The Housing "Crisis" And Other Stories

I wish I could get this housing bailout straight in my head. Back in Jimmeh Carter's day the government started making banks loan money to people who could not pay it back. This increased during Clinton's Presidency.

Almost all the way through the Bush years they made this work by continually lowering interest rates. These lower interest rates, along with a few other tricks, kept real estate prices going up, far past the actual value. Also, far past what many people who are serious about their household finances could actually afford.

So a LOT of people who could afford a reasonable house payment were priced out of the market, many others had to move way out of town. I understand that there are lots of folks in places like California commuting fifty to a hundred or so miles, one way.

Now this housing bubble could only last so long, it shouldn't have lasted at all. Rising housing prices don't help most homeowners. If I woke up tomorrow and discovered that my house and lot had quadrupled in price that would mean, what, exactly? Well, my taxes would increase. I'd just love that. Oh, but I could sell! And then live, where?

I understand that lots of people who could easily afford their house payments kept refinancing every time their house "value" increased, then took the extra money out out bought fancy cars or big screen TVs. And now we are supposed to feel sorry for them. So, now the paper "value" of their houses have dropped but they are stuck with big payments. Um, if every time they'd refinanced they'd applied that extra money to the principal amount they'd probably be fine. Now we are supposed to beggar the whole economy to rescue them.

So that is two classes we are supposed to rescue, those who should never have bought a house in the first place and those who wasted their opportunities to build their equity. There is a third class, those who bought houses as investments in order to sell them at a profit. Now I have read the Constitution. Nowhere in it is anything about how all investments must turn a profit, nor does it say anything about empowering the government to take money from a citizen who has not made a bad investment and giving that money to someone who has.

The reality of investing is that some investments make money, some lose. The people that sold before the dotcom bubble burst made money. Those that held on too long got burned. Such are bubbles. Oddly, the people who warned about this real estate bubble are blamed for it and the people who caused it are "fixing" it. This only makes sense because the mainstream media has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the political party that caused the bubble. The only good news is that this same media is losing money itself so it is questionable just how long this can continue.

Have you noticed that all of a sudden it's okay that we have prisoners in Afghanistan? Suddenly it's not a war crime to roam the skies of Pakistan with armed Predator drones potting the odd Jihadi? And nary a peep from the left? Now, don't get me wrong, I think potting Jihadis is something we need to do far more of. Thing is, there has been nothing by Congress, nor by the UN, authorizing this. So, shouldn't the left be weeping and wailing?

Does anyone at all plan on stopping Iran from flinging nukes all over? I don't think Israel has planes with the legs to hit Iran's nuke facilities. Seems to me that someone would listen to what this I'madinnerjacket is saying and decide it's kind of a Bad Idea to let this clown have a beebee gun, much less nukes. Just because the Izzies can't do anything nonnuclear about Iran doesn't mean that Iran won't be a bunch of radioactive craters a few minutes after Tel Aviv starts glowing in the dark. I'm told that Israel has a second line in their motto of "never again". That second line is "If again, not us alone." I would be very surprised if the cruise missiles on Israel's subs don't have nuclear warheads. I would be even more surprised if Israel has some hardened sites with cruise missiles aimed at not just Tehran but Damascus and several dozen other Muslim cities. Yet the whole damned world is just letting this happen. Yoo Hoo! World! There is a little something more important than Glow Bull Wurming.

But Congress wants to call up Karl Rove. Congress is dripping with lawyers but they cannot seem to understand that the President doesn't NEED a reason to fire U. S. Attorneys. They serve at the pleasure of the president. Congress can't seem to do anything about Dodd. Or Rangle. Or Jefferson. For God's sake, no one managed to notice that Obama got a sweetheart deal from a since-convicted felon to buy his mansion. But they're still talking about the Republican culture of corruption.

Hey, Holder!

So I read that the Attorney General of the United States says that America is a nation of cowards with regards to race. Actually, I'd say the cowards are people like Holder who do their best to keep people from talking about the true reasons that race is still a problem.

What happens when someone mentions that there is no small amount of trouble caused by some seventy-odd percent of black babies being born out of wedlock.. Hint: Damned few of those babies have white fathers.

I keep reading about hate crimes when the reality is if it were not for black and Hispanic murderers blacks would die of old age.

Sorry, Holder, there are cowards when it comes to talking about race in America, it starts with you. You, Holder, try to shout down anyone who tries to speak. That, sir, is the mark of cowardice.

Oh, and Holder...The Marc Rich pardon wasn't a scandal because of the Jews. The Rich pardon was a scandal because you and your boss were crooks.

Bones and Birdseed.

So there isn't much going on down here. I'm mainly hoping that by the time these Washington idiots are done I'm not trying to eat birdseed and kibble and can still afford the odd bone for the dogs.

I think watching what these clowns are doing in Washington would be easier to take if I could drink. Or maybe strong drugs. Or drink and strong drugs.

Oddly, the birds watch me, from the other trees, as I fill the bird feeders. Yet every time I step out there is a mad scramble to get away. The birds aren't much brighter than the crowd running Washington. The difference is, Washington is doing it's best to make sure that we can't feed them.

The dogs, of course, do not run away from bones. The only drawback is that instead of each dog eating the bone I give them, they go around trying to steal each other's bone. It wasn't too many months ago when Ming would bully C.A.P off her bone, those days are over. Bingo is still learning the rules of protecting a bone.


In other news I got a little piece of the stimulus package:
For necessary and unnecessary expenses related to the Wireless and Broadband Deployment Grant Programs established by section 6002 of division B of this Act, $2,825,000,000, of which $1,000,000,000 shall be for Wireless Deployment Grants and $1,825,000,000 shall be for Broadband Deployment Grants: Provided, That an additional $54,000,000,000.00 shall be paid directly to Peter Davis in the form of subsidized loans that do not require repayment. Provided Further, That the funds be used by Peter Davis to Building a black powder buckshot loading company. or for whatever. Provided Even Further, That Peter Davis will receive free Stewart-Hass Racing tickets for life. Provided Even Further Still, That Peter Davis shall be treated as a cabinet-level appointment for the purpose of income tax reporting, and therefore no taxes shall be paid on any of the aformentioned benefits. And one more thing: Jack Murtha is hereby expelled from Congress, effective immediately upon enactment.

So, I dunno what I'll do with all that money, it's too bad I couldn't really slip that into the bill. Considering that nobody really read the whole thing, it COULD be in there.

I've loaded some black powder buckshot shells in Mag Tech all brass cases. The shotgun is one of the only firearms where we don't lose velocity and powder with BP. The reason is simple enough, the allowable pressures in a shotgun can be easily reached with black powder. And the birdshot or buckshot is shaped to where it goes subsonic almost instantly so there is no real reason to try to up the velocity. Plus, with BP a feller could hide in the smoke after the first couple-three rounds. I have loaded 12 double aught buckshot pellets in the brass case. The only disadvantage, aside from the increased cost, is that the weight of the powder charge adds to the recoil.

I just got the February edition of Handloader Magazine. It had a long article on the new Federal .327 Magnum. This new cartridge is in a Ruger SP101 revolver. I have one of those in .357 Mag. Since they seem to have quit making the Remington Medium Velocity .357 round I've had to stoke my SP101 with either handloads or Plus P .38s. I used to be pretty tough but I never could managed full bore .357s in that light little gun. Now this new cartridge can spit out a 115 grain Speer Gold Dot hollowpoint out the three inch barrel at over 1300 fps. And the little SP101 holds six shots, instead of five as does my .357. So, when I get my 54 Billion I'll get a new shootin' iron.

So What Happened To Hollywood?

I watched another couple of old western movies this weekend. The movies starred Henry Fonda and Victor Mature, my Darling Clementine and Glen Ford in Heaven With A Gun. It wasn't very long ago that almost all of the male Hollywood stars were veterans, some with no small amount of heroism during their service. Jimmy Stewart flew B24s over Europe in WW2. Tyrone Powers flew transports for the Marine Corps in the Pacific, including hauling wounded from Iwo Jima.

