Guns

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Written by Michael Z Williamson

Created: 07 January 2020

I just acquired a wall thickness gauge to assist with my addiction to classic shotguns.  Before you shoot something a hundred years old (or even fifty), you want to ensure it met proof, hasn't been reamed, compare chamber specs to the proof marks, if any, determine chamber length, load, and wall thickness. For example, 12 gauge shotguns might be spec'ed for anything from 2" all the way to 3.75" long shells, and while the longer chambers can take the shorter shells, the inverse is most definitely not true. Then, have the barrels been filed and refinished?  The bore polished?

And given the investment some of these represent--we're talking guns that come in their own custom fitted luggage with their own monogrammed accessories, and a label that notes the maker was "By Appointment to Her Majesty" (Queen Victoria) and about a dozen princes and dukes, you damned sure either pay someone to check the gun over for you, or get the tools to do it.  So I dropped $600 without thinking twice.

I had some problems learning to calibrate it, because I was way overthinking things. A call to the manufacturer cleared that up, and I was good to go.

What you need to know is that shotguns have most of their propellant impulse inside the chamber, and don't need barrels as heavy as rifles do.  So the recommended minimum wall thickness for a shotgun is .020".  Below that you really shouldn't shoot it, and should consider replacement of the barrels, having them relined, or sleeved.

The conversation with the guns went like this:

Stoeger, Brazil: I am a tactical shotgun! .020" doesn't allow for extra heavy loads or crashing through doors.  .035" is much better.

Williams and Powell, Liverpool: These barrels were replaced in 1954 after 70 years of honorable service. The new ordnance steel barrels are proofed at 3 tons pressure and have a minimum thickness of .028".

Luciano Rota, Italy: Pfah.  Leeway is good.  .030" will remain reliable, and it's easy enough for anyone with muscle.

Robert Faller, Freiburg: (Drags off cigarette.) Ze English are wimps! A gun is a tool for MENSCHEN!  There's that one thin spot from wear, down around .028", but otherwise these tubes are .035" to take hunting loads worthy of the Black Forest.

Mortimer, Edinburgh:  (Sips single malt.) Damned right they are. Old school percussion guns with laminated barrels are .040", in case the whisky causes you to lose track of the charge.

W&C Scott & Sons, Birmingham: (Leans back on cane.) You kids are all wankers.  Not only am I 10 gauge and laminated, I'm walled at .045". Do you want to dance? Or do you want to bloody shoot? 

Henri Pieper, Liege: (Pulls out pipe, blows huge cloud of smoke.)  Va te faire foutre! I am a professional and there are no chances here!  Three bar twist laminate barrels.  Walls are .050" up to .070" and threaded into a solid steel monobloc, which I patented. You have improved the pressure curve of your modern propellants, you say?  DO YOUR WORST! Phallicly stuff your nitrocellulose shells into my 137 year old chambers, and pull the trigger.  PULL THE TRIGGER! Pull it, ta chatte! BE A MAN!

So, yeah, some of these old guns are fucking tanks. The myth that you can't possibly shoot old guns at all, and if you can, you have to use half loads, is BS.

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Written by Michael Z Williamson

Created: 15 December 2019

Our story so far:

Virginia's legislature got taken over by the Dems since the GOP failed to run quite a few candidates, and due to some gerrymandering and population density issues that are apparently only a problem when they work against the Dems.

As often happens, when one party gets a significant majority, they want to go all-in on achieving their dreams of molding society to their image.

The Dems proposed some very heinous gun control, without any pretense of care about the Constitution either federal or state, morality, or reality.

A whole bunch of counties and towns pre-emptively declared themselves "Sanctuaries," which is apparently A-OK if you're refusing to arrest, jail, and deport illegal alien child rapists, but "treason" if you're refusing to steal people's property under color of law. At least according to the Dems.

So, one US Rep Donald McEachin (D-Deep State)(that's sarcasm, okay?) has proposed having the governor "Nationalize the National Guard" to deal with the problem. (Give him credit. At least he didn't threaten to use nukes, like a certain former presidential candidate. OTOH, if VA actually had nukes, he might have.)

Let me explain this:

The governor can't "nationalize" the National Guard. He can call them to state active duty.

Per Posse Commitatus, they can't engage in law enforcement on Federal orders anyway.  On state orders, yes, but, keep reading.

