I feel ...

It has been a long time since I was able to feel competent in USPSA competition.

Oh, I've got the guns and all the accoutrements.

I just can't see the targets.  Or I can't see the sights.  Usually, I can't see either.

It makes for a TERRIFIC alibi for poor performance, but it don't buy no pastrami at the Deli.

(Sorry, I made that up.)

I'm Thinking ... maybe I should find a competent gunsmith and get him to load my 10mm EDGE with a red-dot sight.

Maybe slide mounted, and one of the designs which allow you to use the original iron sights in case of an emergency.

Well, I'm thinking that an "Emergency" is having to rely on my (insignificant) ability to see the iron signs.

Yeah, that's an emergency, and I've been living with it for the past several years.

What brought me to this "crisis" was Fathers' Day.  My son (The Squid Kid) and I were talking via the cell phone and text thingie today, and he asked me if I was still shooting.  He lost his step-father last year, the man who had a significant role in the upbringing of The Squid Kid, and his complaint was that his stepfather never did anything; he just sat on the couch all day and watched television.

His comment was: "At least you get out and DO something physical now and then."

Well, that was then.  "Now" is that I haven't competed in a match for the last two years (or more .. who counts?), and I'm thinking that I've not only  missed out on a lot of fun and comeraderie, but I'm not getting as much exercise as I use to.

My original plan was to use the new "Pistol-Caliber Carbine" division to hearald my re-entry to competition.  But I've used that excuse for almost a year, and my friends (both of them) are becoming a little dubious about my sincerity.

I'm not so sure about that myself.  Seems like the procedures at the local USPSA club have changed, and I'm not sure even about how to register for a match.

Solution: I should rerume shooting>

Good for me (exercise more frequently), good for us (get to reestablish connections with long-time friends) and good for you (you look better in a match when I show myself to be so inept in comparison!)

I'm selfish.  I don't care as much about your benefits as I care about m own ... and that's not much either.

Notes:
(1) Need to find a gunsmith who will mount a red-dot scope on the slide of my 10mm STI EDGE;
(2) Need to finance the project; I doubt I can afford to buy a CHEAP red-dot scope; I need both good visual results, but also reliability.  Also, since I'm loving on my Social Security,  my budget is very slender.  I'm paying electricity and stuff, and that consumes a lot of my available cash.
(3) If I'm going this route, I need to start loading more ammunition for my 10m, and I'm not sure that the load I'm using is much of a value to my competitive status.
(4) If I'm planning to mount a scope on the EDGE, why not go full-bore and get a compensated barrel for the Edge.

All of a sudden, I'm talking about a LOT of money spent on a perfectly operating pistol just to advance the optics,.  adding a compensated barrel adds several hundred dollars to the project.

And I'm also talking about buying expended-length magazines, to match my new OPEN GUN stature; I can cram 14 rounds into a 10 mg magazine now .. is there an advantage to be realized if I get "long" (170mm) magazines in 10 mm which fit the gun.

Perhaps there's a lot more of "Thinking This Thing Through in line for me.

In the meantime, I would welcome comments which provide valued advice on the project, as defined.


Jerry The Geek

Welcome to Hell!

Here's your Hand-Basket:

Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos:

. BREAKING NEWS: FRENCH AUTHORITIES IDENTIFY one of the eight Paris assailants who created havoc in the city Friday night, killing 128 people and wounding more than 300 others, as 29-year-old Ismael Omar Mostefai, according to Sky News. Mostefai was reportedly a French citizen who was living in Chartes, just southwest of the capital.
.  CONFERENCE HEATS UP: Obama expected to come under pressure for more ISIS involvement at G20 summit
. ARRESTS TIED TO PARIS ATTACKS: Belgium makes three arrests linked to Paris attacks
. NO MERCY: France's Hollande responds to Paris attacks that leave at least 129 dead
. DC VIGIL: French ambassador to US joins hundred in Washington vigil for those killed in Paris
. KERRY: World leaders take step to end Syria war and spreading terror concerns, but disagreements persist
. LIVE BLOG COVERAGE OF PARIS TERROR ATTACKS | France-bound plane grounded after tweet
.VIDEOS: French president confirms ISIS behind attacks | ISIS claims responsibility for Paris attacks
. VIDEO: Heavily armed police gather outside Paris hotel
. 'IT WAS CARNAGE': Survivors describe horrific scene in concert hall

I know, it's  easy to blame this on "Extremist Muslims", but according to at least one source, it's NOT THEIR FAULT!