Glen Ford Joined the Marines, his service was in publicity. Henry Fonda served on a destroyer in the Pacific war. Victor Mature flunked the eye test for the Navy, passed the test for the Coast Guard the same day, ended up a Chief Boatswain's Mate doing patrol duty in the Atlantic.

Pretty much everyone who wasn't too old wore the uniform and many who were too old, like Ronald Reagan wore the uniform anyway. Reagan may have been too old and had vision too poor for combat duty so he made training films. Other stars who couldn't serve in uniform worked USO tours, Bob Hope wasn't even born in the USA but logged USO tours from early in WW2 all the way to Gulf War One.

I really don't know what happened to Hollywood. It's not just that most of Hollywood is of the left, after all, Hank Fonda was a lifelong Democrat, once reported as having a fistfight with Jimmy Stewart over politics. They maintained their friendship by never speaking of politics again.

No, it's more than politics, or maybe politics has become more intense. One thing I do know, the stars of yesterday did not go out of their way to anger some forty-eight percent of the viewing public. Perhaps it's just that yesterday's stars were a little smarter than today's.

Check Between The Cushions

Well, it looks like they are passing the Generational Theft Act of 2009. I looked in the backyard, my money tree isn't showing green yet, it's still winter.

So I looked under and between the cushions on the couch, no trillion dollars there, either. I don't know where this money is going to come from, our kids are busy paying our social security and not very many other folks are having lots of grandkids so that's out.

So check your sofa, it ain't like Barney Frank is going after the twenty million dollars Jamie Gorelick looted from Fannie Mae.

Dear Barack

I don't think you know how hard the Congress worked to put the Military Tribunals together, you being too important to do your job in the Senate. The Military Tribunals are required because the United States Constitution, as interpreted by lawyers, says that the accused can call witnesses and see all the evidence. Since most of the scumbags in Gitmo are there because of the efforts of special forces troops or members of the clandestine services having them testify in open court is a non starter. You, as a teacher of constitutional law, should know that. Demanding that these men show up in open court is a death sentence for their families. Worse, sir, you know this.

Now I realize that you have never held a job before where you were responsible for anything, perhaps you might have thought of this before, but you are now responsible for the defense of the United States of America, and her citizens, some of whom were killed in the attack on the Cole. The wives, parents and brothers and sisters of those are watching you and will hold you responsible. So will the families of others killed in other attacks and, even more, the families of the next attacks. We ordinary Americans do not have Secret Service protecting our children. That does not mean we don't love them.

With your threats to close down missile defense while Iran is bragging about how soon they'll have nukes, and just after they put a satellite up so seem to have some kind of suicidal wish. Well, that's fine with me, I'm not really big on making people live when they don't want to. Thing is, Barack, you are not supposed to take my grandchildren with you.

I understand that you owe much to George Soros but you did take an oath, before God and the nation. There are a lot more of us than there is of Soros. We might just be a little rowdier when aroused, too.

Notice, sir, that I am not accusing you of being a secret Muslim. I am assuming that if you wanted to be the President of Scumbagistan you would have gone there and run. You might just consider what will happen if three hundred million angry Americans start chasing you down the streets.

Love, Peter.

Pulled Pork And Other Adventures

;

I've been playing with a crock pot some lately and decided to try some pulled pork. So I sliced an onion up and put it in the bottom of the crock pot, rubbed liquid smoke all over a nice pork roast, made up some sweet BBQ sauce and poured it over everything, added a little water, turned on the crock pot and went about my business.

The next day I got out the two forks to pull the pork apart and discovered that I am a failure. I could not get the roast out of the crock pot, it just fell apart. Instead of pulling the pork I just stirred it around. Princess was in the back yard so Ming got the bone. Bingo doesn't like people food, what kind of a Pug is that?

Anyhow, it ain't pulled but it sure is tasty.

Linda Lou wanted me out from underfoot so Bingo and I went out wandering around today. I drove to Bass Pro Shops to check out some primers, they want five bucks a hundred. They are also out of their minds. I drove a little further, to Mesquite, TX to a place called Southwest Ammunition Supply. There I discovered some new deal of very limited numbers of primers being allowed in each truck shipment. Considering that I have never heard of huge holes in the freeways from ginormous primer explosions I am very suspicious. It looks like another end run around the Second Amendment. I managed to score a thousand Remington Large Pistol Primers but the clerk was telling me that they are having to ration rifle primers. They will only sell rifle primers one hundred at a time unless a customer is buying lots of bullets. If one buys five hundred bullets he can have five hundred primers. I reckon folks that cast their own bullets are going to be making lots of trips to the gun store. And the guys that shoot primer powered wax bullets are out of luck.

I shall look into this some more and see if I can get a handle on what's going on.

From there Bingo and I went to Pet Smart, I got him a blue bone shaped tag with his name and our address and phone number. Everybody loves Bingo. Then we went to a big box home improvement store and bought a new belt for the vacuume cleaner and a couple of wax toilet rings. I am just pan lubing my black powder bullets and I was driving myself crazy doing it. I'd put the bullets in the lube, melt it and then have to cut each bullet out with a homemade "cookie cutter", made out of a .45-70 case. If I just pulled them out

Then a pal up in Wisconsin told me about adding a wax toilet ring to the lube, it makes the lube sticky. So I added about half a ring to the lube I already had in the pan and it works just like I was told.

After the home improvement store we stopped by Wal Mart and got a fifty pound bag of dog food, a script for Linda Lou, some bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. Then a quick stop at Sonic for Linda Lou's burger so she'd let me in the house and home we went.

Continuing Criminal Enterprise

Does Barack Obama even know someone who isn't a tax cheat or thug? His cabinet choices look like a crowd that doesn't quite have what it takes to get into the Mafia so they just hang around the edges.

I didn't much listen to Barky during the campaign, I like to use my increasing deafness as an excuse but truth is, I'm just tired of pencil necked punks telling me I'm not smart enough to manage my life so I pretend I can't hear them. Still, I seem to remember him complaining about the lack of ethics of the Bush Administration. Barky wouldn't know ethics if he was bit on the ass by an ethical alligator.

Two major appointments crash and burn in one day. How many waivers for his super-duper no lobbyist rule so far? Change we can believe in.

I Am Losing My Mind

Saturday was the Cowboy Action Shoot. The weather was supposed to be nice so I set my alarm and went to bed way earlier than normal. The alarm went off I got up, had a cup of coffee and started getting ready for the shoot. I gain two more pounds and I'm going to need new pants.

So, I got dressed and started gathering my gear, that when I discovered that I only had ninety rounds of black powder ammo loaded. Now I haven't been to a shoot since last spring. I load my own ammo. I have thirteen or fourteen pounds of BP left from my last shipment. With the Hazardous Material Fee at twenty dollars per shipment, whether that shipment is one pound or fifty, I buy my powder in large amounts.

So, with the exception of a couple of months when my arm was totally useless, I could have loaded up plenty of ammo, instead I looked at all those boxes and thought I had plenty of ammo. Idiot. So now I have to load up a few hundred rounds, and cast a few thousand bullets. Oh well, it gives me something to do while I listen to Rush. It's amazing how much ammo can be loaded or bullets cast, during a three hour radio show. What is more amazing is that in all these months I never counted my SASS legal ammo.

These problems, of course, are as nothing to what the folks in the Mid-America deep freeze are facing. I hope this warm weather we have had in the last couple-three days is heading that way. I might be concerned with mundane things but I am not serving hundred+ dollar a pound steak with my thermostat up high, either. It must be hard to be in the media. Reagan was savaged in the media for fancy food. Then George W. Bush ridiculed for his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Barky has a super bowl party and Bush was nearly lynched for having a slice of birthday cake during Katrina.

