Remembering Kodachrome

The New York Times took note that Kodachrome film processing ends this week. There was only one U.S. processor still handling the film and they are shutting down. The last accepted rolls had to be at Dwayne's Photo before noon today. Film manufacturing ended last year.


Taken from the bridge outside the main gate at the Subic Bay Naval Base, Olongapo City, Philippines. Looking upriver, sometime in 1980. Kodachrome 64. It was the only film I used.

Youth has no age.
--Pablo Picasso

Faith

Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.
--Kahlil Gibran

Cpl. Sean Osterman

You can find a story like this almost every day. The amazing thing about this story is how common it is. The Marine Corps finds young men like Sean Osterman and graduates a series of them every week. Sometimes they make the Marine Corps is a career. Sometimes they do a tour and gets out, seeking a different dream. And sometimes the doorbell rings, and there stand a couple of Marines in Dress Blues.

Cpl. Osterman had joined the Marines in 2007 when he was 17 under the delayed entry program. His father was a career Marine and he was proud to be following the tradition. He had already done one overseas tour and while he was home he announced plans to go to college when his enlistment was finished. Before that could happen, he had a 2nd tour to complete.

He was part of the 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, and was leading a patrol in Helmund Province when he was badly wounded. He was flown to Landstuhl Medical Center at Ramstein Air Force Base where he died of his injuries a few days later.

His mother flew to Germany, was with her son before he died, made the decision to donate his organs, and accompanied his body back to the United States.

His funeral will be at Arlington National Cemetery on January 4th, 2011.

It shows that freedom is not free, it costs a great deal. We don't get it for nothing.
--Kelly Hugo, Sean Osterman's mother

An Announcement From Oleg Volk

I used to read a forum called The High Road. If you are looking for a gun forum, with a lot of knowledgeable members and pretty good behavior, I recommend it. However, it's not called The High Road anymore, it's called Gun Rights Media. Here is a message from Oleg Volk, if you haven't already heard this news, you should update your bookmarks. If this isn't a site you've been to, here's an interesting set of sub-forums.

New: Gun Rights Media forums
Dear Friends,

I am pleased to announce that TheHighRoad.us forum is moving to http://www.gunrightsmedia.com. This new forum will preserve the threads and posts made by members here since .org and .us forums split in November 2008. Eventually, these will be archived and completely new activism-oriented forums will become public.

The Volk v. Zeanah lawsuit has been settled by Derek buying The High Road forum (including the domain names) from me. Now, the money, time and attention that litigation was taking away from the core task of advocating and defending the Right to Keep and Bear Arms can be redirected to developing a new type of pro-RKBA resource and to support existing pro-gun legal actions.

The work has already begun. Gun Rights Media will be dedicated to fostering pro-RKBA and pro civil rights media – images, films, podcasts, creative writing and interactive content. The goal is to support all who need compelling, memorable arguments for personal liberty – which includes gun rights and more. By embracing more than just gun rights, we can make common our cause with those who previously have not considered RKBA an important issue.

Our other task will be the support of allies, starting with Heller II v. D.C., the second round of litigation against the District of Columbia to implement the freedoms recognized by the Supreme Court decision. I will contribute my time and skills to this cause and help to coordinate the abilities and contributions of others who can meet specific needs as well.

Because of the short notice with the move, I ask that you spread the word about our migration. Please bookmark the new address for yourself, too.

Yours,

--Oleg Volk

Controversies

There are great controversies that carry on, sometimes leading to wars, or at least bar fights and ruined family gatherings. Are the Yankees the greatest baseball team ever, or a bunch of prima donnas? Who is the greatest rock band of all time? Is global warming a real phenomena, and if it is, does human behavior have any effect on it? Buddha, Jesus, or Mohamed? Reagan or Obama? And so on.

But all of those pale against the greatest controversy. More ink and more electrons are consumed every year on gun forums, magazines (the paper kind), and gun blogs on this topic than any other.

The 1911 pistol. Is it the ultimate fighting pistol, handed down to us by John Moses Browning (PBUH), winner of wars, still carried by the effa-bee-eye and Spec Ops, capable of shattering the spine of bad guys when it hits them in the knee, tack driving accurate, shooting the mighty .45ACP?

Or is it an outdated, finicky design, requiring an epic reworking by a master gunsmith to run reliably, superseded by safer modern pistols like the Glock and XD that don't have to be carried Condition 1, heavy and hard to conceal, slow to cycle, and prone to breakage, shooting an outdated, slow moving, round and only holding a maximum of 8 rounds?

Here's one side of it covered pretty well by Yankee Gun Nuts. The comments are predictably split down the aforementioned lines.

Here from The Sight is the other side of the coin. I read this a couple of years ago and it, along with the testimonials, says most of what I think about 1911s. Since 2011 will be the 100th anniversary of the design, stand by for a lot more electrons spilled on this in the coming months.

