Viracnis

http://delaware.backpage.com/SportsEquipForSale/1641-x-grip-magazine-spacer-1911-off-45acp-2pc/3153755     Are you looking for a spacer like that? That's not the best price I've seen on those, but not the worst either.

$15,000 bond for three and a hospital visit for one - all for $10 and an iPhone.   That's what I call a negative ROI.

  It must only be the ones that get bored - I exercise mine regularly and have never had any of these problems.

Yeah, I noticed when I got deeper into the ordering process that mine is one piece, not two like they were selling for $13.  I was all set to order the $23 one-piece replacement when I decided to get creative instead.   Figuring I was replacing it anyway, I used a tiny detail file to re-profile the extractor using the pictures I found on the web as a guide.  I didn't remove much material, just enough to make the little lip that the shell catches on a bit more pronounced and make the notch that the extractor pivots on a bit deeper, so it would ride deeper in its notch and stick out more on the bolt-side.  I'll bet I did not make more than 5-6 passes of the little file, just enough to give me about 1/32 of an inch more exposure on the "inside".   Seems to have worked wonders.  I haven't gotten to shoot it yet, but loading it up in the back yard and cycling it without firing it seems to be a big improvement.  It is actually ejecting pretty aggressively now - before the spent shells would just barely fall out when I worked the bolt, now they're firing off with a purpose.     Anything I should look out for here?  Aside from knocking my shootin' buddy unconscious with a spent shell?  Gun smith I am not (no matter what I might tell you after a few beers) - so I smeared some grease on the bolt after I made the change to check for any rubbing or contact between the extractor and the bolt that might cause excess wear, but it doesn't seem to have caused any problems.  Anything else I should check - or any better way to inspect my handiwork for potential problems?  I'd hate for this guy to survive since 1936 in the hands of some Russian farmer/soldier only to blow up at Charlie Haffner's range in the hands of a billhilly with a nail file.

After a few beers and a half hour with a screwdriver last night, I've determined the problem is with the part the diagram I have calls the "interrupting ejector".  Mine is significantly more worn than most others that I've seen in pictures on google image search.  It is the only part of the gun that shows any sign of wear, including the bore.  Strange.   Now I need to decide if it is worth the $13 + shipping to buy a new one, or just load them one at a time.

I did try filling it up sans the clip, being sure that each new round was in front of the one below it.  I still had the same problem.   What I found really strange is that I cannot replicate the issue sitting in my living room cycling the gun.  It's only when I actually fire it that it does it.  Seems to do it once or twice out of every 5 rounds loaded.   When it happens, the next round down doesn't even try to pop up to be chambered.  When the round stuck to the bolt does finally eject, though, it cycles fine.  

I wasn't sure if this should go in the Curios and Relics or down here in Troubleshooting.  If it's in the wrong place, I'm sorry.   I recently bought some surplus 7.62x54r at a gun show that came (to my surprise) preloaded on stripper clips.  Up until this point, I'd always just been loading it one at a time, so I'd never really noticed any ejection issues.  Now that I'm loading 5 at a time, though, I'm noticing that it doesn't like to eject.  I'll shoot, pull the bolt back as you'd expect, and the bolt hangs on to the brass and does not feed the next round.    When this happens, I can work the bolt back and forth a few times and eventually it will eject and the next round will load just fine - but I figured I'd post this curiosity here to see if it's something you fine folks might have seen before or if I'm better off selling the stripper clips and going back to loading one at a time?   - Viracnis

Finished the Cabinet today. Outside with the doors closed: Inside:

Dad carries everything in a Craftsman tool tote similar to the Husky one linked above.  He got it at K-Mart for about $10 and it holds 3 pistols and all his mags and cleaning supplies. Looks good and you'd never know it was gun stuff.   I carry everything in a bucket with one of those pouches that fits around the outside of it.  Pistols go in their soft cases in the bucket, anything that might leak go in the tool pockets around the inside of the bucket, patches and attachments around the outside of the bucket.  Works great, but looks a little "redneck".  I've been toying with the idea of getting one of those padded lids so I can use it as a seat.