I guess I should look to see who won that game.

Whoda Thunk It?

So the Generational Theft Act of 2009 passes the House without one Republican vote. Looks like the House Republicans finally remembered why we elect Republicans.

It's a durned shame though that it took them so long. If they'd had remembered that some six or eight years ago Nancy Pelosi would be the Minority Leader.

Scattershooting While Wondering What Happened To Jelly Bryce.

I see that President Barky has unified the country. Did Bush ever tell the Donks not to listen to Air America?

So, Bob Woodward says that there are more scandals coming from the Barky Administration. Let's see, Rezko is cooperating with the prosecution, half of his election committee insiders are under subpoena, his Sec Treas is a tax cheat and his Attorney General didn't know about Marc Rich, even though he was the one ordering the Clinton Justice (heh) Dept. to get the money from one of Rich's companies. Gee. ya think, Woodward? Gawd, just the SecState will give us years of scandal fun.

I was looking at Ace of Spades, seeing what the Moronbloggers are up to and noticed that some clown playing Che Guevara had to leave the press conference because someone in the press crowd knew that Guevara was a murderous goon. Then came the update that Ashley Judd is finally glad to live in America, again. There sure are a lot of meatheads in Hollywood, no wonder the last movie I went to the theater to say was A Time To Kill.

I have been looking at the histories of a bunch of old lawmen and gunfighters. Delf "Jelly" Bryce joined the Oklahoma City Police Dept. in the late 1920s, 1927 I believe. He later joined the FBI, shortly after they were allowed to carry guns. Up until then all FBI Agents either had law degrees or accounting degrees. This changed after the Kansas City Massacre. Last I heard there were not very many gunmen on the faculties of law and accounting schools. So J. Edgar Hoover hired some gun fighting cops.

D. A. Bryce got his nickname, Jelly, after a bad guy he either captured or shot said something along the line of "I can't believe that jellybean got me." Jellybean was underworld argot for a fancy dresser. The name Jelly stuck. Up until fairly recently detectives were noted for being sharp dressers. Seems that it helped, criminals were intimidated and witnesses more willing to talk. Of course law enforcement saleries did't cover the cost of fine threads, and once taking a cup of coffee became graft, much less a tailor made suit, we lost that. Notice how crime has gone down? Anyway, Jelly Bryce shot nineteen bad guys in his career, very few, if any, survived. Life Magazine did a article on Jelly in 1945 with a stop-motion photography set of him drawing his .357 in two fifths of a second. Officers can't do that anymore, too many safety featers on their holsters.

Jelly died in his sleep after a long career. I doubt we would have gotten through the crime wave of the prohibition and depression years without these old gunfighting lawmen, who would now be in jail.

I Give Up.

I give up.I am too old to properly train Cochise' Apache Princess. She just turned two years old and she still hasn't learned not to jump on people, Lord knows I tried. And she has pulled Linda Lou off her feet too many times. The cuts and tears on my arm never have a chance to heal from her jumping on me when I try to put the lead on her to bring her into the house.

This does not mean she isn't a sweet dog, she is. But we do not have the money to have her trained and I simply no longer have the strength to do it myself. Even ten years ago I could but I just haven't what it takes any more. So, before I take her to German Shepherd Rescue of North Texas or Camp Wolfgang in Ennis, do any of my readers know someone who wants a sweet, but stubborn, unspayed German Shepherd? I have her papers, although I never registered her with the AKC. At two years old she is ready to breed or can be spayed. So far we have just kept her inside or in the fenced backyard when she is in heat.

I have no idea how much it costs to send a dog places but it is probably less than the cost of a purebred German Shepherd. All I ask is no puppy mills or really weird Nazi types. She is a good girl, we simply got too old to handle a big dog. Anyhow, it is breaking my heart to say this but I just must let her go before one of us is badly hurt.

Princess gets along fine with other dogs that she knows, she needs some work on dogs she doesn't know. We have no cats so I don't know about that.

The Inauguration.

So I think the pundits garbled their lead. Instead of the speech being chiseled in stone they meant that it's an administration of chiselers. The guy in charge of the IRS is a tax cheat. Wonderful.

If I ever invite the Reverend Lowery over he ain't saying grace, we'd starve to death. And what's with "Whitey, do what's right"? I'm pretty sure a lot of whites voted for this guy. Last I looked there weren't enough black voters to elect a President, even with ACORN's help.

I note that there was very little applause during the Obama speech. I would imagine that is because he kept harping about responsibility. All those people waiting for free ice cream and hearing responsibility. As the puppyblender would say, Heh.

Scattershooting While Wondering What Happend To Walter Walsh

First thing I saw this morning was that Bill Faith had died. This was enough to send me back to bed except I was hungry. While I never met the man I enjoyed his writing. We shared a little something, we both got to play on the second place team in the southeast Asian war games. See you on the other side, Bill.

I can't remember, is real butter a killer or safer than margarine on Sunday. I wish these public spirited "scientists" could make up their minds. Anyhow I had a big stack of buckwheat cakes with bacon today. I couldn't remember so I had butter on some of the pancakes and margarine on the others. It's funny how one becomes a public spirited "scientist" these days. It takes a fax machine and a fancy sounding name for your "Institute". Take OwlGore. His education is flunking out of Divinity School, rumor has it that he majored in marijuana. Now, with no evidence whatsoever he is making bazillions in the glow bull warming racket. I'd have a better chance at believing in this glow bull warming if OwlGore himself acted as if he did.

Of course I'd also have a better chance in believing in glow bull warming if the climate hasn't been changing, in cycles, for all of history. The last time we had glow bull warming the Vikings were rowing their long ships 'cross the oceans. With no coal fired electric plants, I might add.

Now we're seeing Obambi flags. I sure hope the realisation of the responsibilities hits this guys soon. I realize that it's fun being important, eventually he must realise that we have families to protect. Screeching that George Bush is a dummy does nothing to protect Michelle's children. Or my grandchildren. Barack, in a very short time, it's on you. Buying the world a Coke ain't gonna get it.

I would feel a lot more comfortable if I had the slightest idea that you know there are a whole bunch of people in this world that would like to see America in flames. Heck, for right now I'd be happy to know that you aren't one of them.

Is it any wonder that I should still be worrying about whether or not Obambi wants America to burn while the Chicago Tribune is going broke? Aren't the reporters supposed to find out such things? Kind of like Enron. Somehow Enron cheated all through the Clinton Administration, the Bush Administration caught them and it's all Bush's fault.

Oooh, cool. Seems that the Plague has hit an AlQ camp in Algeria, killing forty, so far. I hope it's painful and spreading fast among them. Some Leprosy would be nice, too. Please, nobody tell these nutbags that making life miserable for the educated means that all your doctors end up in Britain and California. I read this in a UK paper's website. The comments indicate they mostly think it's the CIA. If only.

I just finished reading Col. Charles Askin's autobiography, Unrepentant Sinner. Charlie was a Border Patrol Officer back during Prohibition. Back when lawmen had different rules. Charlie left a lot of bad guys toes up or face down in the Rio Grande. Charlie didn't much care which side of a bad guy he shot. His specialty was a Remington 1100 shotgun with a custom eight shot magazine and the barrel cut down to 22 inches. This being before night sights he tied a white bandage around the end of the tube.

That got me Googling around, looking for other old lawmen from those days. Walter Walsh was a Feeb from back when they were gunfighters. Today they'd both be in jail. It's too bad that crooks have more rights than lawmen these days. How's that working out for us?

It's no wonder I concentrate on my grandkids, my dogs and cowboy action shooting these days.

Naturally, I Forgot The Camera.

So I got up this morning and called Tammi on the Cell phone, she was almost to Texas, just passing through Shreveport, LA. I told her to call here when she blew through the Tyler area and I'd meet her at the side of the road and we'd have lunch.