Of course the 1911 is an outdated design. It came from an era when weapons were designed to win fights, not to avoid product liability lawsuits. It came from an era where it was the norm to learn how your weapon operated and to practice that operation until it became second nature, not to design the piece to the lowest common denominator. It came from an era in which our country tried to supply its fighting men with the best tools possible, unlike today, when our fighting men and women are issued hardware that was adopted because of international deal-making or the fact that the factory is in some well-connected congressman's district. Yes, beyond any shadow of a doubt, the 1911 IS an outdated design....and that's exactly what I love about it.
--Rosco S. Benson

Lest We Forget

Click on over to Old NFO and read his post from Christmas Eve. This is the Marine Corps at it's finest.

As I said in his comments. when I reach the clearing at the end of the path, I hope I have the same courage to face whatever my final challenge is.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
--Mark Twain

Blocked by DoD?

Got an email from a Marine telling me he could no longer access my site from the base where he is stationed. Said RAoP was okay last week, now it's blocked. Unsure why. I'm as pro-Marine as any blog on the web. I've been out since F-4s were frontline fighters, so I'm sure not violating Opsec. I looked back through a month of posts and didn't see anything remotely offensive. Here's an article on the topic from Military.com.

So, as it stands now, I can have free speech, but the Marines can't read it unless they have internet access out in town.

The test of democracy is freedom of criticism.
--David Ben-Gurion

Snow 2010

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.
--Edith Sitwell

View From The Front Step

I'll go out hiking with a camera later. For now, this is the view from the front step.

The snow itself is lonely or, if you prefer, self-sufficient. There is no other time when the whole world seems composed of one thing and one thing only.
--Joseph Wood Krutch

Christmas Eve

The tree is decorated. Cookies made and eaten. I have to make one last trip to the grocery store as the menu for tomorrow has changed. I hope you all are with those you love. Say a prayer for those who stand watch for us so that we can celebrate Christmas in peace.

That's what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end.
--Lise Hand

Blogrolling Update

My last post elicited a couple of comments from bloggers I had not heard from before. Lagniappe's Lair and The Silicon Graybeard both deserve a place on the blogroll. In this post, Lagniappes Lair is awaiting a new Class 3 acquisition. And, not to be outdone, Silicon Greybeard has a series of posts about completing his first AR-15 build from a 80% lower receiver.

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.
--Anaïs Nin

_______________________________________________
Update: Greybeard commented that he has all the posts on his AR-15 build collected under one menu. You can read about the process of building one from scratch, and learn from one who has gone before.

The Nativity

We want things to be pretty and perfect. So much so that we ignore the reality of the story and beautify it, making it into art and yard displays.


Joseph was a carpenter, not a wealthy man. He lived in an occupied country under the rule of the Roman Empire. He engaged to Mary, a young pregnant teenager, and by what accounts we have, he did not believe the child to be his. By governmental decree, he was required to go to his family's hometown to be counted in a census. He took the girl with him.

No paved roads, not much money for food, no place to stay. The movement related to the census would have been disruptive to everyone and created difficult traveling conditions. When he got to the town, she was in labor. There was no one to take them in, no place to stay. Just to get shelter they went into a stable.

Now a lot of us don't have farm animals anymore, and unless you do, one rather pungent fact might escape you. Stables stink. Even the most well kept stables, which this one most likely was not. If there were sheep and cows housed there, and perhaps a camel or two, it smelled like a zoo. But it was warmer than outside, and there was a roof.

Mary went though labor and delivered a baby there. Not in a sterile medical birthing room, not even at home with her female relatives to attend to her, but in a dark stable, likely alone except for Joseph. She was perhaps 14 or 15 years old. Whatever fears and loneliness she felt are unrecorded. When the baby was born, they cleaned and wrapped him in what garments they could and laid him in a trough used to feed the animals, because that trough was off the ground and cleaner than anywhere else they had to put the baby.

They were as poor and alone as any new family you can imagine. That's the heart of this story.

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
--The book of Luke, Chapter 2:1-7

Solstice

The winter solstice was yesterday. Even in the modern world, we feel it on some visceral level. Imagine what it was like just a hundred and fifty years ago. Without electricity, furnaces, or grocery stores, living in a farmhouse with a couple of oil lamps for light and a cast iron stove for cooking and heat. When winter settled in and the days grew short and all the food you had to see you though was what was already stored.

Think back further, to what life was like for century after century. After the harvests, when the cold and the darkness dominated the world. The days grew short and the sun was weak when it was there at all. When the days turned and began to grow longer again, though it could not be felt, each day moved toward light and spring and a new growing season.

When Christianity was expanding, they overlaid their celebrations on the old ones. Easter for the spring equinox, All Saints Day for the fall, and Christmas for the solstice. It is now so a part of of our cultural heritage that we don't think of it.

