Christmas Wrapping

One of my favorite Christmas songs.

Kim Jong Who??

You just have to head over to Alvie's Place and check this out.....

Took My NRA Range Saftey Officer Class Today

I enjoy taking training classes, so when my instructor friend informed me last month he was running an NRA RSO class, I signed up.
It covered all the nuts and bolts of operating a range, and dealing with the public, from novice to advanced shooters.
We covered safety, emergency procedures, stoppages and malfunctions, and a variety of other mundane details related to the day-to-day operations on a range.
Didn't get any trigger time, but I did learn a lot, and met some nice people.
Long day, 10am to 8pm, but I got 98% on the written, and should have my RSO credential in 45~60 days.

Decisions 2012

Well......I've been doing my best to vet the Republican candidates as far as who I'm going to support.
Like it matters who *I* support!
It's just something I do to help me decide who I think is most aligned with what I believe in.
I was pretty big on Herman Cain (thanks, wirecutter!), but then he had some baggage that came to light, and decided to withdraw.
I *almost* like Newt, but he's a bit too slick and flippy-floppy for me.
Yes, I know he's very smart, and a studied historian, but I don't think he _really_ supports the 2nd Amendment, and that's pretty important to me.
Romney?? Not in a million freakin' years!!
So, that kinds leaves either Rick Santorum, or Michele Bachmann.
I'm still carefully reading their campaign sites, and burning up Google, and haven't decided yet.
Just have to see how they do in the debates I can find them in.
One thing for sure, four more years of that IDIOT we currently have in the White House will just about do us in.
Keep your powder dry!

Instead of a "Where's Wookie?", How About We Start A "Where's Breda?"

Really!

Breda's is one of the very first blogs I started following when I first started doing blogging. She always had great stuff, and since my sister was a Librarian, I felt some kind of empathy.

BUT....

Where's Breda?

Not a peep in three weeks now......

Hurry back, a lot of us miss your commentary!

50 Years Ago Today....

The first Amateur Radio satellite, OSCAR-1, was launched from Vandenberg AFB, piggy backed with Discoverer-XXXVI, a "scientific" satellite.
OSCAR 1 only lasted a couple of weeks, and reentered at the end of January, but it was a stunning achievement considering it was built by a bunch of "Hams", in somebody's garage.
Space Today Online has a fairly current History of Amateur Radio Satellites.

And for more info and the current status of all the Amateur Radio satellites, please go to the AMSAT webpage.

Fiocchi "Canned Heat" 45ACP Range Test

Steven over at BulkAmmo.com was kind enough to send me a can of Fiocchi "Canned Heat" ammo for a review/range test.
Not being an "Authorized Journalist", or a well-known 'Competition Shooter', I'm not sure why he chose me to do this, but hey, FREE AMMO!
And although I've bought a lot of stuff from them in the past, the only compensation I'm getting out of this is the 50 round can of 45ACP they sent me.
The packaging is pretty clever (my wife pronounced it as "cute"), and it's supposed to be hermetically sealed. Sure enough when I popped the lid, it hissed at me just like a big tub of Planter's Peanuts, so I assume the seal was intact. One of the things I noticed when I unpacked it from the shipping box is that all the rounds were loose in the can, and they made some rattling noises.
Still, the rounds looked good after I took one out and examined it.
The bullets have a much more brass look to them than the Winchester "White Box" ammo I normally shoot, so I'm not sure what the jackets are made from. I've shot Fiocchi ammo before, and the bullets had the same brass-look to them, so I guess that's just the alloy they use for the jacket.
So, packing up my "Canned Heat" along with some White Box, I headed out to the range. I haven't been pistol shooting for over a month (me bad!), and I knew I'd need some warming up before I could see how well the Fiocchi shot compared to the White Box.
It took me 4 magazines before I was reliably "in the black" at 10 yards! Yep, it's a perishable skill, and I keep saying I should get out more! Still, even the first few shots were well within the "dinner plate" area the NRA says makes you 'good enough' for home defense, but I know I'm better than that.
After I'd loosened up a bit, I wiped my Kimber 1911 down, and loaded the magazines with the Fiocchi ammo.
It shoots just fine, and at 10 yards the accuracy was as good as the White Box stuff. Recoil and report are about the same, and every round fed OK.
No 'flyers' at all, but I did have a couple of failure-to-eject rounds that I'll write off as being caused by my less than clean Kimber.
The other thing I noticed, and I've seen it before shooting Fiocchi, is that it tends to "dirty up" the gun a bit more than some of the other ammo I've fired.
Not bad like one other brand I tried once, but it definitely gets the muzzle end sooty.
The pictures I took are from opening the can at home, to showing the sooty muzzle on my Kimber.
All in all it's decent ammo, and has the advantage of being packed in something better than a cardboard box, which might be important to you if you need to stash a bunch somewhere that has less than adequate climate control.
For long term storage I think I'd still put it in a big Zip Loc bag, as the can is made from cardboard, and night not take kindly to getting soaked.
Thanks again to Steven at BulkAmmo.com for providing me with some FREE AMMO!

Tolerance

From one of my like-minded friends....

I am truly perplexed that so many of my friends are against a mosque being built at Ground Zero. I think it should be the goal of every American to be tolerant. Thus the Mosque should be allowed, in an effort to promote tolerance.

That is why I also propose that two nightclubs be opened next door to the mosque, thereby promoting tolerance from within the mosque. We could call one of the clubs, "The Turban Cowboy", which would be gay, and the other a topless bar called "You Mecca Me Hot."

Next door should be a butcher shop that specializes in pork, and adjacent to that an open-pit barbeque pork restaurant, called " Iraq o'Ribs."

Across the street there could be a lingerie store called "Victoria Keeps Nothing Secret", with sexy mannequins in the window modeling the goods. Next door to the lingerie shop, a liquor store called "Morehammered."

All of this would encourage the Muslims to demonstrate the tolerance they demand of us, so the mosque problem would be solved. If you agree with promoting tolerance, and you think this is a good plan, please pass it on...For the sake of tolerance!

World's Smallest V-12

This is astounding! I've built lots of things "From Scratch". but nothing like this.
My Dad was a Tool and Die maker, and I know my way around a machine shop, but this just blows me away.
I can't read Italian, but looking at the video, I could tell what the captions meant by seeing what part of the engine he was working on.
Amazing testament to one man's patience.

And here's another guy who makes RUNNING scale-model engines.

70 Years Ago Today.....

We got blindsided while the politicians fiddled away.
Let us pray it never happens again.
And keep your powder dry!

New Additions to the Bookshelf

The other day as I was cleaning out an office for somebody who's no longer with the company (looong story) I happened to find a well-worn paperback called "Term Limits" by an author I'd never heard of, Vince Flynn. I read a few pages, thought it started off pretty well, and tossed it on my desk to read later.
I really enjoyed it!
Then the other night when I was picking up some prescriptions for the Mrs, I spotted a NEW Vince Flynn book in the rack by the pharmacy, so I grabbed it. It's called "American Assassin", and was an equally good read.
WELL.....one thing led to another, I cruised on over to Amazon, and now I have ALL of Vince Flynn's books, with the exception of "Kill Shot", which is due out in February.
Vince writes "political thrillers", and does them very well. His technical accuracy is second only to Tom Clancy, his characters are well-developed, the writing is fast-paced, and I'm really happy I saved that copy of "Term Limits" from going into the trash!
Check him out.....you'll probably enjoy his stories as much as I do!