Then I dressed in something easy to spot, one of my bright red "bib" shirts and my big Mexican style cowboy hats. Then when she called I got in the car and drove down to the highway 34 exit, with a fast stop at a pawn shop to buy an adjustable wrench. I had loaded Bingo in the car and off we went.

I hadn't been at the exit even five minutes when up drove Tammi. We scurried over to the big Outlet Mall just south of the freeway and Tammi parked right by the small Police substation and we drove to a little down home cafe there in Terrell, Pop's Fried Chicken and cafeteria. By the time we got there Bingo and Tammi were best friends forever.

We ate and talked. Yes, Tammi did let me get a few words in. All too soon it was time for her to continue on. We got back in the car and Bingo assumed his spot on her lap and we drove back to the outlet mall. When last seen Tammi was advancing on the Old Navy outlet store with a brilliant blue light flaming in her eyes and warehouse work clothes on her mind. I rolled my window down and hollered YEE-HAW, knowing nobody in that store had a chance.

The I drove home, Bingo missed Tammi.

Update: I parked the car right next to a raised concrete slab so I could hug Tammi without getting an eye full of something that ought not be in a married man's face. I forget to tell her that old Groucho Marx line: "Take me to your ladder, lady. I'll see your leader later."

Life In A Bingo Parlor

I didn't realize how fast my house became a Bingo Parlor. Bingo has settled in, the first day he wouldn't eat but now he's settled right in.

He and CAP are already BFF. That's the good news. The bad news is that he seems to like me better than he likes Linda Lou. I may be banished from the house.

I took a nice little nap today with both CAP and Bingo, it only took a few minutes before CAP quit trying to play and we had a triple nap going. I was worried that CAP wouldn't settle down. It's also kind of worrisome when they get to playing and suddenly CAP has that whole Pug in her mouth, so far she hasn't chomped down, though. I haven't had the camera aimed when Bingo's whole head in is her mouth.

On the way home we stopped in Tyler, the rose capital of Texas, on the way home to get a new collar for him, he and Ming were a hit. Seems everybody loves Pugs. Then I took him with me to pick up the laundry at the bundle service, our washer just bit the dust and the washer Linda Lou wants won't be at Lowe's 'til the 26th. Anyhow the lady running the laundromat also loved Bingo.

I'm experimenting on how to format the pictures, I think I'll leave them all on the left, moving them around makes for a weird layout. We got a new Froggie at Petsmart, I think we need to keep it away from CAP, she tends to rip stuffies limb from limb.

Bee Eye Enn Gee Oh, And Bingo Was His Name-o

Linda Lou woke me earlier than usual, then refused to make me breakfast because she wanted to get moving. We drove to Quinlen and filled up the car and then set out toward Lufkin, some 150+ miles away, just knowing that Bingo the Pug would be gone when we got there. Oh well, I figured it'd be worth the drive, after all it's a known scientific fact that the further you are from home the less calories count.

We hit Lufkin at about two or three PM, I never did stop to eat for fear someone would barely beat us there. Yesterday was unusually warm for this time of year, today it was flat out cold. When the wind comes out of the north during winter there ain't nothing between Texas and the North Pole but a few barbed wire fences.

Update: I did eventually eat, my favorite traveling meal, a BBQ rib dinner. It's lucky I don't get that way very often, the ribs were dried out and horrible crunchy. The place was in Rusk, a town best known for the State Hospital for what we used to call the criminally insane. Perhaps the folks running that smoker are graduates.

Anyhow we took Ming the Merciless along, it's important that the two Pugs get along. We made only one stop on the way, at a highway rest stop. It's kind of unfair that we men get to stand up to pee in an unheated rest stop, something Linda Lou reminds me about every winter trip. She doesn't cut down on drinking soda, though.

At any rate, Bingo was still there. He started giving me puppy kisses right then, and then gave a few to Linda Lou, also. We filled out the paperwork, I brought Ming out of the car and they got along as well as a young male and an old lady dog can.

Cochise' Apache Princess hasn't met him yet, we're leaving her in the backyard for another hour or so for Bingo to get used to the house before springing giant Dog on him. I think it'll be fine, though, CAP likes to play. She really misses Eddie so this should work out. Pictures to follow.

Update: As you can see, the pictures are here now.

We may be stuck with the Name, Bingo. He is not a stray but an elderly couple turned him in when they decided they couldn't care for him. So he's had the name since he was a pup. The fact that he's not a stray is very good news, we have his medical records and he's already neutered and all that, checked out as heartworm free. He is about 14 months old, born 11/21/07.

And, of course, he's already perfected that tilted-head gaze. So, I'm missing a cowboy action shoot, the next one ought to be warmer, anyway.

Cross Your Fingers, Lufkin Here We Come!

So I was getting ready to go to my last appointment with the Doc that cut me open and repaired my rotator cuff when Linda Lou printed out a page from Petfinder with a picture of a young male Pug. Well she called them later and it seems that we are driving to Lufkin, Texas first thing in the morning. I hope nobody beats us there.

So we are driving a hundred and fifty miles, one way, to see a fawn Pug named Bingo. If we end up with him that name won't last. Anyway, y'all keep your fingers crossed, Linda Lou NEEDS another Pug.

I've only been through Lufkin a few times, it's not on an Interstate and there is nothing there for me to drive to see. Aside from a big chicken processing plant there are paper mills and foundries. Let's face it, if there weren't a Pug, I wouldn't bother.

I'm sure Lufkin is a nice enough town, though. I believe it's in the east Texas piney woods, I'll tell you more after the drive. We'll take the camera, just in case there is something worth a picture. I suspect that this trip is going to take the place of the Sunday Cowboy Action Shoot.

Peas On Earth

I blame Army Wife Toddler Mom. A few days ago she wrote about creamed eggs on toast for supper back when families knew what poor was. Well, we seldom had that but creamed tuna on toast, or when I was really lucky, biscuits was pretty common, so was creamed chipped beef.

Now I haven't made creamed anything, ever, so I decided to try.I started out with a simple roux of butter and flour and added a cup and a half of hot milk. As the white sauce started to thicken I drained a can of tuna, a can of peas and peeled three hard boiled eggs. I added a sprinkle of garlic, paprika and crushed red peppers. Note to self, a whole can is WAY too many peas. Even Ming the Muslim Dog (peas be upon her) thought it was too many peas. Anyhow I added all that and now think I could have done with only two boiled eggs.

Anyhow I mixed it all up and served it over buttermilk biscuits. I think with only a third of a can of peas and two boiled eggs it will be perfect. Not bad for a first try, though.

Next up, creamed chipped beef on biscuits. Now I've been eating that pretty regularly, Stoufers makes it in frozen bags but now that I know how easy it is to make white sauce I'm making it myself. I feel as if I'm becoming the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show. And I'm not even Swedish.

Just don't tell my Momma that I make canned biscuits.

Durban II

So, I don't know where I read it but there is supposed to be a new gathering at Durban in South Africa, fighting racism and suchlike. They hope to get a law passed against demeaning religions.

I wonder if such a law would shut up Michael Newdow. Or maybe all those Muslims saying awful things about Christians and Jews. Now I understand the purpose of this law is so folks like me can't call Muslims murderous goons when they fling rockets into Israel and then whine like sissy boys when the Izzies get tired of it.

So, how is a UN law going to keep me from calling the murderous goons that attacked Bombay murderous goons? Last I looked the UN had very little authority in Hunt County, Texas. Maybe a little more down in Austin, at least near the University, but here?

Personally I think that if the various Islamic nations would like to be well thought of they should stop killing people. Or at least not whine like little girlyboys when people fight back.

The Big Party

So we rounded up the usual suspects and celebrated William's birthday. There was an extra present here. I'd given our dogs each a bone so they wouldn't notice us being gone, at least until we were out of earshot. Since there were three bones in the package I took one to Pele, Dean and Stephanie's dog.

