Posted on 09/23/2009 6:19:16 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!
That’s not good news at all...
Sigh, well, hope springs eternal...
July 3rd - fireworks seem to have abated momentarily. There were 20 fireworks stands in town this year. Business must have been good.
It’s been pretty quiet here tonight...there were more booms last night.
It looks like rain the rest of the weekend. Wonder if it’ll be dry long enough for me to get some ribs grilled.
Well guys here is a comment from Sir Ian McKellan, on TheOneRing.Net: ‘Sir Ian talks a bit about The Hobbit in this clip from TVNewZealand. He expects an announcement imminently, but states if it doesn’t happen soon – he may not do the film as he has other things planned.’
GAAKK!
Cool little camera!
Seems strange that MGM would delay on two movies that would be sure successes!
Among my semiautos that fire .308, I have lots of loose ammo, and no way to bulk load for the HK91, DPMS SASS, or M1A, although I have the LULA for M14 magazines. While buying other stuff from Cheaper Than Dirt, I decided to gamble $20 on a "universal" loader for this caliber.
This chicom product uses proprietary ten-round stripper clips to hold the ammo, and a guide that sits on top of the magazine. Slide in a clip, crunch down with the T handle, and, if lucky, ten rounds are nicely seated. A vey strong magnet at the top the the T then pulls out the empty stripper clip. The darn thing actually works as advertised for all three types of magazines.
I have 60 stripper clips (50 cents apiece), and it's a real PITA to load the loose rounds onto them. (Oh, and GI 5-round stripper clips won't work.) But once that's done, I have an "intermediate product" that can quickly load any of the three different types of magazines I use. Between a thousand rounds of loose ammo, and a few thousand more that come in cardboard boxes of 20, I'll be refilling these stripper clips about as fast as I empty them, rather than face all those individual rounds.
Another way to handle 7.62mm NATO ammo is to put it into 50-round drums for the HK91/G3. The biggest problem is that these drums are almost extinct, and can cost over $4K if they can be found at all. American ingenuity, and CNC machining, has brought us a $400 clone, currently on sale for $260. This is pretty steep, but close to the price of the Beta Cmag for the M16.
Here it is, along with a new-style GI first aid pouch, which I found out makes a good mag pouch for the beast.
It's machined from solid aluminum, with the winding wheel on the front being the major plastic piece. When taken apart for cleaning/lube (only dry powder, I'm using powdered moly), we see the pair of scrolls that keep the rounds in a spiral.
The spring mechanism is in the front, under the winding wheel, and the instructions warn of vey series consequences if you mess with it.
The magazine seems deceptively easy to load. With spring tension low, the first few rounds go in easily as you wind up just enough of the spring to let the next round slip on top of the previous one. The loading gets tougher with the more rounds you have loaded, because the spring is now almost completely compressed. Holding the magazine still also becomes a problem as the spring pressure increases. The last few rounds are real bears.
Unloading the magazine (rather than shooting off the contents) is a reverse of the loading chore, with another "gotcha" to worry about.
You start by putting even more tension on the winding spring, in order to release pressure on the top round. It should just fall out with a bit of a push. But you're holding back the other 49, and you have to slowly release tension so that one round at a time falls out.
The scrolls are deep enough to hold the cartridge up to the shoulder, and a bit of the base. That leaves plenty of free space for rounds to fall out of the spiral if they have no tension on them.
If you're lucky, you can rattle the round back into position while restoring the tension. Unlucky, and you have to risk taking the magazine apart with some rounds still in the spiral, and some loose.
In my case, it happened on the last few rounds, so there was no real spring tension to worry about when I took it apart and just removed the offenders.
The bad news is that this type of magazine is tricksey to load and unload. The good news is, you can do a lot of shooting once you load it.
Here's my setup for medium-range sod poodle control. With a loaded drum weighing 5 pounds (almost the same exact weight as the 5.56mm Cmag double drum holding 100 rounds), this is the kind of 25-pound setup that invites you to pitch a beach umbrella over it, open a cold drink, and just wait for targets.
The manufacturer also promises future versions for M14, M16, and AR10 magazine configurations. So start saving, and start on those wrist exercises.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned how much I appreciate your gunnage reports. While I remain bereft of any significant bullet-launchers, your weekly entries have given me food for thought about “the next one”.
A most excellent report on the care and feeding of multiple magazines. The drum version, albeit pricey, has a serious way cool factor.
On the opposite end of the rifle spectrum, a good time was had by all at the club range. Flintlocks rock.
Happy Independence Day to One and All.
I would much appreciate it if you’d keep me in the loop on those future drum mags! :-)
Awww....aren’t they cute?!
Well the rain held off long enough for me to get these ribs done. Problem is....Cubz baseball. ~Sip~
Will do. As far as the 100-round dual-drum M16-type, the Korean Victor brand seems like a good deal at about $140, considering the Beta brand can sometimes hit $270.
Just remember how expensive "cheap" magazines were once, and could become again. I'm already reading "legal scholars" who say the Second Amendment only protects guns as they existed on the day of ratification, and nothing else.
New modes of "speech" are, however, always protected, except when they're not.
Well, that rainstorm sure put a damper on the fireworks. The die-hards are still at it. Just saw on the news that Riverfest ‘the show must go on’ and they fired ‘em off.
Jackson Silver is a right patriotic ol’ cat. Reminds me of Abby.
We were assessing Sam’s health this week, had a couple of rough nights. The conversation led to some joking that went a little too far and upset Luke when he thought about Abby. Oops.
Sam’s hanging in there with pain meds and Rimadyl. But we’re definitely on the downhill slope.
On that cheerful note...Happy Independence Day All!
Jackson has been elevated to house cat status (from basement cat) since summer has come on with a vengence. He is a perfect gentleman, especially considering he has never ~lived~ in a house before, just the officeacrossthestreet and our basement.
We’re sure sorry to hear about Sam’s health. I think we’ve been dealing with Gypsy’s problem’s as long as you have Sam’s. About a year, right? It sure is draining on a person.
Gypsy’s anorexia just drives us nuts; she gave us a break tonight and had a piece and a half of barbeque pizza. She’s never going to get better, we’re just trying to keep her from getting worse. She still loves her walks and is interested in the world at large, so that’s good. I get the distinct impression from our western-medicine vet that he thinks we’re crazy doing the acupuncture and chinese herbs, but western medicine had absolutely nothing to offer her.
LSA
Poor Gypsy! And it looks like she’ll have a wet walk today.
No outside work today...oh well.
Celebrate the 4th with a fifth!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.