Here, on the shortest days of the year, we gather with family, we decorate with lights and evergreen trees, we cook and feast, and even though it seems like there is so much darkness, we celebrate the coming of the Light into the world in a most unlikely way.

In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer.
--Albert Camus

America at Christmastime

In the midst of World War II, in October of 1943, Bing Crosby recorded this song. It went to the top ten, peaked at number 3. It was also the most requested song at USO shows overseas.

The song touched something of how Americans felt about Christmas. We want to be home at Christmas, wherever home is. We travel in large numbers, sometimes spending money we can ill afford, just to be with family and friends for a few days.

As you travel this holiday season, remember America as it was. The terrorists may not be winning, but we have lost. If people cannot travel freely without subjecting themselves and their children to this, there no longer is an America the way we remember it.

Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
--Benjamin Franklin

Santa Training

It's never easy to earn the title.

You know you're getting old, when Santa starts looking younger.
--Robert Paul

Even Christmas Was Made in America

This is the followup to my post about about my Grandmother's old Christmas ornaments. I am nostalgic for Christmas past, but I am also nostalgic about America past as well. So look at the box lid at the figures shaking hands. Consider the pride in those two simple words painted on a cardboard box.

Only Americans can hurt America.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

Long Distance Windows

A call from Borepatch came, him of the recent flight south, asking me, the Windows computer support guy, about a great and terrible and all too common problem. For Borepatch has traveled far into the West, visiting his father, and while there has faced the vexation of the Windows slowing down. Myriad are the possibilities, for the system in question is old and encrusted with many applications, yet shackled with all too few of the RAMs and speedy Gigabytes that can drag the Windows along at a pace acceptable.

Long distance we were, and long distance we would remain, yet troubleshooting would occur, and to you my readers, I will offer the things we did, to be studied by the firelight this cold evening, for many they were, ere we stumbled across what seemed to be the proximate cause. I offer them all, some of use, others not. Lest you leap to your system files and attempt them yourself, a warning I offer first to those who would venture beyond the realm of browsers and office applications, for pitfalls await, and the dreaded boot loop, the operating system not found, and even the BSOD are risks where I point.

First I say, nay I cry out, BACK UP YOUR FILES! The cry rings out. For at the worst, in extremis, when naught else will help, a backup of your documents, pictures, music, email, and bookmarks will be a comfort to you. For then, a wiping of bits and bytes, and new Windows written to the empty space, even if done by a wizard, still allows you to return those important things to their rightful places. Warning given, we move on. Each picture may be clicked to view in a size you may more enjoy.

1. Open the My Computer, seeing the harddrives and devices. Then Tools, Folder Options, View, and then cause the checkboxes to match the image as you see it here.

For many of the things that follow will depend on the seeing of the hidden files.

2. From the drives available, it is the one named the "C" that we are most interested in. Using the right-clicking of the mouse, a menu appears. Choosing Properties, this menu appears. It is the Indexing Service we turn off here, a taker of clock cycles.
Affirming this choice, and ignoring any files it does not like, we let it unindex, whatever that might be.

3. We now search drive of "C", choosing to see all of the hidden things, looking files with the letters "temp" in the naming. Here is the view of the search.
When the files are found, deleting the files in the folders called "temporary internet files" and "temp" under each user in the folder C:\Documents and Settings\NAMEOFUSER\Local Settings\, for these folders fill up with the debris of computing.

4. Looking to the button of Start, then clicking Run, and typing "msconfig", a menu of many things will appear. The tab of Startup holds the mysteries we will explore next. Look carefully at each one. It is said that all could be unchecked and Windows will still run, but some are useful, needful things and care should be taken. The knowing that msconfig can be revisited, to recheck and start the system again, should some important application fail, is a balm. Internet searching of names can help, for the names may be cryptic and not designed to provide meaning. Turn off, by clearing the check boxes, and then restart the computer. On restart, tell the application not to run at startup, or it will appear like a useless genie at every beginning of Windows.

5. At this point, at the fresh start, try those thing of importance, for too many changes will leave you unable to retreat. If all is working, and still slow, venture on.

6. Search for and download the application Malwarebytes. A fine and useful thing, install it, update it to the latest files and run it. Whatever things it calls evil, cast out of your system, letting the program choose. A permanent addition to your anti-virus Malwarebtes should be, good for the sort of ugly intrusive sneakiness that unrestrained web browsing might bring. Though it may find nothing, it is worthy of a place in your toolbox.

7. Press the keys of power, those known as Ctrl-Alt-Del, and a menu appears. Click Task Manager, and then the tab called Processes. Click the box called CPU two times to reorder all things by the percentage of our system that they are using. This box will sit in front of other things, so open and close those applications afflicted with the Windows slowness and see what processes jump to the top of the usage.

For here, at long last, after much striving and clicking, we found the source of the Windows slowness of the Borepatch system. It was the anti-virus, perhaps too vigorously doing the scanning of things that should have been trusted, causing much time to pass, so that the minutes seemed to drag on and the surfing and clicking of things brought no joy. Changes were made to settings and after testing, some improvement seems to have lightened the burden of calculation that the machine labored under.