Anyway there were two parties offered, a small party with just the grandparents and aunts and uncles, plus brothers and cousins or a party with all of his little friends. I chose the grandparent party and will not go to the other one. I am not overly endowed with sanity already.

There were only five children, it felt like dozens, and that's with one not walking yet. Speaking of the one not walking, he's out of the will for trying to pull my moustache off. All the other grandkids will get guns and stuff, he's getting the underwear I will be wearing when I drop dead. Unwashed. My lip is two sizes bigger than it was*.

Anyhow it was fun seeing the kids, now I can go back to being a curmudgeon for a while. The next birthday is a canine birthday, C.A.P. turns two on the fifteenth of this month. She says send meat.



*You believe that threat, right?

Happy New Year!

Well, I just looked at the clock, it's a new year. It doesn't feel much different than any other Midnight. Except a little bit of fireworks off someplace not too far. The main fireworks out here are off at the boat ramps on the lake but there are always a few people setting them off away from the water, I hope nobody burns their house down, or, more importantly, my house.

We thought about driving to see them shoot off fireworks, then we thought of the stop signs and stuff that get run over on regular nights around here and stayed home. The dogs don't like fireworks anyway. I did stop at the fireworks stand and bought five boxes of green sparklers. These should be cool cut up into my black powder shotgun shells for the Cowboy Action matches. White smoke, red flames and now green sparks. Maybe I ought to wear a Santa Suit and shout Ho Ho Ho every shot.

Yesterday was William's birthday, he's six now. During the afternoon will be the small party, since it's a day off for most people. We got the boy a nerf gun for now and two hundred rounds of .22 ammo in a fancy target shooter's ammo box for later in the spring when we start his training. Not that I'll let him run out of ammo after that two hundred is gone.

Sure seem to be a bunch of alleged humans mad because Israel is finally getting tired of Hamas flinging rockets willy nilly into their country. The Pals are lucky I'm not running Israel. Seems the Pals are allowing Hamas to fling those rockets from their crowded neighborhoods. I'd announce that this is unacceptable behavior and that each rocket launched gets a napalm canister on the launch site. I suspect it wouldn't take long for the behavior to stop. That should take out the screeching that the Izzies are being disproportionate, too. One rocket, one napalm canister. It's not the Izzies fault that Hamas can't aim.

Oh, and who is this idiot journalist (but I repeat myself) claiming that the Palis are just "taking potshots"? Somebody tell him that words have meaning. A potshot is a shot taken by someone needing a critter to eat. Back in the day that was the job of the boys and young men. And they'd better bring something home for each charge of powder and each ball. Folks doing that kind of hunting didn't have powder and ball, and then cartridges later, to waste.

Speaking of potshooting, a lot of folks in places like the hills of Tennessee and Kentucky, the hills of upstate New York and Vermont, places like that, held on to their muzzle loaders long after cartridge guns came along. Oh, many, perhaps most, had those newfangled ca'tridge guns but we can cast our own balls and find our own flints, even make our own powder, though that's still pretty dangerous. Not quite as dangerous as flinging missiles into the blue in hopes of killing anyone at all. Potshots. When did it become a requirement to not know the meaning of words to be a writer?

Levergun Shooters Take Note

It has been a while coming but Hornady's LEVERevolution bullets are finally available to handloaders. This is big news. Since there are those who do not read themselves to sleep with handloading books let's start at the beginning. Lever action rifles have always had one weak point, that tube magazine under the barrel. With those magazines we cannot use sharp pointed bullets for fear that a sharp pointed bullet might set the primer of the next round off. Considering that our own personal hands are wrapped 'round the fore end with that mag tube running through it, it is a valid worry.

This is why leverguns are woods rifles, the flat point and round nosed bullets are like trying to win a footrace in hip waders. But a couple-three years ago Hornady came up with a sharp pointed bullet that will work in a lever action rifle. They found a plastic tip that was stiff enough to maintain it's shape, yet soft enough to not set off a primer.

This just about instantly extends the range of your levergun by a hundred and fifty or two hundred yards. Figure a .30-30 Winchester or .35 Remington levergun. We figure those as running out off steam by about a hundred and fifty yards. Where a rifle that could fire a spitzer bullet at the same speed is a three hundred yard gun.

These bullets aren't cheap but then today, no bullet is. They are available for most of the calibers used in lever actions. In .30 caliber they have a 160 grain bullet that might just bring the ol' thutty-thutty into the 21st Century.

The old .35 Remington has a 200 grain bullet, so far they haven't released one for the .357 Mag carbines out there. I would imagine it's coming soon, though, they make a nifty little 140 grain bullet with that sharp point for their factory loads. I suspect that bullet over a hot load of H110 or LilGun would zap a Texas Whitetail out past two hundred steps.

The folks shooting .44 Magnums or .444 Marlins have a nice 265 grain slug, start that one off at some 2250 feet per second from a .444 and you could bombard cities better than the Palestinians and their stupid rockets.

I'm looking hard at the bullets they make for my .45 Colt rifle. Here there are two, a 200 grain and a 250. Now I have clocked over 1900 fps out of the 24 inch barrel of my '92 Winchester clone with a 250 grain bullet, that same action is used for the .454 Casull Mag so I would probably make that weight bullet fly faster. I haven't bothered because those flat point bullets lose speed so fast. But with these pointy ones? Hmmm.

Guys with the '86 Winchesters and 1895 Marlins have a couple of bullets, too. Guys with a .45-70 or one of the others, the .45-90s and such have a sharp pointed 325 grain that would reach out way past Fort Mudge. Winchester fifties and the .50 Alaskan would be taking a long poke with the 300 grain pointy bullet.

Now these bullets aren't the end all and bee all of levergun bullets. There are a lot of times I'd want a bullet for something up close and big, say I lived where there might be an old sorehead Grizzly Bear popping out of the bushes with mayhem on his mind, I'd want my levergun loaded with the heaviest bluntest bullets I could fit in there.

It might be a while before the loading data for some of these bullets is found in every manual, too. But still, this is a big step.

So far the only folks I know of who are selling these bullets are the Potterfield gang at Midway USA. There may be others but I know Midway does, they're on the January flier on the "new products" page. I like to call them, 1-800 243-3200. They have country music while I'm on hold.

Latest Pics From NASCAR Country

Number Two son, Robin lives in a town called Huntersville, near Charlotte. Very near all the big NASCAR team headquarters. Thanks to the Democratic Congress they couldn't make it this year for Christmas but they did, finally, send new pictures of the kids. That's Christopher James in the red chair, next is John Mark with his heavy construction equipment.

Nathaniel Philip is just layin' there and Ethan Presley is getting ready for football.

That's a pretty good bunch o' boys and we miss them. Maybe next year.

The Big Christmas Adventure

So, on Christmas Eve we had a bit of last minute shopping to do. So we filled the car with $1.35.9 a gallon gas and started the adventure. After dog food and suchlike from Wally World we went to Petsmart, Ming the Merciless was her usual hit. Then to Barnes and Noble for something to read. I got a couple of paperbacks, the newest issue of Guns of the Old West and the 2009 Hodgdon Reloading Manual. Speaking of that, what's with all of these new cartridges, none doing anything unusual? In ten years will anybody buying the .300 Hornady or the .338 RCM or a half-dozen other new ones going to be able to get cartridges, or even cases to handload?

Anyhow, then we stopped for Linda Lou's favorite meal, a Sonic burger, then home.

Then Linda Lou was up all night and half the morning making her world class Cinnamon Rolls. These rolls take so long because she keeps having to wait an hour for the dough to rise, then she pounds it down, then she has to wait again.

Then came Christmas day, we didn't need to get there 'til noon, thank the Lord. So we drove to Plano, Linda Lou sleeping gently in the passenger seat, presents and Cinnamon Rolls safe on the floor or back of the van. An hour later we got there to a house with no children, they being with Dean's parents. Shortly thereafter, Stefanie's twin brother Michael, our youngest boy, showed up with his wife Jennifer, their two and Amanda, her younger sister, plus her boyfriend.