When open carrying I'm always polite and honest - "It's a 1911CS chambered in .45ACP and I carry it for various reasons, not the least of which is to enable me to protect myself, my family and the people around me.." etc etc etc and answer any questions they have.  I consider myself to have more responsibility to be open and honest when I'm carrying openly and honestly - and for that reason I don't carry open very often.  I'm way too snarky for that.   If I'm CCing (far more frequent) it depends on my mood.  Usually they'll get the same speech I'd give when open carrying (like the fellas at the game shop that shouted across the room "HEY!  GUY WITH THE GUN!  WHAT KINDA GUN IS THAT!?") but sometimes I'll be feeling extra snarky or grumpy and they get more fun answers.  It might be because I think it's a major invasion of privacy if you notice what I'm carrying in my pants or it might just be because I don't like their tone when they ask - but I've given answers like "Gun?  No way.  Guns hurt people - that's a personal defense projectile distribution device" or "Cops are too heavy to lug around." Most recently I made a gathered crowd at a supermarket laugh when a woman caught a glimpse of old Bella when I bent over to get a heavy dog food bag out of my cart.  She said "Is that a gun?  Can you have that here?" and I replied "Yeah, it's cool I'm with the band."   In your situation, I'd probably just say "It's an extra belt loop" or something and leave them to press what it's looping to. :P  In most situations, including at work, I've found if you are just honest and say it like it's no big deal. "Oh, that's the clip to my holster.  It's tough to cover when my shirt's tucked in" or whatever might go a long way.  If you don't make a big deal out of it, they might feel silly doing it.  While I agree you don't want to draw a lot of attention to it, lying might dig your hole deeper if someone who knows what it is complains.  If you're honest and some authority figure asks you about it, you can say you have never hid the fact that you carried and you didn't think it was a big deal.  As a manager, I'm always much more likely to crack the whip on questionable behavior if they're hiding it behind lies.     - V

  Them drones're expensive.  Can't have you shootin' 'em down.

The gun/sword side is ready for stain. Dad and I are heading to the gun show tomorrow - afterward we'll probably finish up the shelves on the other side and start refinishing the whole thing.

Got the doors on the left bound together after some fiddling with the hinges to get the two doors swinging on the same path. Mocked up the pegs on one wall to see how it works - 4" on center. I think it's just about right, so I'll get the rest of the knobs and do the other two walls tonight. The Mosin fits!

  You noticed, eh?  I don't suppose you'd believe those aren't mine, that I'm just holding them for a friend?

Well, while I was working on a gun cabinet, my wife was out shopping. She's been wanting a Bersa Thunder .380 for a while, so she was supposed to head to Spring Hill Armory to pick one up. I've been pushing her to get a 9mm instead, but she hasn't seen one she liked as much as the Bersa. She came home with this instead: Taurus Millenium PT111 in 9mm. Trigger seems a little bit squishy, but other than that it seems to be a great gun. CHMR was closed today but I'll try to review it once she can get it to the range. The good news is, I won't have to worry about getting brass and dies for reloading .380 and she'll have the extra oomph of 9mm on her hip if she needs it. The best part is I finally get my 1911CS back! I didn't see any reviews of it on here - anybody have any experience with them?