The RAM things perhaps could be increased, or the system replaced with one with the many more Hz, but the coin of the realm would have to be proffered to the Clerk of BestBuy, and so, the improvements made will have to be sufficient for now.

Long was my tale, and not in keeping with the usual tenor of the politicking and the memories of the country in days gone by, but come the morrow, we shall return to it. Remember, that advice given is worth that which you pay for it, and you have been given this for free, so cry out not, if damage is done, and backups of stuff important fail, for it is the way of computers, like all things, to fail, and the question of the universe remains: "Where does data go when the only copy is irretrievably deleted?"

640K of memory ought to be enough for anybody.
--Bill Gates

Shiny Bright

The ornaments I mentioned in the previous post came to me in the original boxes. I am sure I did not have them all, and since we used them, over time the number I had dwindled. One Christmas season, shortly after we had finished decorating the tree, it fell over. There is a metal hook in the ceiling now and learning has taken place, but several ornaments died to bring me that knowledge.

Shiny Bright made those Christmas ornaments. There were millions of them made, and they changed the designs from year to year. The ones I have look like these. Brightly colored, paper thin glass ornaments.

A few years after losing several when the tree fell over, I found a whole box of them in a junk shop. They were individually priced, a couple of dollars a piece, but they were all together, in the original box. I picked up the box and opened it and she laughed. "You're going to buy them, aren't you?" I nodded. She laughed again, "I swear, underneath you are so sentimental."

But it wasn't that they were old, or from the right company, or even similar. They were the exact same ones. They had to have been from the same production run. It was in the fall, so I took them home and put them away, and when Christmas rolled around, I put them on the tree.

My parents were still able to travel and they came to visit that Christmas. When my mother was admiring the tree she exlaimed, "Oh, you got out all my mom's ornaments this year! They look so nice!" I was in the doorway and turned and said, "Yes, I found them in a box this year and decided to use them all." Then I went outside to bring some firewood up on the porch and have a few minutes alone.

I never mentioned that I had found that box in a store, because it really doesn't matter, does it? Christmas is wrapped up in memories and faith. It is the light reflected in the eyes of a child, the smell of an old family favorite in the oven, and the overlap of all the Christmases past with this one that makes it come alive.

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death
--Robert Fulghum

Christmas 1957

Christmas 1957. My grandparent's home. If you click on the image, I deliberately left it large enough to zoom in on. There's a lot going on for me in this image. The chair on the right is in my living room today. My mother was 24 that year. The house was modernized in the 1960s after a lightening strike, redecorated again when my grandfather remarried in the 1980s, and then sold after his death. It looks like this only in my memories.

It is the decorations on the tree I want to focus on. The decorations were my grandmother's and when she passed away, they were handed down to me. I still have them, and as delicate as they are, use them every year, accepting the inevitable losses of children and gravity as the price of seeing them each Christmas cycle.

Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear
--William Shakespeare

Some Professional Comments

It seems I am not the only one with thoughts about self defense in light of the shooting at Florida school board meeting. Over at the Michael Bane Blog a number of professional shooters, LEOs, and assorted trainers weigh in on the video. Go and read their insights and consider what you will do if and when the fecal matter enters the oscillating spreader.

An explosive, overwhelmingly violent counter-attack is a good thing. When the brave lady smacked the bad guy's arm with her purse in an attempt to disarm him, all of the men present should have swarmed the bad guy and beat him senseless.
--Rich Grassi

They Sat There Like Sheep

Unarmed, unready, untrained. The only reason they are not dead is that he didn't shoot them as soon as he pulled the gun.
Just so we are clear about things, he was a convicted felon, so his possession of the gun was illegal, having the gun at the meeting was illegal, brandishing it was illegal, and shooting it at people was illegal. Laws didn't matter. The only thing that stopped this shooter was another man with a gun and the skills and will to use it.

If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.
--Dali Lama

Glass Half Full

Whatever else you think is going wrong, this should give you hope.

Hat tip to The View From North Central Idaho, another fine blogger that gets added to the blogroll.

We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth.
--Abraham Lincoln

Billy Idol Christmas Videos

Some things cannot be unseen.

Let's be naughty and save Santa the trip.
--Gary Allan

My Shocked Face

Back in November of last year, in response to something on Marooned, I drew the little image you see here. It took about 2 minutes in MSPaint and then I played with the effects options in Irfanview to try different highlights, line edges, and colors. I call it my shocked face. It describes how I feel about most news concerning government excess, terrorism, global warming, and the like.









It was pointed out to me recently that the expression on my shocked face has some similarities to the expression on the profile image that Alan at SnarkyBytes is currently using. When I put them up on the screen side by side it made me laugh. So here they are together.