SOLON: It's all the fault of Right Wing Exploitation!

According to that article in Solon:

We must mourn all victims. But until we look honestly at the violence we export, nothing will ever change

,,,

Any time there is an attack on civilians in the post-9/11 West, demagogues immediately blame it on Muslims. They frequently lack evidence, but depend on the blunt force of anti-Muslim bigotry to bolster their accusations.
Actual evidence, on the other hand, shows that less than two percent of terrorist attacks from 2009 to 2013 in the E.U. were religiously motivated. In 2013, just one percent of the 152 terrorist attacks were religious in nature; in 2012, less than three percent of the 219 terrorist attacks were inspired by religion.

Actually, Americans have been rather sensitized by the events of 9/11/01.
Which was .. ahem ... universally acknowledged to have been caused by Muslim extremists.  Most of whom came from privileged backgrounds.

mmm   I'm not convinced that this isn't a "Three-Percenter".   We've had other news reports since the Salon article was published which suggest that it wasn't an attack by Christians, or Jews, or Budists,  And I didn't see anyone in Saffron Robes wielding an AK47 in the photos.

Actually, some people are relating this to the 2008 Mumbai attacks.  But what do they know?

The article goes on to state:

As soon as the news of the attacks broke, even though there was no evidence and practically nothing was known about the attackers, a Who’s Who of right-wing pundits immediately latched on to the violence as an opportunity to demonize Muslims and refugees from Muslim-majority countries.
In a disgrace to the victims, a shout chorus of reactionary demagogues exploited the horrific attacks to distract from and even deny domestic problems. They flatly told Black Lives Matter activists fighting for basic civil and human rights, fast-food workers seeking liveable wages and union rights, and students challenging crippling debts that their problems are insignificant because they are not being held hostage at gunpoint.
More insidiously, when evidence began to suggest that extremists were responsible for the attacks, and when ISIS eventually claimed responsibility, the demagogues implied or even downright insisted that Islam — the religion of 1.6 billion people — was to blame, and that the predominately (although not entirely) Muslim refugees entering the West are only going to carry out more of such attacks.

Oh, that's so slick   It's a work of art to conflate "Black Lives Matter" and the slaughter of over a hundred innocent victims in Paris.

But since I'm a WASP, I guess it's obligatory for me to jump to the conclusion that because this massacre was aimed at a group of citizens of a nation which has been accepting muslim refugees in record numbers in the last few years, the violence has been due to the national reluctance to support said muslim refugees.

Most of those refugees, though, have 'forted up' in neighborhoods where even the French police are loath to enter.

 The Washington Times - Wednesday, January 7, 2015

A backdrop to the massacre in Paris on Wednesday by self-professed al Qaeda terrorists is that city officials have increasingly ceded control of heavily Muslim neighborhoods to Islamists, block by block.
France has Europe’s largest population of Muslims, some of whom talk openly of ruling the country one day and casting aside Western legal systems for harsh, Islam-based Shariah law.
“The situation is out of control, and it is not reversible,” said Soeren Kern, an analyst at the Gatestone Institute and author of annual reports on the “Islamization of France.”

That sounds like it could have been written on November 14 rather than January 7, doesn't it?

But no, it's part of the reporting on the Charlie Hebdo attack.  It's not as if we ... and Paris ... hadn't been warned.

Apparently, it's reactionary to assume that if Muslims attacked Paris in January, and people using the same (or similar) terror tactics and equipment attack Paris in November ... oh, I can see that I am SO NOT Politically Correct, for I am jumping to conclusions before sufficient evidence has been ascertained.  (But after all, I remember this "walks like a duck, quacks like a duck" racist cultural heritage that drives my knee-jerk reactions to large-scale public massacres by groups of individuals.)