A while later Dean's folks and the three boys showed up and, while dinner was finishing, we all ate a cinnamon roll. Michael Junior declared them "the best ever" which made Linda Lou's day.

Eventually we opened presents, the usual stuff. This year the children got taken to the dollar store where they each got presents for the grandparents. Like my new hat? I'm not sure the color is perfect with my red bib shirt but that's what happens when a six year old boy is let loose to choose a gift.

Then it was time to drive home, bedtime came early.

Writing On The New Confuser

So Linda Lou and Ming the Merciless are lying on the couch for a Sunday afternoon nap and I am trying to blog on the new infernal machine. I forgot how easy it is to type on a brand new keyboard. There are a couple of downsides, though. I can barely point an' click with the new mouse, or maybe it's just the new mousepad is so smooth. Another minor downside is the new monitor screen has about a two-two and a half inch strip down the right side that has the clock, some headlines and a bunch of our pictures scrolling through, one at a time, over and over. Including lots of pictures of Eddie. I wish I knew where he is and how he's doing.

In other news I durned near burned up the neighborhood yesterday. We had a bunch of boxes so I took them out to burn them. Well, as soon as the fire was going good, the wind came up, hard and dry. The grass and weeds were also very dry. Ooops! We managed to get it out before the house burned down, though. Still, had all the neighbors investigating the fire, kind of embarrassing. Especially since I was doing this in the front yard where our hose doesn't reach, I wanted to burn a stubborn patch of bushes that are too thick to mow.

Note to self: Never again try to burn stuff outside while wearing flip flops. Yes, it was that warm, thing is, the wind picked up as the cold front blew in, by the time I got the fire out I had icicles hanging off my toes. I blame Algore.

Update: I'm still reading about why the Secret Service let that bozo throw two shoes at Dubya. The answer is simple, it's very bad publicity when the good guys cut loose with gunfire on someone armed with two shoes. Even worse publicity when the bozo has already thrown them. Can anyone imagine what the lefties would be saying if the bodyguards had cut loose a burst each with those little subguns? Now I wouldn't complain too much if overpenetrating rounds, plus misses and ricochets had knocked down a half dozen media types. Far as I'm concerned there ought to be a bounty on 'em, but the same people that are complaining about how he managed to fling both shoes would be having a cow. Each.

What An Ordeal

So we set the new computer up and (of course) nothing worked the first time. We never did make the program that was supposed to transfer what we wanted from the old computer to the new. After trying to load it from the disc for an hour, with no end in sight, we just blew it off. Linda Lou will just enter stuff over the next few weeks.

Then I put Linda's computer in my room and got it half set up. Enough to use, for now. Meanwhile my old monitor wouldn't come on so I had to drag the ancient cathode ray monitor in here and put it on my desk, the thing is huge. Doesn't look as if I'll be eating many meals in here until I get my new flat screen monitor.

Meanwhile I'll have to few items at a time to my Firefox bookmarks. This is a pain as I have to put the laptop on line, write the urls down, move the phone line to the desktop, add those in, etc. Plus the thing won't let me register my printer because it's already registered. Ah well, at least I have a keyboard, as well as a new monitor coming.

Reversed Polarity

So it was sixty degrees out there yesterday and people in New England were coping with the loss of power from some big freezing storm. So I put the big box fan out on the deck and pointed it northeast and turned it on high. Hoping, of course, to blow some warmth up there. Well, there must have been a reversal of polarity somehow, it was 31 degrees in Dallas just before I turned the radio off. Seeing as how the city is always warmer than the country I don't even want to think about the actual temp out here by Lake Tawakoni. I knew something was wrong today when a Polar Bear showed up, begging for blankets. Fortunately Ming the Merciless chased him off. It's nice to have a vicious killer attack Pug.

It was cold enough to bring CAP back in the house. In other news, the Dell showed up today off the FedEx truck.After nap time we'll set it up, then comes the big deal about transferring of all Linda Lou's pictures, bookmarks and other stuff over. Then I have to transfer my stuff from the laptop to this computer. Then, at last, I'll be typing on a real keyboard all the time.

Quiet Here

Not much going on right now down here. I read where there are crooks in politics in Chicago. Imagine that. Next they'll tell me there are political crooks in south Texas.

We've got some cold wet weather coming, nothing like up in Massachusetts and suchlike places, but the high tomorrow is supposed to be in the low 40s. So Linda Lou is off at Wally World, shopping for grandchild Christmas gifts. Ming The Merciless is laying where she can look out for her Momma to come home. Meanwhilw I'm sitting around with an actual keyboard to write with, with nothing to say.

I'm still in a mild state of shock, I had bought some Hornady XTP hollowpoint bullets for my .45 Colt rifle and my .357 Mag carbine. Well one of the bags of bullets was mismarked. Instead of being 250 grain .45 bullets they were 210 grain .41 bullets. Well, I don't have a .41. Nor will Linda Lou let me have a .41. So I finally got around to taking the bullets back to the store. The bag of bullets that was $13.95 in late 07 is now $26.00. I know that prices were going up but jeez. Double? Primers are way up there, too. $28.00 a thousand now. This before Obambi.

Well, since Linda Lou is gone it must be naptime.

Bullet Material, Construction And Penetration.

I might as well finish that long and boring to most, treatise on bullet penetration. As I have said, in the same caliber, the heavier the bullet, the further in penetrates, all else being equal. Of course, all else is seldom equal.

Since smokeless powder improved velocities above the 1400 feet per second level that was common in rifles in the black powder era, there has been an argument among gunnies. One one side has been the velocity is everything crowd, we'll call that the Roy Weatherby bunch. The other side is the bullet weight is everything crowd, we'll call that the Elmer Keith bunch. These crowds join together on the internet bulletin boards and insult each other. In a few hunting camps there have been a few fistfights when the snakebite and anti-cold medicine flowed too freely.

Actually both camps are partly right. Velocity isn't everything but it is something. The old fashioned lead core, gilding metal jacket soft point bullets that we pretty much began the smokeless era operated best at between 2200-2400 feet per second, like the .30-30 Winchester and the .30-40 Krag and the .303 British. With their original bullets, the 170 .30-30, the 220 Krag and the 215 .303 these rifles were deadly out to around 200 yards. Now this range is still where 85-90percent of big game is taken. Unfortunately in these days of shortened seasons and people living away from the game fields, most folks don't really know the country the critters live in, nor do they have time to learn. So, instead of hunting the old way many folks are setting up and shooting the power line cuts, the beanfields and the southwestern senderos. Back in the day I simply would not shoot at an unwounded big game critter past three hundred yards, ever. Today I would cut that range down to two hundred, maybe 150, no matter what rifle I was shooting. Too many of us have forgotten our duty to the critters. Number one is a quick kill. If I cannot guarantee a quick death I won't pull the trigger. But I'm digressing again.

At any rate the old cup and core round nose soft points are the perfect bullet for 2200-2400 fps. Trouble comes when these old bullets go very much faster, they start blowing up. So the feller with the 3000 feet per second rifle needs a new kind of bullet. Especially since even though he's set up for a five hundred yard shot, still some 85-90% of the shots will be at two hundred yards, or less.

The first thing that the bullet makers did was make the bullets sharp pointed with less exposed lead. This did two things, it improved how the bullet held together on impact, plus the sharp point flattened the trajectory. This added a couple of hundred yards to the rifle. A regular sharp pointed, or spitzer bullet works well at 2800 feet per second. An ordinary .270 or .30-06 or a .308 or 7-08 with the proper bullet for the game is good all the way out to about four hundred yards with an ordinary Winchester poer point or a Speer Hot Core, Hornady Spire Point, Remington Core Loct, Sierra Game King, bullets like that.