Perhaps one has to be very old before one learns to be amused rather than shocked.
--Robert Browning

Keeping Us Safer

The TSA, not content to look for threats where threats actually exist, has upped their vigilance. In an effort to be super duper extra sure that we are safe when we fly, a TSA agent picked out Donna D'Errico for an enhanced security search. In case you are not familiar with Ms D'Errico, it might make this decision more understandable if you knew that she starred on Baywatch and was Playboy's Playmate of the month in September 1995.

Now if I knew that no one doing my job had ever stopped a real terrorist, and that I had the power to choose between searching a some fat sweaty businessman in a wrinkled suit and Ms D'Errico...

After the search, I noticed that the male TSA agent who had pulled me out of line was smiling and whispering with two other TSA agents and glancing at me.
--Donna D'Errico

The Whiteboard

The Whiteboard is a comic strip I have been following for years. It's sorta about paintball, sometimes it's really about paintball, other times it's about the over the top experiences of a group of friends. There's some conventions, all the fully rendered characters are some sort of anthropomorphic animal, Doc, the main character and store owner, is a polar bear. The customers are human, and are drawn almost as shadows. They serve a role, but are interchangeable and insubstantial.

This strip must have started as an in-house joke, but it's grown to be a business of it's own. One of the images I remember is of the author's scanner that he was using to digitize the drawings, to weigh down the cover he was using a magazine of .45ACP.

I brought this up because he has added starting points to various storylines at the bottom of the main page and one of the recent series has been zombies. Here's the first panel. Go and waste some time this Saturday and meet Doc, Swampy, Roger, and the rest of the crew.

He also does custom machining, sells paintball equipment, and likes old cars, cannons, and blacksmithing.

A pointy anvil is the least of your worries. If you can't avoid jabbing yourself in the thigh on your own anvil horn, I suggest taking up a different line of work.
--Doc

14 Shopping Days

So, you've got a gunnut a firearms enthusiast on your Christmas list and you don't have any idea what to get him. Maybe it's your Dad or your Uncle, maybe it's your new significant-other, but it's someone that a generic guy gift of socks or a tie won't be enough.

RAoP is here to help you and to make your gunnut firearms enthusiast excited and happy on Christmas morning. First off, this will not have to be an expensive purchase. Just getting an appropriate gift will surprise and please him. To do your part to follow my advice you need to have some knowledge of your gunnut firearms enthusiast's hobby. Is it rifles? Shotguns? Pistols? Does he hunt or go to a range to sport shoot? Maybe you've avoided knowing, just seeing him carry a case out to his truck and drive off is all you know.

Ask him. Here's one possible question, "Dad, what's your favorite kind of gun?" When he starts to answer, pay attention to numbers, like .357, 30.06, .45ACP. Write them down if you need to. Your followup questions when he finally takes a breath should be, "Where do you go shooting?", and "What do you use for targets?" Go on, go ask him, I'll wait.

Now you're back, head swimming with way more new information that you ever expected. That taciturn grumpy old man turned out to be quite a talker, didn't he? You should at least know what sort of guns he shoots and what kind of shooting he enjoys.

There's a gun store around. I'm sure of it, unless you live in Washington, DC or New York, in which case you need to shut down your computer, put it in a box and move. Go on. I'll wait.

There you are, living in a relatively free part of the country, and when you look in the phone book, there are three or four gun shops listed. When you go out shopping, stop in one or two, the same way you might stop in the fabric store. Think of it as a cultural experience. You'll meet people like your Dad/Uncle/significant-other in their natural environment. It will be like a National Geographic adventure. You'll be able to tell your friends about it.

Talk to the guy behind the counter. Tell him you're looking for a present for your Dad/Uncle/significant-other, tell him what you know from your questions, mention those numbers you wrote down and what kind of shooting or hunting he talked about. If nothing else, buy a box of ammo in one of the calibers the clerk can direct you to. To gunnuts firearms enthusiasts, ammo is like cash or diamonds, it's always appropriate. Otherwise, depending on your budget for this person, there are flashlights, holsters, gun cases, cleaning supplies, electronic earmuffs, binoculars, and so on. Ignoring all the guns, when you look around the store, everything you see is a potential gift for someone.

Most stores have gift certificates, too. If the whole process is too complicated, get him a gift certificate from the gun store. Even that will be very well received on Christmas morning. You will have had a cultural experience, a local business will have benefited, and the person you are buying for will know you took the time to find them a meaningful gift.

You will notice I wrote this as though the gunnut firearms enthusiast was male and the person looking for a gift was female. This was intentional. If your Mom/Aunt/female significant-other is a shooter, you better already know about their hobby and have a wrapped present that you need a handtruck to move around.

If I have any readers that try this advice, I would be thrilled to hear about how it works out and would be willing to post your experiences after Christmas.

Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more.
--The Grinch

If I Was Starting Out, Part V

My virtual search for a small set of first guns is complete. Starting with a .22 rifle, I have added a full sized .357, a 12ga pump, a hunting rifle in a common caliber, a .22 pistol and a suitable pistol for concealed carry. It's not the right list, it's just what I would get. Yours will be different. I thank the readers that took the time to post comments last week, there were clearly different, but equally valid lists presented there.

In real life, I didn't have the benefit of hindsight. I made some good choices, took some advice, bought a couple of guns just because I liked them. I have a weakness for old military guns, '03 Springfields, Garands, K-31s, Mausers, and the like. I still don't own a full size .357, I bought the 1911 I wrote about last week.

Now you can branch out, figure out what sort of sport shooting you like, and buy the right gun(s) to support it. AR-15s for 3-Gun, another pistol, with holster and magazines for IDPA, a classic Over/Under shotgun for skeet. For me, it came down to which one felt right. I still don't have much, and I sure don't have a big budget, but I like the few I have and I save my money for ammo.

There another side of this that you figure out along the way. It's not just guns, there's a range bag (or two) of stuff you take every time you go to the range. Eye protection, hearing protection, targets, target pasters, staples and a stapler, and always ammo. MArooned blogged about that recently, here's his post. One thing I noticed was that he listed staples, but not the staple gun. Maybe his fingers are a lot stronger than mine.

Even if you spend a thousand dollars on a pistol, if you shoot it regularly, you will spend several times the price of the gun on ammo. You will look for deals, unless you are pretty wealthy you will shoot a lot of .22, and finally you will decide to get into reloading.

Reloading is the sign that your journey to the dark side is complete. You will have new friends, read different forums, and occasionally, someone will hint around that they always wanted to shoot a gun and could you, maybe sometime, take them to the range.

You won't even be able to watch movies the same way. You'll react when you see some guy shooting from the hip while running and hitting moving targets at 200 yards. Wait until the first time you hear someone cock a Glock or shoot 17 times with a revolver. Hint: No matter how stupid the activity, don't shout at the screen, people will stare.

Your politics will change, and you will find yourself saying things like, "Sure the 1st Amendment is important, but the 2nd is the one that protects it." You'll read news articles about guns and want to set the record straight, correct the reporter.

You'll be one of us. The People of the Gun. Welcome to the tribe.

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
--Jane Howard

If I Was Starting Out, Part IV

Much work has been done, and even if your choices were different than the ones I made in the last several posts, I hope you can see how I made them. To recap, we would now own a .22 rifle, a full sized revolver in .357, a pump 12ga shotgun, and a scoped hunting rifle in one of the common .30 calibers. If we stopped right there, there is very little we couldn't do.

But let's go along two more steps. A .22 caliber handgun. A Ruger Mark 3, a Buckmark, an old Colt Woodsman, or any of the .22 revolver offerings from S&W, Colt, or Ruger. Pick one you like, it will always be a fun gun to take to the range and you'll have something to teach your grandchildren to shoot with.

One last gun, if concealed carry is legal in your state, is your first true concealed carry gun. Here's a gun where there are lots of opinions. Since you're here, you get to read mine. The final, absolute standard for CCW is reliability. If you need this firearm badly enough to draw it from concealment, you need it very badly indeed. It has to work.

It has to be concealable. In the summer. It has to be manageable when you draw it under stress. It has to be easy to operate. It has to aim well. It has to be in a caliber that allows you to have confidence that this gun will do the job.

The question of caliber is one that will not be decided here, or anywhere else. Gun forums are full of stickies on this issue. I draw the line at 9mm/.38 as a minimum caliber for self defense. Others like .40S&W, or in the other direction, .380auto.

If I wanted an automatic, I would be looking at a Glock, a Springfield XD, or a Sig in 9mm. All of them come in compact or sub-compact sizes.

If I decided to carry a revolver, a S&W 640 or a Ruger SP101 in .357magnum.

When you make a choice, it needs to include the choices about how you will carry it. An ankle holster hides it well, but your leg feels like a pendulum, and if you need it, you have to kneel down, giving away your intentions, and making you vulnerable during that time. Pocket carry is okay in the winter with very small guns, but takes up a pocket, and might not work in the summer. Inside or outside the waistband requires that you wear a loose garment over the weapon, making tucking your shirt in impossible. Also, the shirt can ride up, exposing the holster and leaving you feeling less than concealed. Everything about concealed carry is a compromise, and you make them, then later reconsider and try something else.

Whatever you decide on, it needs to be one of your regular shooters. Getting a tiny little gun and never shooting it is full of fail. Practice drawing from concealment. Practice taking a step back, drawing and getting off one shot accurately at 3 yards, then 5. Practice 2 shots. Practice reloading. Practice skills that you hope you will never need except in a match at the local range. Practice.

Get a permit, carry when you can. To turn this whole series over, there might be reason to make this the first gun. Tomorrow, I have some general observations on the process as I went through it over the last several years, and how you pick out the next gun when these slots are filled.

