Alliant's new 300MP powder in a carbine

About four weeks ago one of the local suppliers had some Alliant 300MP powder in stock so I bought a pound to try it out. Alliant lists 18.6 gr as the maximum charge for a 158 gr GDHP which I reduced by 10% to 16.7 gr for a starting load and 17.7 as an intermediate load if the lower load did not indicate any excessive pressure.

I finally got the range on Sunday to test them.

• Gun = Marlin 1894C 18.5" barrel
• Bullet = Magtech 158 gr JSP
• Case = Federal 357 magnum
• Primer = Winchester Small Pistol
• Powder = Alliant 300 MP
• Ambient temperature = 90F (prox)

Results from five measurements (feet/second):

Charge in grains	Average Velocity	Standard Deviation	Maximum Velocity	Minumum Velocity
16.7	1675	23	1684	1635
17.7	1765	24	1792	1736

None of the primers or cases showed any more indication of pressure than normal for a 357 magnum. In fact the Amercan Eagle 158 gr JSP (which clocked at almost exactly 1800 fps) had much flatter primers than the 300MP reloads.

All in all I am pretty impressed with the potential of this powder in a carbine.

No accuracy reports yet. About the time I was getting ready to try some guy started banging away with a neutered version of an M1919 and kicked up so much dust I just packed up and went home.

Twenty Five Years Ago

From Billy Beck

On this day, twenty-five years ago, Ronald Reagan signed the Income Tax Reform Act of 1986. Three months later and for the first time ever, my social security number was demanded by a prospective employer.

Do you understand?

For the first time in American history, it was illegal to work for a dollar without accounting for it to the United States Government.

I will never forgive Reagan for this atrocity, and it is why I do not tolerate anyone in my presence lauding his stand for "freedom".

To hell with him.

He also supported and signed the Mulford Act which was the beginning of the assault on the Second Amendment in California. Even if you can forgive his support for that POS (Oh no! Black peeples haz guns!) he supported the Brady Bill and even had the chutzpah to write an editorial for it in The New York Times.

Million Dollar Gun

Not quite a million but getting close.

1836 Colt Revolver Sets World Record Price For A Single Firearm, Bringing $977,500 At Greg Martin Auctions/Heritage Auctions In Dallas

DALLAS, TX – An exceptional, rare and fine ivory-gripped Texas, or Holster Model No. 5, Paterson Revolver from the Al Cali Collection realized $977,500 as part of Greg Martin Auctions/Heritage Auctions Sept. 18 Signature® Arms & Armor Auction in Dallas, setting a world record price realized for a single Firearm sold at auction.

I've never been a collector of much of anything, much less firearms. If I have a gun I don't want to shoot, I'll sell or trade it to someone who does. Nevertheless, looking at this revolver I can understand, even if I don't share, the desire. This gun is really one beautiful piece of workmanship.

I wonder if a first generation Glock 17 will ever sell to a collector for whatever the equivalent of a million bucks will be in 175 years.

Would You Like an Ass-whoopin' with Your Big Mac?

None of the parties in this incident are poster boys and girls for civilized behavior. The women were way out of line and they agressively invaded the employees' space. The male did appear to overreact and continue to use his weapon after the threat was -- maybe -- neutralized. However, even if this was self defense -- and it could be interpreted that way -- this happened in New York City where self defense is defacto outlawed. Add to that the male's felony conviction and I figure the guy is pretty well screwed.

Nevertheless, there is a lesson to take away from this: The animals are out there and they are walking your city streets.

Stunning Violence Inside Manhattan McDonald’s
(retrieved 10/15/2011 08:20 PT).

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A fight over an order at a Manhattan McDonald’s leads to complete chaos and it was all caught on tape.

The video contains images and audio of a graphic nature.

Sources tell CBS 2’s Chris Wragge the stunning incident featured a cashier with a criminal past violently beating two female customers after they appear to provoke him by slapping him and then hopping the counter.

It was a horrific scene to watch. The cashier disappears into the back of the fast-food restaurant on West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village before returning with a metal rod he then used viciously on the two customers.

The gruesome act of violence early Thursday morning escalated after the customers argued and yelled obscenities at the cashier when he questioned a $50 bill they gave him.

One of the female customers then slapped the cashier. A woman is then seen jumping over the counter, while the other woman goes behind the register. They are then savagely attacked.

Other customers watched in horror as other McDonald’s workers tried unsuccessfully to stop the violence.

One female customer had a fractured skull that required surgery and a broken arm. The other has a deep laceration.

Rayon McIntosh, 31, was arrested and charged with two counts of felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon. McIntosh served more than a decade in prison after shooting and killing a high school classmate in 2000. He was being held on $40,000 bail.

The female customers were reportedly charged with menacing, disorderly conduct and trespassing.

The derringer re-imagined.

Hey, it's black (OK, dark grey), it's light and it is nice and slim so it conceals well. If the manufacturer can get it into a video game every mall ninja in America will want one.

For the time being I think I'll stick with my hokey, archaic 442.

H/T to the Mad Ogre

See? It's not just Hairy Palms.