We'll get the odd bullet blowing up on impact at very close range if we hit bone and we'll see a few failures to expand at the longest ranges if the bullet doesn't hit anything but hide and lung but within those limits the old cup and core bullets have worked very well.

Just after WW2, John Nosler has a 180 grain bullet blow up when he shot an elk with a .300 H&H Magnum. Losing all that venison was annoying so John did something American. He sat down and designed a new bullet. Instead of a drawn gilding metal tube he went with making his new bullet jacket on a lathe. He made a jacket out of copper alloy with a place in the front for a lead core, then a thick partition of copper alloy and a rear lead core. After experimenting around for a while he figured out the famous Nosler Partition bullet. This bullet will go through just about any critter from any angle. Often on something the size of a bull elk the bullet will go through until it hits the tough, elastic hid on the other side and that is where we find it. Typically this bullet will hit, the front core will expand and then slough off, creating secondary missiles, and when we find the bullet it will weigh some sixty percent of the original weight.

For decades the Nosler Partition was the best bullet in the hunting fields for rifles in the 2800-3100 fps range. During that time there were some attepts to improve on the performance of the Partition. These mostly were attempts to bond the core to the jacket. This kept the weight of the bullet closer to the original weight. We went through a period where hunters weighed their recovered bullets and started talking about how a bullet that weighed "only" ninety percent of original weight a failure, Even though they dug that bullet out of a dead critter.

Now if it matters you can buy the Swift A-Frame bullet in place of the Nosler Partition. The A-Frame is basically the Partition with the front core bonded to the jacket. This means that the only weight the A-frame loses is lead that is gouged away as the bullet punches through bone. Seeing as how the older Partition kills critters dead, I'm not sure I care but then, everybody doesn't ask me.

Several companies are now making bonded bullets. Swift is making a bullet called the Sirocco. This is a bonded bullet with a plastic tip (more on that in a minute). Hornady has their Interbond, Norma has the Oryx. All these bullets are pretty much the same, their idea is deep penetration.

There is another fairly new (we're told) idea, the plastic tip in a hollow point on a bullet. These plastic tips allege to solve two problems, they keep the tip of the bullet sharp, for a bullet that cuts through the air better. this flattens trajectory, making hits easier at longer ranges. Then when the bullet hits the plastic tip pretty much stops, not having much mass. The bullet keeps going so the tip starts the bullet expanding. This is great for light big game at extended distance. Trouble is, Remington did this decades ago with their Bronze Point ammo.

The major difference between Nosler's Ballistic Tip and Remington's Bronze Point is that the Noslers are made with different jackets for the various bullets. Noslers small caliber Ballistic Tips are varmnint bullets. They "explode" in small critters. The bigger bullets have thicker jackets and just expand.

Sierra makes these plastic tipped in the varmint calibers and Hornady has the V-Max, plus the A-Max, a target bullet with a plastic tip. Target bullets are a whole 'nother story. Nobody much cares how a target bullet penetrates, it's only job is to penetrate a piece of paper. My target/varmint rifle can put five shots into a quarter to a half inch with great regularity as long as the loose nut behind the butt plate is doing his part. Yet those groups would lose a benchrest match.

The new big thing in hunting bullets are the lead free bullets. These bullets are a big deal now because of the war on lead. Seems the California Condors are dying out. They've been dying out since I was born, now the claim is lead poisoning. The anti-lead people say that the Condors are eating dead critters with lead fragments. Now far be it from me to disbelieve folks but the anti-lead folks I've seen sure look like anti-gun people. I'm pretty sure it's the same bunch with the newest line. Consider that the Condor doesn't live in varmint country. So the shot critters the Condor could eat are big game, deer, and black bear mostly. We try real hard to recover those so there aren't that many lead fragments. I suspect the Condor are really going because their habitat is filling up with Californians.

At any rate the lead free bullets are the next big thing. I strongly suspect that they will be all we can buy by the end of the Obama Administration.This wouldn't be so bad except for the cost. Fifty bullets (not whole cartridges, just the bullets for handloading) cost some forty bucks. Some are thirty bucks for twenty. these are .30 caliber for a general hunting rifle. The big bullets for an African rifle are even more expensive.

The big company making lead free bullets, Barnes, also has a lead free varmnint bullet. This is a thin jacket hollow point with the base filled with powdered metal. This bullet blows up going through a grape. Killing crop eating ground squirrles or prairie dogs is easy, the bullet blows up in the little critter, the little critter blows up into red mist, the ground around is fertilized. And no lead poisoning for the Condor that do not live in ground squirrel and Prairie Dog country. Everyone wins but the shooters.

Of course all this talk about bullets may just be about over. If my suspicions are correct we'll be first hit with a prohibition against lead bullets, like the no lead shot for shotguns around waterfowl. Next will be a five hundred percent tax on this new ammo. The Second Amendment says we have to have guns. It doesn't say anything about affordable ammo.

Now handguns are a different story. The jacketed hollowpoints make a big hole, for a very deep hole you want a blunt hardcast lead alloy bullet. Very few jacketed soft points expand at common pistol velocities although some of the hand cannons will. Say anything bigger than a .454 Casull Mag. The geneal rule for handguns is jacketed hollow points for self defense, hardcast lead for hunting.

Dude, We're Getting A Dell!

Our very old laptop computer gave up the ghost last night. It just sits there making grinding noises and trying to boot up. Consider that we bought this machine some time before we moved out here near the lake in April '98 it probably was just plain worn out.

At any rate we ordered a new Dell with lots of extra stuff, blue tooth stuff for Linda Lou's phone, photoshop and some other stuff. Did you know that we had to order a telephone modem in a new computer? Seems that city people don't need a modem anymore, it's now those fast things that STILL haven't got our here. Oh, we can get some satellite thing for a hundred dollars a month but no DSL yet. This is the price one pays for not knowing what kind of music the neighbors listen to, I reckon.

Anyhow I won't be around much until after the new computer gets here, Linda Lou doesn't much like me sitting in her chair, at her computer desk. She has everything arranged just so.

Please do not think I will get the new computer, though, I will get the E-Machine from out here. If I use the proper combination of bribes and begging I might be able to use Photoshop once in a while though. Note: Please do not make any remarks about how this or that brand is better. Too late. I have read where Dell has had a few complaints about customer service. Well, these E-Machines have the worst customer service I've ever heard of, I can put up with Texas lefties from Austin (aka the Berkeley of the Plains). The Red Chinese are even worse.

Update: I fixed the laptop, sorta. Seein' as how I had nothing to lose I took the cover off the cooling fan of the laptop and blew the foo out of it with canned air. I put the cover back on and it sort of works now. I'm pretty sure that it's still on it's last legs because it's making all kinds of noises that it's not supposed to. And it will suddenly start going and going with the four lights lit and the stupid hourglass on the screen when nobody told it to do anything.

If it just lasts 'til the new one gets here...The exciting thing is that I managed to pull the panel off and put it back on without losing anything or giving my moustache an Afro from shocking myself.

Sectional Density And Bullet Penetration.

The other day I made an offhand comment on another blog, Pamibe's if it matters, about using heavy for caliber bullets. This, unbeknown by me, started a bit of an argument over what I was talking about. I keep forgetting that most people, even most shooters, aren't ballisticians.

Ballistics has nothing to do with the scene on cop shows where they find a gun or a bullet and say "take it to ballistics", that is forensics. Ballistics is the science of the moving bullet, divided up it to three parts, interior, exterior and terminal. Interior ballistics is the science of what happens between the time the primer pops until the bullet exits the muzzle of the barrel. This is all acceleration and pressure. We care about that because if we have too much pressure the shootin' iron might blow up or the bullet might go too slow to do anything useful. Or, for that matter, go so fast it blows up in midair.

