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Posted on 08/07/2007 7:52:15 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!
Sing hey! for the bath at close of day
That washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he that will not sing:
O! Water Hot is anoble thing!
O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain.
and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better than rain or rippling streams
is Water Hot that smokes and steams.
O! Water cold we may pour at need
down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed;
but better is Beer, if drink we lack,
and Water Hot poured down the back.
O! Water is fair that leaps on high
in a fountain white beneath the sky;
but never did fountain sound so sweet
as splashing Hot Water with my feet!
That's amusing that your nephew had been working with 512MB.
I find it less than amusing, since "everybody knows" us Boomers can't even set the clock in their VCRs, much less understand anything about computers.
His head has been stuffed with math and engineering. I just have to find extra room to instruct him on some of the more vital aspects of life, such as weapons and computers. I still have high hopes that he will turn out all right.
You found a spot that had dirt six feet deep, on your place?
:-)
Can’t set the clock in the VCR? That flashing 12:00 is a CLOCK?!?!? Cool.
He probably just ate something he shouldn’t. I would talk to the vet just to be sure.
First are two US military proof rounds, one in 7.62 NATO, the other in 30-06. A standard 7.62mm ball round is shown for comparison.
The cartridge cases are tin-plated for identification. The proof round typically generates 150% of maximum working pressure, and is intended as the critical test of a new weapon. Ammo companies do not like letting these rounds get out of their control. A good rifle might survive several proof firings, but it's flirting with disaster. Once is enough.
Next is an ultra-rare item, an unopened box of .45ACP M12 shotshell rounds. These were developed during WW2 as survival ammunition for .45 users. They are so rare, I couldn't find an image, and I wasn't about to open the sealed box.
The round could not work the action, and was intended to be fed directly into the barrel. It was a last-ditch vey short-range hunting round. Since I couldn't find an example, I included a couple of M9 .45ACP blank rounds. Again, blanks cannot cycle the weapon's action unless various tricks are played. Blanks are also not to be trifled with.
There was enough interest in .45ACP shotshells that some twisted genius invented an improved version about 30 years ago, and convinced RCBS to produce a loading die set, along with a detailed article in the NRA's American Rifleman. The first step involved trimming and forming once-fired .308 rifle brass into the basic cartridge shape. Then came the agonizing steps of making a shot capsule out of a plastic .410 shotshell wad, loading it, and topping it off with a home-made over-shot wad. I say "agonizing" because I made 100 rounds that way (and probably still have 95 in the back of some cabinet somewhere).
The round on the right is the finished hand-loaded product, while the one on the left is a commercial aluminum-cased version, for those people sane enough to buy this rather than spend a small fortune (a complete set of dies today runs almost $200) just for the tooling. I'm not sure if the commercial version is still on the market. The aluminum case usually splits on firing, assuring nobody will try to reload it. Aluminum is also cheaper than brass, and less likely to be declared a "strategic metal".
Surprisingly, these modern shotshells will reliably operate a M1911-type handgun, and can feed properly from the magazine. They still suffer from all the other limitations of the original, though. Nobody was more surprised than me when the things actually worked the first time out.
I still can't find an image of the WW2 .45 hunting shotshell, but I found one of the XM261, which was used for hunting Viet Cong in tunnels. It has 16 larger pellets embedded in a sabot, rather than smaller bird shot in a cup. It was a short-range killer, but apparently never made it beyond the experimental stage. It did function properly in the M1911.
The last item I really did find in the back of a cabinet. Three boxes, to be precise. Most of the stuff I write about I have at least a vague idea of its existence. But this one took me totally by surprise. It's the box of .38 Spl on top, with the FMJ .38s from last week below it.
Judging by the nomenclature on the box, this seems something made up for the Air Force. It fires the very light 130-grain bullet, as opposed the the standard 203 grain next to it. It was made in 1979, as opposed to the M41, which has a date of 1974.
It also has an extremely heavy crimp on the case mouth, and below the bullet. This tells me it was intended to be fired in the ultra-lightweight S&W snubbies the Air Force issued pilots in those days (actually, since the 1950s, but who knows how many they still had in the 1970s?).
The problem then was the same one faced today in super-lightweight .38s, like 12-ounce titanium revolvers. The light bullet does not have enough inertia to keep it seated under the heavy recoil of a light handgun. Fire one round, and the other bullets start to creep forward. After a couple of shots, one of the remaining bullets has moved forward enough to protrude past the front of the cylinder, locking up the weapon.
I saw an example of this at the gun shop, where they had a display of their own attempts to beat this problem. No matter how strongly they tried to crimp the bullets, they all started to creep forward as the first round was fired. That's why there is a warning with all these ultralights to NOT use bullets under a certain weight in them. You can't get around the laws of physics.
Good morning, Mr. Winmag! I couldn’t sleep. My backside is sore, my stomach needed a zantac, I was having a hot flash.
Might as well get up and balance the checkbook.
Pretty good day yesterday.
Had friends' kids over Friday night while the parents went to "get in the hot tub" (wink wink). Watched The Day the Earth Stood Still and ET, played Monopoly.
Next morning, made pancakes and eggses with cheese (ugly omelets), and went and got the fiancy.
Back home, had a retired pastor in to do our first-of-six pre-wedding counsellings, then took the kids outside to demolish ("winterize") my flower beds and clear awa' some of the first of thousands of leaves that will fall in the next month.
Took kids to the groshry to pick out eighth-of-a-pound bags of Jelly Belly beans (thank you, President Reagan!), took the fiancy and kids to their homes, and went to hit the couch for a bit.
Went and picked up the fiancy again around four and went to a Sunday School picnic on a classmate's farm. The kids and their much-refreshed (wink wink) folks were there, and some month-old kittens and a two-month-old lab puppy were there to be fawned over.
Half an hour until time to go pick up the fiancy and yet another batch of kids to go to church.
Walgreen's has generic Icy Hot in a stick form (like deodorant) that we like, and you don't get it all over your hands.
Heh....pretty old. I guess I shouldn’t be using up a collector’s item?
Hmmmm....I don’t see an expiration date....
It’s probably so old that it was manufactured prior to the time expiration dates were required. LOL
It still smells and feels like menthol gel...
I was just funnin’ you.
;-)
Heh. Guess I’ll finish my coffee and try to get some fertilizer out between wind gusts.
Back from Gypsy’s walk, it is ‘gusty’ out there. walked through the ‘People’s Plaza’ on the way back through town. In an effort to enrich our otherwise culturally deprived existance the city and it’s art commission has decreed that there will be a traveling art exhibit placed out in the people’s plaza. We’ve had a rusty metal fish (kinda cool), a stylized Cadillac emblem, and now we have a trebuchet with little cherubs climbing on it. The trebuchet is made out of landscape timbers and cast iron pipe. The art commission made the artist chain the arm in place so we couldn’t test it by flinging stuff at city hall.
Off we go to finish the joe-pye and rose-of-sharon clipping, pruning, and if we’re lucky and wind dies down a bit, get some fertilizer down.
Sorry bout that, meant to ping you all - Corin for the art part and the rest of the usual suspects for old timey weaponry. :-)
Well I got the fertilizer out. Wonder if I should move some plants or wait until spring. This warm weather can’t last forever.
Oh. I bought a runner to put in front of the front door so that I won’t get snow boot mess on the wood floor this winter. (Now watch us not get any snow this year.) It’s made of seagrass and when I took it out of the box (got it from Overstock.com) it reeked of seagrass (I suppose). It still reeks so I have it outside in the wind gusts. Hope the smell is gone before the sun goes down.
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