My parents moved to Idaho a few years back, and one of the things I've really missed is the weekend "do-it-yourself" projects my dad and I used to get into when they lived down the road. So when dad told me they'd been in town for a few weeks for a conference, I started trying to find a fun project for us to work on. Dad could only really commit to one day - so I had to find a project that we could do pretty quickly, but I was at a loss. So this past week I was putting the Christmas decorations in the storage room and I noticed this old TV stand. It's been collecting dust (and my overwhelming collection of White Wolf books) for years - basically since we got the flat screen. The wife wanted to throw it away, but I always held out hope that I'd use it for something cool. Today was its day. After talking over the possibilities with dad, we decided to turn this old thing into a gun cabinet. Right now I don't have any way of securing my guns from kids or houseguests. So we headed to home depot early this morning and got some 3/4in maple plywood and got to work. Stuff we already did: - Fixed the doors so they actually close and stay closed properly. - Doubled up the bottom to be sure it could hold the weight - Removed the shelf from the center to make room for the guns (measured it to 5" taller than the Mosin) - Added a stabilizer down the center to hold shelves on either side and to allow me to install a lock. - Added a reinforced back. It didn't have a back before. - Added a reinforced shelf on the right side to catch the door. That shelf will hold my valet where I dump my wallet, keys, etc every day. - Added a shelf for the pistols (10" tall) on the left side. - Reattached a bunch of the molding. Replacing double-sided tape with brass screws. - Replaced the entire top, as it had some water damage from a plant my wife kept up there when it served as a TV stand. Things left to do on it next Saturday after the gun show: - Binding the doors together on the left side, to make one big door. - Install 5 more shelves on the right side - two below the one there now (for Ammo) and three above (Belts, holsters, knives). - Install the pegs that will hold the guns along the left wall. I've got some long wooden cabinet door pull handles for this. - Install the lock on the left door so I can really secure the guns from prying child hands. Things I'll probably do on my own before I put it in the house: - Put a cleat along the bottom to stop the bottom doors and hold the padding. - Stain all the new wood. Refinish (light sanding and light stain) the existing wood. - Put some rubber or felt padding in the left side floor to protect the rifle stocks. - Install battery powered lights on both sides, so I can see back onto the shelves. - Put some hooks on the inside of both doors for hanging.... stuff. - Hang something cool along the back wall. I'm thinking a big metal barn star painted red. I'll post more pictures as the project progresses.

With a lot of the canned and dry goods, if store bought and not home canned, you can donate it to different places if the expiration hasn't passed.   There's a charity closet in Columbia that my wife takes our canned goods to when they start to near the expiration.  Obviously the perfect solution would be to eat it all before it expires, but there's two of us and we pack for 4-6 plus the dog. They're happy to have it all as long as it isn't expired.  I think the donation might be tax deductible too.  The wife handles the details, so I'm not sure where it is or anything.   - Bob

I didn't see this anywhere else.  Sorry if it is a duplicate.   http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/14/my-view-if-we-love-our-children-we-need-to-protect-them/?hpt=hp_bn1   Superintendent in Texas says that his school uses a "Guardian" plan - certain staff members approved by school board and given special training are armed to protect against shootings.   I know it's an idea that's been talked about a lot lately - interesting that he's had it in effect since 2007.   - V

Mosin M38s obviously.