Porn-Induced Sexual Dysfunction Is a Growing Problem

It used to be that articles on the "dangers" from pornography and the inevitable masturbation were mostly parodies of old wives tales: acne, blindness, infertility, and, of course, hair growing on the palms of the hands. All of those have been tested and found wanting by real science but the never ending quest to control human sexuality marches on. If hairy palms and blindness are not enough then lets scare you all with threats of elevated dopamine levels in the brain.

On the bright side, this offers a solution to the "problem" of Western Civilization being swept away by faster breeding cultures. Give them all free Internet access and lifetime accounts on roughsex.com.

Context and Torture Tests

Something I've noticed lately is a tendency to evaluate firearms based on so-called "torture tests". If a gun can survive an arbitrary test like a fall of a hundred feet it is somehow more "reliable" than a gun that can only fall 20 feet.

But what does it really prove? If, in the middle of a fight, I drop my gun over a 100 foot cliff will my attackers stop while I climb down to retrieve it then wait for me climb back up to resume the fight? Hello! Disarmed guy! Unless those thugs are in a class of stupid beyond all other classes, they will take advantage of my butter fingers to kick my clumsy ass over the cliff after it.

Similarly, a guy who calls himself "ZombieTactics" on Calguns.net linked to a video where some guy reportedly buried his gun for two years, dug it up and then proceeded to fire 500 rounds through it with only a few failures.

OK, admit it: A guy calling himself "Zombie" anything getting excited over stuff that's been buried for two years really is kind of funny.

Nevertheless, what does it prove? If my gun gets buried in a pile of dirt am I going to wait for two years to dig it up? Not likely unless I am dead in which case I won't care. So what is the context of this "test"? Does it prove that, after the Apocalypse, I happen to to find a Glock with 500 rounds of ammunition buried in someones backyard it will mostly work? The possibility exists I suppose but I don't see why I should even care.

Reliability only exists in a context. A gun is one component of a system and the suitability -- of which reliability is a part -- of any particular gun can only be evaluated relative to its function within that system and the environment it is expected to operate in.

One of the important factors that separates engineering and the sciences from wishful thinking and fantasy is a grounding in observable reality. The, often unstated, assumption is that reality exists and it is knowable. Context is not everything but without it, separating any bits of truth from You Tube fantasies becomes an order of magnitude harder.

Is Andrew Cuomo crazy?

Gov. Andrew Cuomo calls for shutting state prisons, investing in community in light of gun violence

Gov. Cuomo bemoaned the city's recent spate of gun violence Sunday and made a pitch for his plan to shutter state prisons.

"This recent rash of gun violence should concern us all, because it's frightening and it's only getting worse," Cuomo said at a Harlem breakfast to kick off the African-American Day Parade.

Read the rest here

Crazy like a fox.

Government is among the few human institutions that gain more by failure than by success. If crime goes up, then the taxpayers are willing to pay more and surrender more freedom for "protection". Guess which way crime will go if Coumo succeeds in his latest bit of collectivist inspired madness.

Billy Beck talks back to Obama

---

Mr. Obama

I write to you now in a truly bi-partisan spirit; my greatest hope in being understood as an American, without party interest.

You see, my first political value is freedom. That, sir, is why I am convinced that you and your entire program must fail. More: you must be taken down in history books as, to-date, the president who was most antithetical to the whole aim of America. In its essence, this is a place where human beings build themselves, for themselves, and without the leave of creatures like you, who would have us as massed-cells for a hive.

I am not a cell, and I do not live in your hive. You will never command my allegiance or even obedience. (No president ever has, so you will not be able to take this personally.) I do not exist for your purposes, but for my own, and you have no place in them. Nor do any of your various underlings.

No matter what events come by us in the future until your (doubtless: worse, and a lot by your actions) successor sees you off the field, you may know that there is at least one American who will always see you: you were the first post-American president.

It is a distinctive new theme for writers interested in such matters. It will be available to them for decades, if not centuries.

~~~~~

(submitted here)

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Slipstream -- Part II

First thing, the extra drag on the cylinder and crane mentioned earlier disappeared after about 24 hours.  I suspect this is because the oil is more viscous than my usual lubricant and did not migrate as fast.

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I finally got to the range Sunday (9/11/2011) and put about 300 or so rounds through the 686.  The ammunition that day was a mixture of commercial 38 +P (158 gr Speer Lawman) and several different .357 handloads.

The handloads were mild for a 357 -- mid-range loads of Power Pistol or Unique. La Esposa came with me Sunday so I didn't bring any of the hot magnums.  I have this recurring nightmare of her inadvertently picking up a full bore load of 2400 powder back of a 158 gr XTP flat point and refusing to ever shoot the gun again.  Hell!  Since my carpal tunnel relief those bastards smack me hard enough to cause some numbness in my fingers after less than 50 rounds.

The gun performed flawlessly -- as usual. After I came home I gave it a thorough inspection, especially looking for the crud that builds up in the nooks and crannies of the S&W lockworks. I can honestly say that the gun did appear cleaner than I expected. This may be because of the powders or ammunition used that day but I am, tentatively, calling it a win for Slipstream. FWIW, I was sufficiently impressed that I stripped, cleaned and lubed my 625 with Slipstream.