A Dixie Carpetbagger

Having given up on finding pretty much any ammo he requires, the intrepid gunblogger turns his focus to the next task: storing what he already has.  He calculates what he needs, and draws up a list of the required materials.  Firing up his thinking-machine supercomputer, he begins tracking down these supplies, only to find out something disturbing: he’s too late… they’re gone…

The only places online who had any ammo cans were either overpriced or shady.  Even the few places who had any for a decent price made up for it with the shipping.  That left gun shows and local places… which were, of course, completely barren of anything I needed.  However, my last resort had a piece of intel for me: there was a new little army surplus store right over the state line who might have some ammo cans in stock.

Well, it’s not a new store, or little, and they weren’t right over the state line, but the tipster made up for those errors by being right on the cans.  Not only did they have ammo cans in stock, they had pallets of them in stock.  Ten bucks for a M2A1 “fifty cal” can, and fifteen for a PA120 “40 mm” can.  I picked the best three M2A1s out of the pallet, paid my bill, and went to the house to clean them up.  It’s at this point I found out that there are actually two types of “fifty cal” cans, the M2A1 and the PA108 “fat fifty.” Guess which I already had?

So, all of my ammo’s sorted, counted and stored… in three different size cans.  Bulk ammo in M19A1 “thirty cal” cans, some of the boxed stuff in M2A1s, and the rest in PA108s.  Which means that I now have to figure out how to build a cabinet to hold three different size cans efficiently.  (sigh)

There was some humor, though.  One of the cans I had to pass up (it was on its last legs) had a stenciled warning spraypainted in small white letters on its lid:

THIS CONTAINER READY FOR DEPLOYMENT OR INSPECTION
DO NOT OPEN

Next time I go up there, I’m going to see if that can (or one of its brothers) is there… I want that lid… (chuckle)

This weekend is the NRA Annual Convention.

Of course, such an event attracts gun bloggers.  Known attendees include Breda, Caleb, Countertop, Jay, Joe Huffman, Sebastian, Uncle,  Weer’d and Xrlq.  Known absentees include Robb, Roberta, Tam and of course, myself.

I had originally planned to attend, but I couldn’t fit it into my schedule– even by the shortest route, it was over 9 hours each way, and that involved going through Birmingham and Atlanta.  (I personally doubt that estimate– I’ve driven the roads in Alabama that route goes over, and there’s no way you could do 55 all the way…)

Sebastian sat in on the law conference (a.k.a. “the room I’ll be the farthest from”) while Bitter sat in on the Leadership Forum.  She points out that Charlotte greeted the event by asking the convention goers… to not shoot anybody.  I would like to point out to the NRA that maybe instead of a 280,000 sq ft convention center, they might like to have 220,000 sq ft, 600,000 sq ft, 1,400,000 sq ft, or even 7,000,000 sq ft to play with.  (The last one, the Orange County Convention Center, even has hotel rooms and food services on site.  Plus, Orlando is a helluva lot nicer than Charlotte.)

Only problem with the tri-state area is that the Yankees amongst us might not be able to survive it.  While 84 degrees might be tolerable, I don’t think summer temperatures in Montgomery or Orlando will be… which is why those convention centers are completely enclosed.

One event I sorely regret missing is the Gura V. Helmke debate.  (Update here.)  What I wouldn’t have given to have had Mike V. in the front row… “Why, Mr. Helmke, it’s your friend Mike!”

Also, quote of the event comes from Bitter:

We’re now on to Heath Shuler, one of those evil right wing Democrats [...]  He believes he may be the member of Congress who buys the most ammunition. That would be an interesting debate to have.

I can actually see this debate going down in whispers during a State of the Union address…

Shuler: I buy the most ammunition of any of us.
Boehner: No way.
Ryan: Yeah, in just .223 I have at least 100 thousand.
Bachmann: Heck, I just count it by the ammo can now.
Paul: I count it by the pallet now.
Wilson: YOU LIE!
(uncomfortable silence)
Wilson: Sorry… you were saying, Mr. President?

And, of course, Jay and Weer’d in the same car is creating humor by the mile… sounds like something me and my friends would do.  Which validates what my high school art teacher always said… “there’s rednecks everywhere.”

So, I missed a good debate, and speeches by Larry Potterfield, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.  (sigh)  Maybe next year…

(crosses fingers)  Here’s to hoping for a video of Gura and Helmke.

Short post today, still dealing with finals.  Had a sample final due last night (final final due next Sunday… after the semester ends… thank you, Mr. “I can’t figure out due dates*”), and more through this week.

1- Finally had a failure with my Mossberg 702.  With a Remington Golden bullet.  Curse you, Tam, for jinxing me!  This is the first RGB I’ve had fail.  Meanwhile, the high-end CBee has been nothing but trouble.  My Mossberg’s like me– it likes to eat simple, hardy and cheap.

2- MikeB’s at it again.  At this point, the only use MikeB and the rest of his little playgroup have is that every time they begin spewing their crap, gun bloggers show up to correct them… which leads to me finding new gun bloggers.  Thanks, Sparky!**

3-If you aren’t already, watch Justified.  I hope this one doesn’t get killed off…

* His name is Mr. (prophet we’re not supposed to draw) (honorific of Umar) (religion of peace).  No, I’m not making that up.

