06). Nevertheless, they were gouping around 2.5 inches with iron sights @ 100 yards last weekend, when the shooter was serious about groups and not just screwing off. I failed to document the powder I used to load them; it was 48.0 grains of something. I checked the loadbooks, and that was a fair piece past max for IMR 4064. I wouldn't make a mistake like that; I probably loaded Varget previously and that would be about correct.

I'll also be loading for the Brit gun - a brand-spankin' new No. 4 Mark 2 Irish Contract SMLE rifle that has an amusing "vertical stringing" problem. Look at this target to see what happened with two different powders (H335 and Win 760) on the same bullet and case, all four rounds aimed dead center @100 yards with iron sights:

Pretty annoying, yet surprisingly consistent, aren't they? Why would the Win 760 shoot to the right like that? From my research, I can tell you that the vertical stringing issue is likely a handguard clearance problem. I have to take the rifle apart to see if the handguards are rubbing, then dremel out a clearance around the barrel. There's also a bedding operation I can do to the stock to make it shoot even more accurately; this is not supposed to be particularly hard to do. Somebody else somewere on the web is saying that it has something to do with the nature of the lubrication in the bolt/breech causing some weird motion of the bolt/round as the round enters the chamber. Since I can't imagine that mere lubricant can't have a great effect in an area where the other forces acting on the bolt would be, by comparison, so great, I doubt this could affect the point of impact.

This may not be what you were looking for when you came to Libercontrarian. I admit that my blogging effort is an inconsistent one - politics one day, gun rights issues the next, a technical post about reloading the day after.

This is the way things are around here - messy. Disorganized. Chaotic. That's OK - it's the way I like it.

posted by: underwhelmed at May 12, 2006 21:32 | link | comments |

Crime Up Slightly In Canada

Our friends in Canuckistan seem to be having a wee problem with some undesirable persons they've let into their country:

The situation is so bad that in the Jan. 3 edition of Canada’s National Post, writer David Frum startled readers by revealing that “Canada’s overall crime rate is now 50% higher than the crime rate in the United States.” (emphasis mine) He further noted, “Since the early 1990s, crime rates have dropped in 48 of the 50 states and 80% of American cities. Over that same period, crime rates have risen in six of the 10 Canadian provinces and in seven of Canada’s 10 biggest cities.”

Look at the most recent complete data available from both countries. In 2003, the violent crime rate in the United States was 475 per 100,000 population, while up north, there were 963 violent crimes per 100,000 population. The figure for sexual assault in Canada per 100,000 population was more than double that of the United States, 74 as opposed to 32.1, and the assault rate in Canada was also more than twice that of the states, 746 to our 295 for the population rate.

But the good news is that Leftist Governance has embarked on its usual course, and that's... MORE GUN CONTROL! Whoo, just what Canada needs, gun control of law abiding citizens to disarm them and empower the criminals in the middle of their crime wave!

It's enough to make your hair go gray; these Socialists are so pathologically oriented towards the destruction of traditional ideals that they worship the "downtrodden"/criminal element, hoping that they can find solace in empowering the "proletariat" (yes, I suspect they use Trotskyite terms when they think of "Da Pipoles" and their "noble struggle" against "the bourgeoisie") to "act out" against the "ravages of capitalism and oppression."

I think that the people of Canuckistan may be on the right course, however; they have recently elected a somewhat more moderate government after many eons of Leftist flatulant stupidity. That government is attempting to roll back some of the lunatic efforts of the prior administrations. We shall see how successful it becomes. I believe that "Da Pipoles" are tired of the relentlessly self-destructive tone of the Left in the Great White North, and want to get back to a zone of sanity.

posted by: underwhelmed at May 08, 2006 23:08 | link | comments |

A Baghdad Neighborhood Fights Back

The Forces That Be tell you the situation quoted below is an impossiblitly - when faced by vicious criminals, only specially-trained Lawmen who carry some sort of special status granted by The State which empowes them to be mistake-free, can beat down a crimewave.

