Aw, Chris Matthews sucks at Jeopardy

Guess must be the only way to describe some of ol' Tingles responses, too. He really must have selective hearing.  At a bare minimum you would think he would be an expert on all things Moscow related.

This is awesome

Not that I watch Top Gear too often. (Total lie)

(Totally stolen from Borepatch)

But it is my first new desktop background in over a year. Here is a  link to one of my favorite clips from the show. I can't stop laughing every time I watch it.

I would not want this guy as my co-pilot

Even less JD than before

I've lost 20 lbs - from 253 to 233. Gunbelt is getting kinda loose w/o a holster attached....

Can't bring myself to download this

It is a cap and trade tax simulation program from the EPA.  I'm double triple quadruple wary of downloading .exe's from unreliable sources. I'd say the big government fetishists at the EPA qualify as unreliable to me. Probably installs software on your PC nagging you to turn in off (worse than what it came with, anyway).  I would love to see how fast I could crash the economy, but I'm guessing the sim auto-corrects with rainbows and unicorns or something else.

German Police shoot to miss

Apparently they fire a ton of warning shots. Yeah, that's what I call misses too. Apparently they don't have to worry about stray rounds.*

No, actually I was at MS-NBC for the stimulating intellectual..... Sorry, can't say that with a straight face either. What a bunch of pie in the sky whiners. If I read "Faux News" or "Teh NRA is ebil" one more time today, I think I'll puke. Love that some pro-freedom comments actually bring up the true crime numbers. The point is made that being a victim of a crime is more likely in Germany, not just the random stat of gun death.

*Yes, they have different doctrine and rules of engagement. Some may even stem from not trying to appear to fascist for some reason or another.

Shoulder working

I hope. Last night I helped with t-ball practice. The shoulder hurts no worse than the rest of me:(  The bad news- apparently having dad out there makes my son not want to play.

Also, sent my check in to join the Ikes range by Elkhart.  Now I just need more ammo. Time to start getting reloading equipment.....

Hemi waterpump

Back in 08 there was a flash flood and one of our guys drove through it with our shop truck. This is the result. Another guy at work tore the engine down, cleaned the slop out, stuffed a new piston and rod in, new bearings, ran it a year and sold it. Ran fine, even plowed snow. Moral of the story: your air intake is lower than you think, unlike the linked story who knows his personal truck well.

Fugly Gun Pr0n

Stopped by my LGS see if my lower was in yet- negative. Started talking to them again about the RRA tactical "carry" handle. The short story, they wanted it out of the shop, and I got it for about 1/2 the price listed on RRA's website. Everything opinion I've read about it is that the sight is too weird to be mall ninja, which is fine by me. Hell, nothing else on the gun is tacticool. I haven't even installed the sling swivel yet. Or wiped down the lube I douched onto the bolt from the last range outing.

UR not doing it right

Talked to the counter guy at Sportsmans who bought a 6.8 upper from the same place I did. He also has extraction problems. We tore down a Windham Weaponry bolt right there to show him where to put the o-ring.The Windham has an o-ring on the extractor from the factory. Said he would try it on his 6.8. The Windham's blotface was covered in brass- way more that I've seen on mine even after a range trip.

Also doing it wrong

My 6.8 has no range time in this configuration, with my old Simmons Aetec in a Burris PEPR and a new mag to test run. This lower does have a two-stage trigger in it. Also, it weighs damn near 10 pounds empty. Feels more like a battle axe than a rifle. :)

I should have gone.....

Eric Larson is doing some kind of speaking tour or Q&A in Des Moines tonight. It is about his new book, In the Garden of Beasts. My wife and MIL are going, I decided to bow out as our son has T-ball practice tonight. I enjoyed Larson's book The Devil in the White City. Just haven't had a chance to read the new one, and it is right in my wheelhouse, too. Oh, well. Not that my shoulder is in good enough shape to help the coaches at t-ball.  But it was good enough to run the new AR :)

Goodies arrived!

Enough of them, anyway. Had the parts at 9 am. Put the upper together, and swung by Rhine Group. Paid them to check the headspace, just in case- even though with a new bolt and barrel, I should be good to go per every internet expert. Well, I'd prefer to have it checked for my own piece of mind. Checked fine. Drooled over the RRA tactical sight they had in stock (it looks way cool in person, plus I like carry handles), but stuck with the Magpul BUIS for now.

The Aero lower is not here yet, so I used the Armalite lower I previously built- this was to be the lower for this upper anyway. Just needs the black carbine stock installed. And possibly a taller front sight assembly. I wasn't sighting it in- it was on paper, with the groups centered on where I aimed offhand. I ran around 150 rounds through it. It hates Tula- half the time it Failed To Feed or wouldn't lock back on the last round, like they were weak. The lower worked fine with the 6.8. But my 16" Armalite also FTF with Tula today. With Remington, S&B, Hunting Shack, and PMC 55 grain, it ran fine. Also worked fine with the 22 LR conversion- had a few jams, just like with the 16" rifle. I need the proper 22lr charging handle to prevent the bullets tips from jamming between the bolt and charging handle.

It is a chrome lined, 1/9 twist DPMS H-Bar profile. The M4 ramps match the SOTA upper fine. I shot it enough that the hand guards were getting very warm to the touch. When shooting the 22lr kit, I dumped the first mag way too fast and pissed off the RO for once. Guess I need to stick to the steel for that....

Why an 11.5 with a pinned 5.5 flash hider? Short answer- why not? Everyone took one look at it and moved further away from me....... It was fun to shoot.

Bullet button

This is the only bullet button needed in a free state:

Anything else is a sham intended to kill the user of the rifle in the case that it needs to be reloaded. Period. End of story. No further discussion needed or desired.