Unfortunately, France continued its irresponsible Right Wing Exploitation (apparently by allowing unrestricted immigration of Muslim 'refugees'), and so of course it deserved every thing it got.

Map Of Self Defense Stories Using Firearms | Guns Save Lives

Map Of Self Defense Stories Using Firearms | Guns Save Lives:

The map below shows all of our stories geo tagged on a map. Many stories do not give the exact addresses for obvious reasons, but we try to get the points as close as possible with the information provided. The map shows incidents recorded from August 1, 2011 – Present. There may be handful (less than a dozen stories) recorded prior to that.

Guns Save Lives has a map of self-defense stories ... go take a look at it.   It's interesting to note where the incidents tend to 'cluster'.

H/T: The War On Guns

▶ INSANE Russian Counter Terror Confidence Drill

▶ INSANE Russian Counter Terror Confidence Drill - YouTube:

 VickersTacticalInc
 470,970 hits: [Like 2,661 Dislike 83]
 Published on Mar 15, 2014 
You've never seen anything like this!!!

Courtesy of "The Gun Wire", my newest addition to my "Read Every Day" list.


Here's the full video on the "GUN WIRE" video page.


Here's the direct video download on YOU TUBE:

RSS Feed to Cogito Ergo Geek

After all of these years, I finally learned the easy way to subscribe to the RSS Feed for Cogito Ergo Geek.

Thanks to Michael Bane, and his DRTV Gun Blogger Roundup.

(I'll add this to my sidebar, for your convenience.)

Hot Links: "Time Covers"

I don't update the sidebar-element "Hot Links" nearly often enough (who's neurotic?), but when I do I think I should recognize that they often change on the sidebar, but they are always interesting and as such should be preserved for your future reference.

From now on I'll try to remember to link to them in an article for future searches.

The Hot Link for this period (a week or two) is "Time Covers".

This link provides you access to the covers of Time Magazine for a period, a year, a month ... or for a specific subject (I think).

I've referenced this website from time to time, because it provides a snapshot of what is fresh and interesting in the world during a specific week ... at least, in the mind of the editors of Time Magazine.


Here's an example:
I was born on the day that the U.S. Marines raised the American Flag atop Mount Surabachi on Iwo Jima. That was a seminal event in the Pacific Theater of World War II, which (after the fall of the Third Reich) was the final theater of operations of the War.

And what was on the cover of TIME magazine the following week?

A picture of US Admiral Chester Nimitz.





Well, Nimitz is one of my personal heroes, but the marines on Iwo Jima were in the mud and the blood, and they rated higher in my mind. But TIME magazine had a policy of presenting paintings of powerful and influential men in the world and in the World War, which I think caused them to lose sight of the influential events of the time.


To my mind, the Marines raising the flag over Mount Suribachi was the iconic image of the American Common Man prevailing over the fascist aggression which caused the Second World War. (Click on the image for a full-size image.)




What does TIME MAGAZINE offer us today?


Times Magazine here equates "Green Politics" with the sacrifices made by these brave men of 50+ years ago, as if tree-hugging is as as bold as fighting suicidal Japanese infantry who are embedded in fixed defensive positions with plenty of ammunition and a strong national identity.

This image seems to me to undermine the accomplishment of the Marines on Iwo Jima in 1945.

Perhaps I'm just too close to the event, by virtue of my birth date, to appreciate the implication that "Green is Good" is equivalent to the politically correct message of 2008.

Or ... I don't know ... maybe I'm actually correct in thinking that the editors of Time are now, and have always been, a bunch of elitist snob idiots who are congenitally incapable of appreciating the pivotal moments of their Time; then, or now.

The covers are interesting, 'anyway', if only because they demonstrate in a dynamic manner the way that the Main Stream Media are so far away from the gestalt of Main Stream America.
This tacitly denigrates the determination, the devotion, the courage, the fatalism and the national identity which characterized both sides in the grievous conflict which was World War Two.

Still, I am appalled.