---

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Abu Salah heard the screeching tires and gunfire outside his home in central Baghdad, and cowered. He'd feared this moment. He'd even plotted leaving the city, though he'd never followed through on his plan.

Now invaders had entered his street, and he knew that as the only Sunni on a street filled with Shiites, he was probably their target, whomever the invaders might be - insurgents, kidnappers or sectarian death squads.

"I was shaking; it was the fourth time in three days they'd invaded," he said. "I knew they were coming for me."

Then he heard another sound: the gunfire being returned.

He rushed from his house to see his neighbors - Shiite neighbors - on their roofs, in their windows, in their yards, firing at the attackers. In a trembling voice, he explained that at that moment he felt life change. He realized that his neighbors weren't going to stand by and let the bad guys win.

"I prefer now to die among my friends and neighbors rather than leave my home," he said. "I felt thrilled to see them fighting, all my neighbors standing next to each other guarding the area."

In a country shaken by violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, where it's easy to find examples of members of one sect fleeing neighborhoods dominated by the other, Abu Salah's tale is a rare, uplifting respite from stories of sectarian tension. Even so, he, like others quoted in this story, asked that only part of his name be used to ensure his security.

How many similar tales might exist in this city of 6 million is unknown. A Sunni neighborhood across town tried to implement an armed "neighborhood watch" recently but gave up after eight residents were shot to death in the first weekend.

Many Iraqis openly hope that there will be more examples of residents rising up to say they've had enough of sectarian groups trying to split apart Iraqis - Sunni and Shiite - who'd previously lived side by side in peace.

"We have noticed a big difference in violence after people undertook security in their neighborhood," said Lt. Col. Abu Ali, a police officer who patrols the Hai al-Aamel area, where Abu Salah lives.

Officially, the police oppose vigilantes. Ali said his proposals to arm and train civilians had been rejected. But he and others recognize the value of the neighbors' willingness to defend themselves. "Look, we know that almost every house has guns inside, but we overlook this issue because they are actually helping us," he said.

Ansam Yassin knew something had to change. Her children clung tightly to her as she spoke, her eyes red and tired.

"I wish the neighborhood had acted this way before the killers got to my husband; he might have had a chance," she said. Her husband was among nine men who turned up dead after gunmen took them away, before the neighborhood agreed to defend itself.

To the eye, there's nothing unusual about Hai al-Aamel - if you don't dwell on the fact that the main streets into the middle-class neighborhood have been turned into zigzag paths by carefully arranged palm tree trunks and whatever large metal objects that neighbors could drag into the street. Or that at the bakery, a security guard pats down an old man, checking for weapons. Or that every face entering the area is studied. Strangers aren't welcomed.

Sheik Salam, a local tribal leader, said Sunnis and Shiites had agreed to defend the area, night and day, in shifts.

Some residents talked excitedly about the new weapons they'd bought to take part in the defense. Others talked about the military precision of the attackers, and of how difficult it will be to drive them off forever.

But fighting back gives people some sense of being in control, in an out-of-control place.

"They come looking for someone to kill," said Ahmed al-Saedi, 18, who recently helped drive off intruders who were dressed in commando uniforms. "But they want more and more."

Hajj Ali, 70, said he took aim and fired on intruders often.

"They can't shoot at us; we are on the roofs," he said. "But when I got down to the street I was happy to see the whole street carrying weapons."

Neighbor Abu Aadel shared the sentiment.

"We are fed up with the gang attacks coming every day," he said. "It's time to put an end to such attacks, even if it costs our lives."

By Zaineb Obeid

Knight Ridder Newspapers

---

Gosh sakes! Land alive! People actually stood up to defend their neighborhood, and were successful! We can't have that! Somebody send the disgraced gun-confiscator and former New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass to steal those people's guns before they make a mockery out of the civil authority accidentally shoot up a schoolyard!

posted by: underwhelmed at May 03, 2006 23:24 | link | comments |