Irenicon

OK, that's enough Rainbow Unicorn awesomness for now. Here's sa pic from Salt lake City instead. I like the covered malls downtown and think it's a neat use of space.

Speaking of which, everyone seems happy in the mallspace. Perhaps that's because they're rich, or they haven't checked the prices, or maybe they're just happy to be knocking about.

Whatever the case, have a blessed Sunday.

I'm off to church.

LSP

It's Pentecost, Install A New Trigger

I get it it,  every Sunday's a Feast Day, but some Feasts stand out, like Pentecost. Some celebrate the descent of the Spirit upon the Apostles by BBQing Porterhouse steaks, and I like that. But for me, celebrating the Feast means installing a new trigger in an AR 15, a Hipertouch EDT (Enhanced Duty Trigger).

It isn't hard. Unscrew the deadly pistol grip, making sure that you don't lose the fire control detent, remove the safety selector and grip. Tap out the pins that hold the old, rubbish, clunky, creepy trigger in place and remove it.

Look at the lower receiver and give it a quick clean with an oily rag; remember, a clean gun is a happy gun. Then look at the Hipertouch instructions and see if all the parts that are supposed to come with the kit actually do. 

Satisfied, put trigger, disconnector spring, and disconnector together, aligning the holes in the receiver, the trigger, and the disconnector so that you can drive a supplied pin through all and hold the mechanism in place. Hipertouch supplies a drift pin, which comes in very handy.

Trigger in place, install the hammer, first fitting a 4.5 lb or a 5.5 lb spring to it; I opted for the lighter pull. Then simply position the hammer in the receiver and pin it in place. 

And that's it, congratulations, you have a new trigger in your deadly assault rifle, making it that much more deadlier. But seriously, does the Hipertouch EDT work? 

Yes it does, as described, "Single Stage Pull is Smooth, Flat, Fast & Precise." Does it have "Lightning Quick Reset"? Fast enough and a big improvement over the stock CMMG trigger that used to live in the receiver. Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes I would, the Hipertouch EDT is what it claims to be, an enhanced duty trigger, which is light and crisp without being a dangerous liability. Is it tactical? Sure it is, all the way to the nearest range and beyond. Cost effective, too, at around $90.

Long story short. If you're fixing to celebrate Pentecost by upgrading your stock AR 15 trigger, you could do a whole lot worse than the Hipertouch EDT. LL, who has forgotten more about shooting than I will ever know, vouches for it.

So get one, if you like, and watch your groups improve. All this is banned in places like England and Connecticut, where the Rainbow Nanny rules and ISIS laughs.

Your Pal,

LSP

Deadly Assault Carbine Got Even More Deadlier, Installing the Fortis Hand Guard

Sometimes you look at your deadly black assault carbine and think, "I know, this gun's got to get more deadly, much more deadly." Inspired by this vision of the future you go out and get a new hand guard. In my case, this meant getting a Fortis Switch 556 12 keymod system.

Obey the System

Why? In the first place, keymod fore-ends are practical because you can attach items to the rifle without the extra weight and profile of multiple rails. Why Fortis? Because their system is lightweight, robust, easy to install and in-budget. The hand guard simply clamps into place over the supplied barrel nut without the need to index the gas tube assembly to the nut. At least that's the marketing. What's the reality?

Exactly as described. After removing my old Yankee Hill free float tube, the new barrel nut torqued onto the receiver without a hitch, the gas tube went into place above it and the hand guard worked as advertised. I eyeballed the guard's top rail with the receiver and liked the snug fit, there's negligible space between the two.

The gas tube doesn't need indexing with the barrel nut

Then, to clamp the hand guard into place, simply close the proprietary Fortis mechanism's lever  90 degrees until it clicks into place and... that's it. Absurdly easy to install and as described, it's robust, lightweight and well made.

Line up the hand guard with the receiver

Would I recommend the Fortis Switch to a friend. Yes, I most certainly would. Is it easy to install? It comes with instructions, I'm not sure they're necessary. Is it tactical? Look, it's black, what more do you want. Does it work?  I should say so! Is it affordable? Yes, cheap at half the price.

Clamp Down!

So go out and get yourself a Fortis hand guard, if you want, and I don't think you'll be disappointed. This version has the following specs:

Material: Aircraft Grade 6061-T6 Aluminum / Locking handle: 7075-T6 Aluminum

Length: 12.42”

Weight: 8.5 ounces minus barrel nut. Barrel nut is 1.6oz.

Internal Diameter: 1.34"

Continuous Top Rail

Rotation Limited QD Sockets

Keymod at the 3, 6, & 9 o'clock

Mil. Spec. Hard-coat Anodized

4140 heat treated barrel nut (1-7/16 X 16 T.P.I.)