Field Strip The 1911 Colt 45 - and other stuff

This is a cogent set of instructions on how to clean the 1911 pistol, and its magazine.

I wish this had been plainly available when I first started pistol shooting. Instead, I had to learn it the hard way.

If you're a tyro, a word of caution: the instructions say NOTHING about cleaning parts other than the breech face and the extractor. (Note: every part needs to be cleaned with a solvent such as Hoppe's #9 Powder Solvent, and lightly oiled. If you're not sure what "lightly oiled" means, just oil the heck out of everything you can see, and wipe it with a clean, dry cloth. And if you forgoe the "wipe with a clean, dry cloth" part, you won't hurt a thing except the pistol may tend to make your hand oily, and make it hard to hold onto the gun when firing it. Use your best judgement.) Also, the instructions don't show all of the parts (noticably missing: barrel bushing, firing pin, there are lots more), they don't make it clear when you change from disassembly to reassembly.

About reassembling the firing pin: there's a spring around it. One end of the spring is loose, the other end is tight. The way to know how to reassemble the spring around the firing pin is to check whether the spring comes off easy or tends to hang on to the firing pin. You want to reassemble them so the spring tends to hang on to the firing pin. You'll probably want some kind of pointy pin-pusher (a 1/8" punch works best) when removing the "Firing Pin Retaining Device" (also known as the "Firing Pin Stop", and "that darned flat piece of steel that comes out easy but goes back together after I've let the firing pin fly out of the gun and under the sofa a couple of times").

Come to think of it, it's probably a good idea to check out The Sight's 1911 .45ACP Use and Care Page. The link to Tuley's page is there, along with links to several other websites which help you understand how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble the 1911.

One helpful link is The Sight 1911 Cut-Aways. Here you can see all the parts in correct relative positioning, along with pictures of each part and the correct name for them. If you're a 1911 owner, I highly recommend that you study this 'phantom view' schematic and learn the names of the parts. It makes it a lot easier to talk to your gunsmith if you use the same language as he does. This will come in handy when, after disassembling and cleaning your 1911, you discover you have either (a) failed to understand how to put them back together, (b) discovered that you're missing a part ... which may or may not be found under the sofa ... or (c) ended up with parts still on the coffee table.

Some pointers, taken from personal experience, would include:

When re-installing the Slide Stop, make sure you align the aft end with the SMALL notch on the slide, and push the slide stop all the way in until it goes *click*. You can halfway install it, and the gun will work. That is, it will work until the slide stop works it way out again, and sometime when it is least convenient the slide stop will fall on the ground. Immediately after that, the slide assembly .. including the barrel, and the loaded round in the barrel ... will also fall on the ground. You can find the slide assembly easily enough, but (trust me on this) it doesn't do you a bit of good without the slide stop holding it together with the part that has the trigger and the hammer.

Just thought I would mention that.

Another thing is Tuley's caution that it takes a competent and experienced gunsmith to 'tune' an extractor. Not so. Any bozo can tune an extractor. You don't even need any tools, just three rocks.

Here's how you do it.

First, using a high-powered magnifying glass, carefully examine the 'hook' on the muzzle-end of the extractor. If is badly worn or ... more likely ... one corner of the 'hook' has chipped off, the extractor is worthless and must be replaced. The replacement hook, however, may need to be tuned. That is, if you can FIND a replacement extractor. This is a part which should be considered a "consumible", so you should always carry an extra one in your range bag. You don't have a range bag? You don't have a replacement extractor?

You're screwed. Have a nice day.

No, I'm just kidding. Let's assume the extractor isn't broken; it has just lost it's 'tune'.

Remove the extractor from the pistol, and find three rocks. Two of them can be as small as 3/4" in diameter, the third should be at least 2" diameter. That's the "hammer".

(Note: if you actually have a brass hammer and a vice with you, you don't need the following instructions. In fact, if you are that prepared, you probably have a replacement extractor which has been pre-tuned to your gun, and everything that follows is not necessary. Good On You, Cobber!)