** I wonder why Sparky and the rest don’t ever mess with Tam?  Hmm…

Instead of owning a 10/22, like everyone else in the gun world, I own a Mossberg 702, and I love it. [...] Wish they made a pistol version, though.

The other day, I was in a gun store, waiting in line to see if they had any .380 ammo (they didn’t, they never do) when I saw a few 702s in the rack and thought to my self “Self, if they made a pistol version of that, it would be what you need.  But it’ll never happen.”

Never Say Never Again.  Pretty nice looking, actually… wish it had iron sights, though.  But at least I can stop hoping for a .22 conversion for my XD…

Not really feeling it today.  Scrambling to finish the semester, get several machines up and running, and clear a backlog of reading and news watching.  (I haven’t hit the GUNS magazine from two months ago yet.)

But, before I go rambling off, two points.

One-  per OpenSecrets, I have more cash on hand than the Brady Campaign does.  Right now, if the Brady Bunch was in an aircraft, there would be a voice insisting that they PULL UP.  (Either that, or the Airbus click-click-click-click ALTITUDE, ALTITUDE would kick in.)

Two- per a commenter on this article, “[w]hen you [gun owners] get as big as our armed forces then you can rattle your sabers.”  Just one tiny little problem…  there are between 65 and 80 plus million gun owners in the United States.  Including all reserves and paramilitary forces (CAP, JROTC, Coast Guard, etc.), the United States only has 3,385,400 people in the military.  For reference, at 65 million gun owners, that’s 19.2 gun owners per military man.  At 80 million, that goes to 23.6 to 1.

So, can we rattle our sabers now?

19 April 2010
Newsflash: Gun Kills 5, Wounds 1.
San Francisco, CA

Police are searching for the perpetrator of five murders today in San Francisco.  Sunday afternoon, the suspect– described as “a big, dark revolver with hands and legs”– killed five and wounded one in a random attack outside a tavern.  The lone survivor is unable to remember details, but believes the revolver’s last words before shooting him were “… you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”

The suspect is described by police as a high-capacity semi-automatic revolver, about 8 inches tall and around a foot long.  If you see this suspect– or anything matching the description– please do not attempt to apprehend it, as it is very dangerous.  Forward all tips and sightings to your local police department.

Well, for once, it looks like a gun DID kill someone…

Whether you’re going to a Tax Day Tea Party or going to make this Buy A Gun Day, be careful and be safe.  Remember– stay alert, stay alive.

This is Bonnie Blondie reporting for WPSH.  This just in, a mentally unstable gun owner arrested for transporting several thousand rounds of ammunition– some of it ARMOR PIERCING!!!!– into the peaceful country of Mexico.  Also, in New York City, a crime ring was busted attempting to secret away several dozen guns, including several sniper rifles and assassin’s crossbows.  No statement has been released yet from the NRA…

Please, 30 guns, 7 knives and a coupla crossbows?  I call that “a good start.”  Less than 3,000 rounds of ammo?  I’ve walked out of a store with more than that!  (5 bulk packs of .22 plus 3 20 round boxes of .40 S&W.)  And forget saving the pants when I make a gun show run– Ms. Reporter Lady would expel feces at supersonic speeds…

Also, please note that while Office Depot workers aren’t as susceptible to PSH, they are a bit touchy.  So if you happen to have, say 6 or 7 (maybe 8 ) ammo cans in your trunk, please remember this before you pop the hatch and tell them “just put that chair in there with everything else…”  Otherwise, there will be an awkward moment that ends with you agreeing with the salesman that yes, that might fit better in the back seat…  (Don’t ask me how I know this…)

(H/T both stories Tam)

First, it was the grackles, then the turkeys, and now the emus have been co-opted by the terrorists.

The article is funny on one point, though: “Emus, they said, are fragile and can overheat easily, and they feared scaring the animal could cause it to run and injure itself further.”  Fragile, my hind leg– the ones we used to have reminded me of the raptors from Jurassic Park.  (Clever girl…)

Of course, Jay has to ask “But the real question is, of course: What caliber for emu?”  I’ve heard that a hot .38 Special (158 grain +P) double tap does the trick, but those birds were standing still…  Personally, I say modern terror birds require at least a 12 gauge pump.

Buy A Gun Day is coming.  Are you going to participate?

I think I am.  It’ll have to be something on the low end (.22 pistol, maybe a used .38/.357 revolver), but I’ll see what I can find.  The lookin’ is the better part of the findin’, you see… even Jay thinks so:

Y’see, living in the Volksrepublik, it pains me greatly to just walk into a gun store and buy a new gun (handgun) off the shelf. There’s no sport in that. I’d much rather stake out the perfect acquisition, then put out WTB requests, scour gun shop websites, and hit the local online forums looking for private sales. It’s a good way to find “off list” firearms of interest (like my P3AT) or stumbling across a killer deal (like the S&W Model 19). Kinda the whole “thrill of the chase” thing, with the added bonus of honing my haggling skills when I do find something of interest.

That’s why I know pretty much every FFL within a hundred mile radius.  There is one guy out there who has what you want– now go find that one guy.  He might be in the store on Main Street, he might be in a little hole-in-the-wall on a side street, he might even be in his garage (like my favorite FFL is).  But he’s out there.

Now, if I had my choice of any gun to get for BAG day… this would be it.  But, I’m not rich.  And I don’t want to spend 5-10 trying not to drop the soap.