When you are not practicing, remember, someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him he will win.
--Ed Macauley

If I Was Starting Out, Part III

So, from one rimfire rifle, we have chosen a pistol and a shotgun. Now it is time for a first centerfire rifle. Once again, it seems to me there is a decision to made right at the beginning. Do you want a new, modern hunting rifle or an old military gun?

What we are considering is quality, caliber, fit, and accuracy. Since this is the first one, I want a readily available caliber with a broad assortment of ammunition choices. That, for me, narrows the choice to one of three, either .308 Winchester or 30.06, or 30-30. Get a big safe and you can pick up a 6mm Ackely Improved later on, if it calls to you. I went with 30.06 when I got my first, and I don't regret it, but I don't think it is better or worse than .308 Win.

I chose a bolt action. If that's the choice, there's Winchester Model 70, Remington 700, Savage 110, and lots of others. Firing one of these is not like shooting a .22. If you go military, and buy a 1903, it has a metal buttplate, and you really know when it goes off.

This one is harder, because there are so many choices. Again, you're going to want to fondle some, shoot some, and talk to friends. There's also the lever actions in 30-30, and I wouldn't want to say that might not be the choice as well. I'm only willing to say that it should be a gun that you shoulder well, shoot accurately, in a common flavor of .30 caliber, and when you have a scope mounted on it, don't scrimp.

That last is important enough to say again, you just bought a fine, accurate rifle, something you've been looking forward to, don't buy a $59.95 scope. Get the best scope you can. This lesson I learned because I bought a used Remington 700 in 30.06 with a cheap scope already mounted. I suspect the gun was sold because the previous owner thought it impossible to shoot accurately. I wasted a couple of boxes of ammo and then I consulted a reliable gunsmith. After mounting a quality scope, I was able to zero the rifle with confidence. This is your first hunting rifle, , one you will be shooting for many years. Buy a good scope.

Now we own a .22 rifle, a .357 revolver, a 12 ga. pump shotgun and a scoped .30 caliber rifle. We practice with all of them, and can clean and maintain them. These purchases may have taken place over a year or more, with lots of opportunities to shoot with friends and try various guns. The awareness of the cost of the growing pile of accessories to support this hobby is forming. We're starting to have preferences, and the beginning of a wish list. There are still a couple or basics to be added. Next on the agenda? An autoloading pistol.

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.
--William A. Foster

A Day That Will Live in Infamy

There were thousands of them at the reunions a few years ago. Now there are a couple of hundred. They are almost all gone. It will be left to us to remember. Take a moment today in silent reflection for those who gave so much that we might be free.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
--Laurence Binyon

If I Was Starting Out, Part II

Either before or after my first pistol, would be my first centerfire long gun. This one requires a decision right at the start, rifle or shotgun? Perhaps there is a type of shooting or hunting that you have an interest in, and that will guide the decision, but if not, either one can be the next choice.

I would go with a shotgun next, and for a number of reasons, I know I would get a 12 gauge pump. A Remington 870, with an intermediate length barrel, and interchangeable chokes. Once I say "first shotgun", the 870 is my default choice. It could be used to hunt deer, birds, squirrels, used for trap shooting, and would make a fine go-to gun for home defense with the right ammo.

The simplicity and reliability of an 870 is what makes me choose it. It won't be my only shotgun, but it would be the first. The barrel length is a compromise, but I'm not planning on clearing rooms on a response team, it doesn't absolutely have to be a short barrel. Perhaps a 26". Get some bird shot for practice, some slugs and buckshot for hunting and defense.

This is a gun I would consider buying used, if I had a shop I trusted with a good gunsmith on staff.

So now I have a first pistol and a first shotgun, time to turn my attention to centerfire rifles.

You have to think of a combat shotgun in much the same way you think of a fire extinguisher - it is EXTREMELY good at the task for which it was designed...if you want to make bad things inside of 25 yards go away quickly, there really is no substitute.
--BigSlug, from Guns&Ammo Forums

If I Was Starting Out, Part I

If I was starting out as a gun owner and had a .22 rifle as my only gun, and knew what I know now, I would try to follow the excellent advice given by my readers in these comments. I will try to collate that advice, if I make any major blunders, well, comments are open, and I'm good at blundering.

Guns fall into categories. I'm going to call them shotguns, hunting rifles, military rifles, plinking rifles, full sized handguns, CCW handguns, and plinking handguns. Others may draw lines differently, and a gun may fall in more than one category depending on use. This will be a series of posts, and will examine some of the choices in each.

Assuming you are going to buy a gun every three or four months for a couple of years until you have a basic set, there seems to be some agreement on the necessities, if not the precise order of purchase. Here is the first decision point. If you are planning on getting a carry permit, perhaps the second gun should be a carry gun.