Put the first two rocks on a flat surface, no more than 2-1/2" apart. Bridge them with the extractor, with the point of the hook facing up. (If you don't know what the hook is, the "point of the hook" is, or what the "extractor" is, this operation is not for you. Go home and start boxing up your 1911 to send to your favorite gunsmith.)

(Actually, that should be your first and best choice, but shooters are ever optimists despite repeated experiences which invariably come to "Bad Ends".)

Take the third rock ... "The Hammer" and pound the unsupported center of the extractor a couple of times until you're pretty sure you have bowed it a little bit.

Note: if the extractor and at least one of the rocks has bounced off the table and you can't find it, never mind. That's just John Moses Browning's cure little way of telling you that you're hitting it too hard. Also, you'er a dork and should leave the gunsmithing to someone who has at least replied to a "Be A Gunsmith" advertisement he has seen in a magazine.

If you can find your extractor, re-install it and put an EMPTY cartridge case in the slide, under the hooks of the extractor. If it stays in place, it MAY work for you. In that case, reassemble your 1911 and go back to the match.

If it doesn't stay in place, start over and do all the steps until that requrement is satisfied.

Chances are, even if you do correctly tune your extractor, it won't last long. That is a good indication that it has lost its temper. (No, that doesn't mean it has become cranky and intractable; that means that the metal is too soft to retain the "springiness" necessary for it to do its job of extracting brass out of the chamber.) It may never have been tempered correctly, so you're reduced to the point of having to (assuming you're an IPSC competitor) re-tune your extractor between every stage.

I realize that is an unlikely event, but this actually happened to me in the 2001 Dundee Croc Match, and I made a public laughing stock of myself by going down to the safety table between every stage, finding three rocks (I actually kept them in my pocket after the first time the gun didn't eject the brass; I still have them in my gun safe!) and re-tuning my extractor. However, I did manage to finish the match.

This is probably the best time to mention a few useful habits I have developed in my [mumble mumble] years of IPSC competition.

• Keep spare small parts in your range bag
• Learn how to install them
• If appropriate (eg: extractor, firing pin stop, slide stop) learn how to fit them to your gun
• The moment one of them fails, replace it
• ... then, as soon as practicle, replace the spare
• Know and suck up to a good local gunsmith who competes in the same shooting sports you do. (This is probably not always possible, but strive, STRIVE~!)
• If the part may possibly require fitting to your gun (extractor, firing pin block, etc.), do so and try it out in practice. Make sure it works. Then put it back in your bag and replace it with the original part. That way you'll always know that the replacement part will work.

NOTE: much of this is satire. Much of this is good advice. If you can't tell the difference between satire and good advice, err on the conservative side.

The point of the exercise is, there are some details about small-arms maintenance which may be referrenced on The Internet. Unfortunately, it doesn't always tell you "The Rest Of The Story".

If you're handy with machinery, you may be able to translate the usually stunted procedural descriptions to your advantage. But if you're just another Bozo (as am I), you will probably find that you have caused more problems than you have fixed.

You know yourself best. And the best advice is to find a competent gunsmith who can make SURE you are using a safe, reliable firearm.

Or, you can do this (5mb download)

=========================
UPDATE: 8/30/2006

I've received comments from the owner of the website www.bobtuley.com which was the source of the original article and owner of the first photo displayed above. He notes that I have misspelled his name, which I have corrected. He also notes that I have used his photo without permission, for which I humbly apologise. Finally he tells me that a "casino site" will "pop up" on this webpage. I have no idea how, why or where that happens, as I cannot get it to popup at all. If you have had that experience, please email me (see the email address at the very bottom of this page) with enough information so that I can find it and remove it. It is not my policy to allow commercial messages here, let alone deliberately insert the dispicable popup code.
__________________________________
UPDATE: 07-JUL-08
(H/T Michael Bane Blog)

Thanks to Lucky Video and Splodetv.com, we have a live-action video (animation, y'know) of what goes where, when, when assembling a 1911-type pistol.

I love this stuff!

(No, I don't have permission from them to link to the demonstration. Since it can only provide more traffic to the website, I doubt they will mind.)