Terminal ballistics is what happens when the bullet hits the target. In many ways this is the hardest part of ballistics because there are so many variables. Impact velocity, bullet weight, bullet shape, bullet material, how thick the bullet jacket, hardness of the bullet core, how stable the bullet is, the media that the bullet hits, etc, etc, etc.

One of the most important things to know in ballistics the the sectional density of the bullet. This number is a simple equation, the bullet weight in pounds divided by the square of it's diameter in inches. So, a 180 grain .30 caliber bullet is .0.0257143 of a pound. So we divide that by .008992 and get .270. Actually we just look in the loading manual where this has already been done.

In the days before the fancy new bullets like the Swift A-Frame and the Barnes Triple Shock or even John Nosler's Partition, the first of those new ones, first made in 1949, the only way to increase bullet penetration was to increase bullet weight in that same caliber. Roughly speaking any two bullets of the same shape, construction and velocity, with similar sectional densities will penetrate the same distance.

For instance a .270 Winchester 130 grain bullet has roughly the same sectional density as a 165 grain .30 caliber bullet. The .270 is .242, the .30 is .248. This is why that famed gunwriter Jack O'Conner loved the .270. If the same critter were shot with both bullets they would each penetrate the same distance, only the .270 wouldn't kick as much.

Until hunters forgot how to stalk game the class of the hunting fields used moderate velocity, heavy-for-caliber bullets.WDM "Karamojo' Bell, the famous old ivory hunter slew bazillions of elephant with the old 7 mm Mauser and 6.5 mm MS. The long solid bullets penetrated just as well as the elephump guns. They left the guns at the same velocity as those big bores, about 22-2400 feet per second. Bell kept a big gun handy in case he had to stop a big critter but mostly he snuck up and popped a bull in the brain. This, of course, before the idiot environmentalists got in the game. Now, instead of Jumbo being a valuable resource he is a pest. Where before a Jumbo would add thousands in trophy fees, plus each ne feeding entire villages, they are poached, with no trophy fees for the governments, most of the meat rotting. Oh well, it makes liberals feel good. But I digress.

I shall look through the Speer loading manual at bullets with an SD of about .240-.250, each will penetrate similarly. The 100 grain 6mm bullet, the 155 .257 bullet, the 120 grain 6.5 or .264 bullet, by the way, those fine old 160s will still hit today and pentrate 'til a week from Tuesday, the .270 130 grain mentioned above. A 140 grain 7mm bullet, but if you want to drive really deep, the 175 grain works well.

Another aside, if I were wanting a hunting rifle that would take anything on this continent (except for Grizzly and Brown Bear in heavy cover where they might bite) and didn't want to be kicked silly by recoil I'd want a Seven mm Mauser or .280 Winchester and load the Hornady 175 grain round nose soft point to around 2400 fps and limit my shots to 200-250 yards.

Anyhow, the list goes on, the fine 165 grain .30 caliber, the 170 grain of the old .32 Winchester Special, the 200 grain .338 for those that want to use a moose and bear gun for deer, a 220 grain .35, the 235 grain .375, and the 350 grain .458. If we assume that all else is equal, each of these bullets will drive about the same distance through similar mediums, whether that be flesh, bone, old newspapers, ballistic gelatin, etc. A number that sticks in my head from my teens is that the original WW1 service load for the 1903 Springfield is that those old .30 caliber solids would penetrate sixty-one inches of pine board. Kind of plays the fool of the old cowboy or war movies with folks hiding behind a wooden wagon or empty barrel. Five feet of pine boards, space an inch or so apart. That was a 172 grain solid back in the day when the fastest such a bullet could go was maybe 2650 fps.

Handgun bullets, being shorter than rifle bullets of the same caliber, have lower SDs. My two favorites the .357 and the .45s have SDs ending at about .180. for the standard heavy bullets. I load a six shot .357 revolver with the 125 grain Federal hollowpoints when I'm loading for serious business. My little five shot Ruger SP101 gets a handload, 5.1 grains of Bullseye for an average of 1007 fps with the Speer or Hornady swaged lead semiwadcutter hollowpoint. Note, I live where my DA only cares about why you shoot someone, I've read of jurisdictions where it is financial suicide to shoot a bad guy with a handload.

For my .357 Carbine I like the Hornady 158 grain XTP hollowpoint. I've never had one stay inside our smallish Texas Whitetails, no matter the angle. I keep thinking about trying the 180 grain Remington hollowpoints but then I get distracted and forget to buy some on the rare occasions I have any money. The SD of the 125 grain .357 is .140. At full velocity a good hollowpoint will seldom exit a grown man. The soft point will. The old Remington medium velocity 125 grain hollowpoint, at about 1000 fps from a four inch revolver actually penetrated a little further than the full steam loads at 1450 fps. The bullets expanded more with the hot loads so, pushing a larger frontal area they lose steam a lot quicker.

In my .45 Colts I use the same bullet weight in all my guns, 250-255 grain. The difference is, in my handguns I shoot softcast or swaged lead bullets at standard velocities, about 8-900 fps. My rifle shoots those loads well, for play. At a cowboy action shoot those loads ring the steel of the targets just fine. A slight sight adjustment bring up the hot loads, though. A max load of Hodgdon's Lil Gun or Hodgdon's H110 will fling a 250 grain Hornady XTP hollowpoint out the muzzle at close to 2,000 fps. Now that is very close to the old Trapdoor Springfield Cavalry Carbine Ballistics, lower velocity with the Springfield of course, with a heavier bullet.

These days bullet weight is not as important as it used to be, todays fancy bullets penetrate as deeply as the old heavy bullets. John Nosler invented his Partition bullet after the failure of an old cup and core bullet failled in his .300 H&H Magnum. Today a 130 grain Barnes .30 will penetrate like a 165 grain cup and core jacketed lead bullet. The thing is, those fancy bullets not only cost a lot but they are very much attuned to impact velocity. You can't hardly drive a Barnes fast enough to hurt anything but if the velocity is too low they just pencil right through. With the old bullets the bullet weight is always there. If the critter is too big for a 150 grain .30, those critter will fall with a 220 grain soft point.

 Update: I just noticed that comment about Terminal vs. exterior ballistics. Semper fi guy is correct, I don't know how I made that silly mistake, except that I usually write these posts in a house full of dogs and a wife, distracting me. I shall leave that comment, he's not quite correct though. I ain't all that nice.

Avast, Ye Scurvy Pirates!

Here is another thing I don't understand...Last I heard we had literally thousands of semi-obsolete 20 mm. and 40 mm light antiaircraft guns. It would cost pennies to mount those guns on merchant vessels, put small Navy crews on them, or train the civilian crews. There is nothing particularly difficult to mount those guns for close range surface engagements.

Anybody want to guess what would happen if a 40 mm flak shell explodes over one of those Somali pirate speedboats? Or a half-dozen explosive 20 mm rounds?

For that matter, The Dillon people out in Arizona sell brand new electric miniguns. The put out six thousand rounds per minute. A one second burst would put a thousand 7.62 NATO rounds into a small craft. Instant floating debris and small oil slick.

We also probably have hundreds, if not thousands, of five inch dual purpose Naval Rifles sitting on mothballed Navy Ships. Just in case the pirates choose to go with bigger ships.

When I was in the Service I spent time on several sorts of troopships, as a matter of fact I sailed across the whole Pacific Ocean on LSD. (Landing Ship. Dock.) This old WW2 ship had 20s, 40s and five inch thirty-eights. Nothing much could get too close to that old tub without a fight. Plus, of course, the shootin' irons of the Battalion of Marines aboard. Of course we weren't allowed to have ammo. I suspect as many as five or six guys actually obeyed that rule.

During WW2 merchant ships were armed as a matter of course. Matter of fact, merchant vessels carried cannon from the invention of cannon to about WW1, without government permission.

So, with thousands of various kins of naval weaponry sitting on mothballed ships, costing money to keep from rusting away, why can't anyone but me figure out what to do about pirates?