The next question is revolver or semi-automatic. Then caliber, then general size. Notice we are not talking about companies or models yet. At this point, it is time to meet some other shooters, visit a range that rents guns, start reading about models. You want to make an informed choice. Sometimes it will come down to how the gun feels in your hand, or how it points. The choices are myriad and you are trying to pick just one.

From the comments, I give the nod to Jay G of Marooned. I agree, starting over, my first handgun would be a quality revolver in .357. He mentions the S&W models, I would add that I think a Ruger GP100 or Security 6 would also be a good choice. They can shoot .38 ammo for practice. They could be carried, although fairly large compared to other options we will explore later. There are lots of ammunition choices, many different bullet weights and types, and good options in quality defensive loads. It will be one you will never sell. You will learn to shoot with it. Sometimes you will wonder just how many rounds have been fired in it. When reloading comes along, it will be the caliber you learn with. As your safe fills up, it will be possible to get a smaller CCW pistol and a lever action carbine in the same caliber. As Midwest Chick observed, managing the number of calibers you buy helps manage your ammunition.

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.
--Greg Anderson

My First 1911

I wanted a 1911. So I bought a Springfield, a Mil-Spec when what I wanted was at least a Loaded. Had I waited, I could have spent a couple of hundred dollars more and got what I wanted, had the trigger worked on and been done. Instead, I ended up having a beavertail fitted, the trigger and hammer replaced, the slide cut for a new sight, a magwell installed, and the bushing and rails tightened. If I had spent that money all at once I'd have a Springfield TRP or maybe a Les Baer. Instead I have a Springfield Mil-Spec. Lesson learned. This is not a hit in any way on Springfield, it is a comment on my decision making. If I had been able to see that I was going to start shooting single-stack in USPSA with the pistol, I could saved a fair amount of money by buying a different model in the beginning.

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
--William Blake

What If You Only Owned One Gun?

Say you were back at the beginning of your gun ownership. You had just bought a .22, and it was your only gun. Pretend you had some money for this, but not an unlimited budget. What would you buy next? Out of the guns you own, which ones are your favorites, the ones you would absolutely buy again? What mistakes did you make? I have my thoughts and intend to write a post, but here's a chance for you to help out a new gun owner. If I get some comments, I'll add them to my post.

The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.
--Ben Stein

A Common Error

As a gentle reader noted in the comments, we are in the season of Advent, the period of time during which we anticipate Christmas. This is all Catholic in it's origin. Advent traditionally is a time of waiting and reflection in anticipation of the memorial of the coming of Jesus as an infant. The Christmas season begins at Christmas and extends into January, ending with the Feast of the Epiphany, where Jesus is revealed as the Savior and King. Hence the 12 Days of Christmas. There are lots of traditions and lots of different variations. YMMV.

The reader felt this was an important, if subtle distinction, and likened his irritation at calling Advent "the Christmas season" to the way we all feel when magazines are called clips. He used an analogy that not everyone is familiar with and on the off chance that someday some non-gunnut stumbles across my words, here's my post for the 2nd Sunday in Advent, 2010.

Magazines hold and feed ammunition. Magazines usually have a spring, a housing, and a plate called a follower. They can be independent devices that are inserted in a firearm, or they can be built into the firearm. So, a .22 rifle might have a tubular magazine that holds ammunition in a row under the barrel. An AK-47 has a box magazine that is inserted in the rifle, holding the ammunition stacked. There are lots of possible configurations.

A clip holds ammunition in a cluster or stack to speed up the process of loading it in a magazine. Here is a clip sitting on top of a magazine, when the cartridges (or rounds, but not bullets, bullets are just the...never mind, that's another post) are pushed down inside the the rifle, the clip falls off and the cartridges will then be in the internal magazine.
The most commonly known clip is probably the enbloc clip, which held the rounds 8 at a time for the M-1 Garand rifle of WWII fame. Once again, the clip was inserted in the rifle magazine which was integral to the rifle, and once the rounds were expended, the clip was ejected, clearing the magazine for a fresh clip. Look for the clip at 2:11 in this video as it comes out of the magazine. .

The liturgy of Advent…helps us to understand fully the value and meaning of the mystery of Christmas.
--John Paul II

First Saturday in December

Thanksgiving was over, the Christmas buying season had begun. The President and Congress had been trying trying increasingly socialist spending to get the economy running again. Our enemies around the world were working for our downfall, but no one expected the next attack. People were tired of thinking about the problems.

Still, it was the first Saturday in December and everyone was turning their attention to the coming holidays, making travel planes, decorating, and buying presents. Guard relaxed, attention diverted.

In 1941, the first Saturday in December was the 6th. Six aircraft carriers carrying 350 planes were steaming east across the Pacific. They belonged to an enemy that intended to strike a mortal blow to our Navy, most of which was anchored at Pearl Harbor.

That is not to say that we can relax our readiness to defend ourselves. Our armament must be adequate to the needs, but our faith is not primarily in these machines of defense but in ourselves.
--Chester W. Nimitz