A whole lot deadlier, thanks, Fortis

It's made in the USA too, and that's a bonus.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Russel Brand, Millionaire Socialist

Here's a picture of U.K. megastar celebrity, Russell Brand, climbing into a private jet. Russel Brand is a socialist. 

That is all.

LSP

Cooking, With LSP

You can't cook with LSP, you mutter, darkly. Ah, but you can, and this is how it's done. Get a rifle, maybe a .270, a 30-06, or a .303, even a 5.56 will do, whatever, and go out and shoot a ferocious hog. Smaller is better.

Paint the Deck, LSP

Turn the vicious tusker into spicy sausage. That done, slice up the meat into patties and put it in a frying pan. Smile contentedly as you dial up the heat, and watch that sausage fry, filling your house with the delicious smell of sizzling wild pig.

Serve it up with eggs, any style you like, and mushrooms, or with nothing at all, there's no rule. Then say grace and eat your meal like a warrior.

And that's cooking, with...

LSP

Big Brother and the Holding Company

Big Brother, or Big Nanny, wants to get hold of even more bullets, with the Department of Homeland Security looking to purchase 62 million rounds of .223 ammunition. 

This follows the DHS's 2013 purchase order of 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, which lead to nationwide shortages of popular calibers, especially .223 and 5.56, which are used in AR 15 rifles. It also comes after the ATF's failed attempt to ban M855 ammo earlier this year. 

Could it be that Big Brother wants to hold all the ammo so that you can't, effectively doing a home run around the 2nd Amendment? Surely not. The DHS needs all those bullets and the Administration doesn't want to stop you owning a gun. Except that it does. 

1.6 billion rounds is estimated, by Iraq War standards, to be enough for a 20 year shooting war.

It's all conspiracy theory until it's conspiracy fact, my friends.

LSP

Sunday Night at the Compound

Its a pretty regular Sunday evening here at the Compound, cleaning guns, listening to marching songs on the jukebox, and frying up steak and eggs on the grill.

Blue M4 doesn't care, all he thinks about is "eye relief," "doping the wind," and "MOA." And food. He ate a block of cheese the other day, which I'd left out on the counter to get to room temp. I was looking forward to that cheese.

You're getting dangerously close to the edge, my furry friend.

God bless,

LSP

Pumpkin Shoot.

Exhausted by the seriousness of First Things, I headed off to the range with some rifles, a pistol and some pumpkins. Nothing complicated; set up the pumpkins and shoot them with the guns. That was my plan.

And that's what I did. I was going to name the pumpkins, Old Tory, Little Lib, Rural Dean, etc. very funny. But I didn't.

I just shot them with an AR 15, a .45, a .22 and a 30-06.

The 06, an old Remington 700 ADL, dealt out furious damage, blasting great chunks out of the hapless Halloween ornaments and I was pleased to see my scope was pretty much dead on. The other guns worked fine too, but for sheer drop the pumpkin down power the 30-06 was a stand-out winner.

So I learned something today. If you go up against pumpkins, take a 30-06 to the fight. You'll win.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Why America's Not Ready For Ebola

Because nothing says 'safety precautions' like rolled-up sleeves on a HazMat suit...

Thanks, ZeroHedge, for that.

And while we're at it, how's our "boots on the ground" war on Ebola doing, as ISIS savages close in on Baghdad?

According to one military source, "The 5.56 caliber round is comparatively small. Ideally suited to engaging a small but deadly virus."

Stock food and water, buy ammo, learn to ride. If you haven't done these things already.

That's my advice and I'm sticking to it.

LSP

Ranching

Children of the Sun

This small "kebob stand on the information superhighway" (thx. MCP) is supposed to be about country life in Texas, among other things. Part of that means ranching, or in my case visiting them. I had an invite to one the other day -- just a whole lot of fun driving around on an area about a third of the size of the Isle of Wight. Perhaps because of the red soil and the light it reminded me of Africa. Beautiful. The illusion was made all the better by various "Boks" and assorted exotics.

Where's Karen Blixen?

But did you shoot any hogs, LSP? I hear you ask. Well, I tried. The ranch foreman kindly drove our small shooting party around in a sturdy 4x4 and put us on top of a small herd of swine moving through the brush. Embarrassingly, no one scored. I'll spare you the details. That catastrophe occurred after an evening's walkabout for small game. We went out with shotguns and a 22 in search of rabbits and squirrels, but there weren't any. 