A dearly dense friend of mine asked me to explain the logic behind my opposition to the so-called Assault Weapons ban to him.  Because of his stance on guns the argument was going nowhere, so I changed tactics and did some quick research to present the Assault Weapons Ban logic in a slightly different light.  I thought you'd get a kick out of it:     Facts: In 2011 there were 32,267 automotive-related deaths in the United States. To put that into perspective - that's roughly 89 people dying in motor vehicle accidents each and every day or just over 10 motor vehicle deaths for every 100,000 people in the United States according to the handy chart on Wikipedia.   57% of motor vehicle accidents are caused soley by human/driver factors.  Again, thanks Wikipedia. (Note: This doesn't mean that human factors weren't involved in other wrecks - many were a combination of human and environmental factor that this % DOES NOT INCLUDE) 41 Million speeding tickets are issued each year in the United States.  These numbers came from the Department of Motor Vehicles website. According to a study at Monash University - driver/human reaction times (a leading accident-causing factor) reduce significantly as speed increases.  It was a boring read, at 60 pages long but that was the long and short of it. The dictionary (remember those?) defines a Sports Car as "a low-built car designed for performance at high speeds".   Conclusions: High speed causes reduced reaction time which causes accidents, which cause motor vehicle deaths.  In short: High Speed causes Motor Vehicle Deaths Posted speed limits are not enough to stop this threat - signs do not stop people from speeding or there would not be 41 million speeding tickets issued each year. There is no reason to own a sports car EXCEPT to drive at high speeds.  Their low passenger- and cargo- capacities make them unsuitable for daily driving or commuting.  They are literally designed to travel at high speed. If High Speed = Reduced Reaction Time = Motor Vehicle Accidents = Motor Vehicle Death then Sports Cars are designed for death. Additional Facts:   Roughly 50% of the US owns guns (between 45% and 55% depending on the study I looked at).   Roughly 75% of the US own cars (between 70% and 80% depending on what study I read) Cars were involved in 32,267 deaths in 2011. Guns were involved in 8,775 deaths in 2011 Guns were used to save 2.5 million lives in the US in 2011 I could find no data on how many lives cars had saved in 2011 Only 50% more people own cars than than in 2011 yet cars killed 367% more people than guns. Even if the numbers I found are wrong and 100% of Americans own cars - that's a 100% increase in ownership for a 367% increase in fatalities - yet I don't see anyone lobbying for Sports Car Control.  I realize there are HUGE holes in this logic - and I'm not presenting it as a serious argument to ban sports cars - but instead intended to put the argument in perspective (glaring logic holes and all).   Hopefully I got a smile out of at least someone.

To answer your question - a wave and a point (in the direction I'm headed) would be my go-to.  Smiling friendly-like probably couldn't hurt either.  Just a wave to say "Hey, I'm friendly!" and a point to say "I'm going that way, not bugging you mister!" and if they look unhappy about that, I'd probably hold up both hands and go verbal - "Hey buddy, I'm just passing through.  Must have gotten turned around.  You mind if I keep heading that way?"   As a younger adult (late teens, early twenties) I used to do a lot of hiking and camping in the hills behind my parent's house.  If I stumbled out of the woods into a farm or somebody's back yard (met the drummer to Diamond Rio that way!) I'd employ the wave-point shrug tactic.  99% of the time they'd laugh and wave me on.  Occasionally I'd get a "Boy, you must be REAL lost." A polite reply of "Yes, I sure am.  Maybe I better backtrack!" and an about-face kept me alive this long, so it must be valid - right?   Worked then, I figure it'll work come SHTF.  Keeping your gun pointed at the ground or slung low with your booger hook off the bang switch will probably also help.   I agree with those saying to Bug-In given your situation, though.  Pack away as much food and water as you can now to Bug-In until the supplies dwindle - THEN make the 80-mile treck when there's less folks Bug-ing to compete with for resources.  I figure most of the idiots will have killed themselves inside of 3 months.

Wow, it's just two parts?  Throughout the show they kept referencing future improvements and changes.     Guess they're planning on a sequel!   Yeah, Spots.  You should check it out.  It was mostly swords but worth watching.  Nothing really "instructional" as much as them showing off their work.

If it changed, it was recent.  My wife retook hers in early November (she let the certificate expire on the first one) and her target was the same size as mine from a year ago.   Her grouping was a lot smaller, though.  Must have been a defect in the paper on mine. :P

This weekend I was watching Survivorman on Science and between episodes, two episodes of "Zombie Survival" played back to back.  The description on screen called it a "New series" but I can't find it on Science Channel's website and don't see it in any future listings.   Anybody else catch this show?  They were building a Bug-out location and had experts on evaluating their defense, nutrition and other plans.  It was a little cheesy, but that's what caught my attention about it honestly.  And they were doing hand-forge work and I have a soft spot.

A TGO Hammer-In?  Am I seeing things?   I'll be there.  I've got a small propane forge that should travel reasonably easily.  I'd have to rely on the kindness of a stranger for use of an anvil, though - mine don't travel well.