It would also still require a search warrant for every single domicile if they could.

Other than a handful of MPs, none have training for this process. Even if you squint hard at qualifications and add a few others, the actual number of troops qualified to do this is a few HUNDRED at most. The entire VA Army National Guard is about 7500, mostly support.

The National Guard does not keep ammo on hand in any relevant quantities.  A small amount for training is it.

Per US Constitution and federal law, the governor CANNOT arm the NATIONAL Guard with federally owned weapons and ammo. He'd have to provide that. 

Nor can he arm them without consent of the feds anyway.  There are reasons for this. This is one of those reasons. It is not a bona fide emergency that does not permit of delay.

And the threat to do so is LITERALLY WHY WE HAVE THE SECOND AMENDMENT.  Congrats, jerkwad! You've actually threatened to have the military repress people, and you're surprised that they're going to oppose you? EVERYONE should be opposing you. It's outrageous of itself, and outrageous precedent if allowed.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but there should be politicians hanging from lampposts over this.

Our society started to fail when we stopped tarring and feathering.

But if despite all that, you make the attempt:

First, if they haven't already (US Army NORTHCOM hasn't said anything), I guarantee the Adjutant General and his staff will ask National Guard Bureau for an opinion on any orders, and likely DoD proper, as well as their own legal staff, for opinions on exactly what the orders mean, and their scope and limits.  Because with a dual state/federal mission, every one of those officers is putting their career on the line in such an instance.  The wrong use or misuse of any federal money or equipment is court martial offense.  Low end enlisted can "just follow orders" for the most part, but leadership is expected to know or ask.

On State Active Duty, the troops get paid the same to sit at the armory eating catered meals (because federal funds can't be used and armories don't have huge pantries), and wait for specific orders, or to draw up "plans," as they would to drive around in Hummers looking mean. Which is all they could do because of all the above.

So what will happen is a bunch will call in sick, or "out of state," or "employer really needs me."  Volunteers will be few (and not too bright to want to get into the Boogaloo).  If you try to issue orders, state level orders don't carry the obligations or penalties of the UCMJ, and the reality that the Guard is part time means they do in fact have a lot of leeway on how fast they report, and what you can actually do if they don't (HINT: very little).

Once they get there, They can't be issued federal weapons or ammo. And of course, if the supply sergeant, armorer, and a couple of others aren't present, the Arms Room can't even be opened. Unless the CO personally wants to issue the order and unlock it. (He doesn't want to do this.  The Feds would end his career.)

I suspect the Adjutant General and his staff have already had a lengthy discussion with their own lawyers, the National Guard Bureau, and any relevant active duty installations regarding what equipment they can use. The Feds certainly don't want dragged into this, and while the Guard can use equipment for an "emergency" with compensation afterward, enforcing a badly thought out and contested law almost certainly doesn't meet the standard. So any activated Guardsmen may not even be able to use body armor, web gear, or vehicles.  And there are probably zero officers willing to risk their Federal commission over a State matter.

And then they make "plans" and wait for "guidance," because no one is putting their name on the dotted line without someone they can point a finger at. They'll be playing phone games, posting memes on Farcebook and TWITter, and generally kicking back and enjoying their SAD pay, which is usually tax exempt at the state level.  I haven't looked up what that rate is for VA, but it's probably better than $100/day. (EDIT: Very generously, it's the same as active duty pay. Far better than the $75/day flate rate IL paid us for the 1993 flood.)

If it gets that far, they then drive around and look mean, as I noted, because they literally can't go door to door without police leading the way with a warrant.

If you try to make them do so, most are going to refuse. Good. Because the last time some states took this direction, they got put down hard. This isn't an earthquake, a foreign attack, or even an out of control football riot. You're asking to use military force to attack US citizens for code violations.  You thought using SWAT for warrant service was bad? (It is.)

If by some freak of circumstances you get some small number to do so, people are going to die. Given how many veterans are among the population, and there's an entire network of retired special operators and CIA types in that area, the mayhem might even be BIBLICAL. You know:  Earthquakes, volcanoes!  The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

Yeah, I mean it might be a bunch of young, naive Guardsmen who die in three way crossfires by tired old vets who've spent a lot of time in Asia.

I spent 19 of my 25 service years in the Guard. I don't want to see EITHER side of this.

This is why more and more counties are deciding to be "sanctuary" and totally sit this one out. Good for them.