Shoot the Pig

There were, however, around twelve hogs crossing our trail at around 30 yards. There they ambled, just taking it easy on their way to destroy something. And there we were, pathetically undergunned. The porcine menace passed calmly towards whatever mayhem they had planned, unscathed. To cap it off, I went for a stroll with a friend's dog on our last day. Just moving down a fence line with a river and bluffs on my left, dog going ahead; I wasn't expecting anything but took an AR along just in case there was some action. Sure enough, there was!

Ford

About 20 minutes into my armed incursion into hogspace there was some squealing, down by the river, as it were. And there, about 150 yards off, was a big pig. Maybe it caught wind of the dog, or me. Whatever, up went the AR, squeeze went the finger and... nothing! The safety was on. Off it went and my next shot echoed out, but no good. The hog was in full gallop and I missed by a couple of feet. Grrrr. That annoyed me; I know better than that. Safety off, shoot, safety on. 2nd nature, or at least it was... Next time.

Typical LSP Hunt

Then all too soon it was back to the compound, which seemed strangely industrial (which it isn't) after the wilderness.

Remember, kids, release the safety catch on your weapon when you try to shoot something.

Cheers,

LSP

I Love Shooting

Fake Shooter

I love shooting and if there was some way I could get out every day with the guns, well, I would. I enjoy the clean air country aspect of it, I like the skill of it, I like the explosive power shock and awe of it; I like the smell of the weapons and their mechanics, I like focusing on the front sight and the breathing, squeeze the trigger don't pull, bit of it. I like it all.

Real Shooter

Saying that, I'm not a desperately good shooter; just a decent average in the great scheme of things. And there's nothing wrong with that, at all.

Keep squeezing the trigger and God bless,

LSP

Oh Canada!

Don't get me wrong, I love Texas. But sometimes I get the urge to travel into the icy vastness of Canada, which is what I did on the Feast of the Holy Innocents. 

Stephen Ave - Alright By Me

I like Calgary; you can walk about downtown, go to restaurants, shops and relax under the bison head at the Hyatt bar. I always think it's a cross between England and the U.S., except of course that it's an oil and gas boomtown.

Shops

But whatever, you can also visit Pro Line Shooters in Inglewood. It's a small gun shop on 9th Ave in Inglewood, not too far from the center of town and distinguished for its barbershop. This means that you can get your hair cut and then buy a gun. Back in the day the barber was a communist called Doug and we got on well, despite divergent politics. He was a great character but died a year or so ago, may he rest in peace. They sell Sigs there, which the owner told me he didn't much like. We swapped stories of Browning Hi Powers and the force of large caliber battle rifles. He was very against the 5.56 and thought it was introduced to suit the small stature of our one time South Vietnamese friends. That was new to me.

What's that huge new NSDAP structure in the background?

Speaking of Inglewood, St. John's church, which left the bizarrely tiny ACoC (Anglican Church of Canada) to join the Roman Catholic Church, has been allowed to keep its buildings. 

If I was a betting man, which I'm not, I wouldn't have wagered my fighting monkey on the odds of that. Well done ACoC for doing the right thing. Then, all too soon, it was back to Texas and the mission field.

Fighting Monkey

Good city, Calgary. Visit if you can and say a prayer for St. John's, Inglewood. Well done them for keeping their buildings and avoiding a lawsuit.

Cheers,

LSP

Range Day

Tired of my slothful ways and full of Advent penitence, I loaded some guns into the truck, restocked on Winchester "Whitebox", thank you Walmart, and drove off to a parishioner's 150 yard range. I like it there in the middle of the countryside around Brandon and nicely secluded. Just you and the guns.

Tested out the newly refurbished .22 Higgins (tube magazine, bolt, iron sights) from 50 and 100 yards. It's feeding problems had been solved by my Waco 'smith friend and, considering a bit of rustiness on my part, shot well. A "tack driver"? In the right hands, yes, and I was pleased to see the center of the target pretty much destroyed.

range road

Then it was time for some AR fun. Proper "little heater" that carbine; after a few magazines of target practice I practiced my walk/run and shoot skills, only to discover that I didn't really have many... childish, but fun. I'm tempted to get optics for that rifle, but haven't decided on the most useful. I like the Trijicon Accupoint, or the ACOG, but dislike the price tag. Still, maybe worth saving for.

.45 followed 5.56 amusement. Total enjoyment shooting against spinners from 20-25 yards. Spent most of my effort on the dinner plate; satisfying to hear the pistol explode and see the plate swing off. Had decent success against the next size down, which surprised me because I was badly out of practice. A testament to muscle memory.

It was interesting to retrieve the rounds. After hitting the spinner they flattened off to the size of a nickel and shot off about 10 feet to my right of the target. Doubtless a moral in that if you care to draw it.

Finished off with weapons cleaning in the range's small shooting house and headed back as the sun was setting.

For me, at that moment, all was right with the world.

God bless,

LSP