If you're willing to use military force and murder people over ownership of anything, we're back to tar, feather, and lampposts.

Frankly, since McEachin is theoretically a lawyer, he should already know this.  That he doesn't, or couldn't take 10 seconds with Google to find it, speaks poorly of his intellect. I wonder how much actual legal work he did before running for public office.

There were also some idiots on our side railing against the Virginia Adjutant General not "refusing," but merely noting he has no orders and legally has no opinion.  Hey, geniouses (sic)! He can't comment on orders he has not received about events that have not taken place or been ordered.  The complete non-response was the only legal thing he could do.

WHAT VA RESIDENTS NEED TO DO NOW:  Watch for "Compromise."  It's standard for the Dems to demand the confiscation of all firearms, and then "Settle" for any number of smaller intrusions--"Assault weapon" bans, "universal" background checks, purchase limits, etc.  Don't fall for any rhetoric about how a lesser proposal is "Reasonable." None of it is reasonable, and this is a good opportunity for a peaceful resistance to an outrageous movement.

WHAT EVERYONE ELSE NEEDS TO DO NOW:  Keep calm. Spread the word.  Agitate against such outrages. Buy more guns.  Buy them legally. Buy them privately if you can.  Buy more, more, and yet more. There's always the risk we'll reach the point where America tips over. But that's a chance we'll have to take.

Because if it's impossible for the government to seize 300 million weapons (the lowball estimate), it's way more than four times as impossible for them to seize 1.2 billion.

BTW, if you are not familiar with my work, this recent anthology is actually quite relevant to staging a resistance/rebellion, is a National Bestseller, and has excellent reviews. https://amzn.to/2ZO0Og0 

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Written by Michael Z Williamson

Created: 08 October 2018

This K-11 arrived with a shattered stock. It appears there was a twig pin burl halfway through the wrist, and eventually, it let go, in a splintered mess.

My friend's cabinetmaker friend told him it was unrepairable, so he slapped on some epoxy, aluminum bar, and bandage.

Well, with all due respect to his friend, he's a cabinetmaker, not a graduate of WECSOG!

I had not repaired something like this before.

First, I just cut out all the bad wood.  No reason to attempt to glue shreds together.

Then I made a template from a good stock, and had to cut a shim to fit in three dimensions. I could have chopped more wood out, but I wanted to replace as little as possible. The stock is numbered to the gun, so a repair is better than a replacement, from a collectible point of view.

Once the shim was shaped, I drilled through both ways to insert a 1" dowel for reinforcement inside the wrist.

Then dremeled and chiseled new inlets for the tangs, drilled the tang screw hole, sanded and assembled. Vaseline and Break Free are close enough in color to match cosmoline.

It's ugly, but should be functional, it's less ugly than it was, and it saves as much original wood as possible.

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Written by Michael Z Williamson

Created: 03 October 2017

Since it's in the news, and since they're not capable of facts, I thought I'd provide some.

There are videos on youtube, btw.

At one point, someone tried to springload a stock to increase rate of fire.  ATF ruled (correctly, given the law we have, which I disagree with the existence of), that it became a recoil operated machine gun.

So, the spring was removed, and some redesign made.

The stock slides on the rear extension of the rifle, back and forth.

You push the weapon forward with your off hand, and pull the trigger with the right.  The recoil slides the gun backward, and the trigger goes inside the stock, disengaging.

Then, when recoil energy diminishes, the pressure of your off hand moves the weapon back forward, the trigger emerges from its shroud, and your finger activates it again.

Because it requires constant repeat physical effort, just as a Gatling gun would, it's a manual trigger. It requires a separate motion for each shot, unlike holding down a trigger.

BUT

It does require practice to use without failing, or even jamming.

The weapon is in constant motion apart from its own mechanical cycle, which just destroys any accuracy you might have.

So, when all is said and done, you waste ammo with less accuracy than actual full auto.

"How would it be different if he hadn't had one?"

In reality, he might actually have killed MORE people if he had to aim.

There's some alleged veteran's group of socialists on Fecesbook who claims this gimmick turns an AR into and M249.

No, it does not turn a closed bolt self-loading rifle into a belt fed, open bolt support weapon.  That's just complete bullshit.

But then, socialists have never been capable of honesty or integrity, and should be ignored.

Pinochet did nothing wrong.