XBOX 360 Red Ring Of Death DIY

Prevention DIY, not fixing. Yahoo! News is reporting that Microsoft has come up with a fix for new consoles, and it got me curious about the problem, so here we go:

They used the wrong kind of solder in the XBOX 360. They used lead-free solder. They used lead-free solder because the [deleted]s in Europe passed the RoHS directive and now you can't use lead solder in anything sold in Europe. Microsoft would like to sell XBOXes in Europe, so they used lead-free solder.

So?

So lead-free solder sucks. It is WAY WAY WAY less tolerant of imperfect application, as well as being harder to work with and requiring more-frequent replacement of your soldering tips. Oh, and it contaminates lead solder tools so you have to have two sets. And you can't use it on lead soldered boards, or vice-versa. Oh, and the main problem with it is that it's brittle

So?

So when your XBOX overheats, it melts the solder holding the two most important chips inside (the CPU and GPU) and they can move around. Moving microchips = bad = 3 red lights ring of death failure.

Hold on there.

How is this a DIY?

You can do what I did. When I first got the XBOX I noticed that, after running for a while in a cabinet with passive ventilation, the fans were loud as [deleted] and the exterior case was pretty warm to the touch. Being an electronics technician by training and an informed person generally, I know that when the outer case of an appliance is warm, the insides are REALLY FREAKING HOT!!!!!1!! and that's BAD.

I rigged up active cooling for my entertainment center. It ended up with a 6" fan directly behind the XBOX, sucking the hot air coming from the XBOX and blowing it out of the cabinet. Cool air was drawn in the bottom of the cabinet. The fan was quieter than the fans in the gaming console and, in fact, was often left on because we didn't notice it was running.

The fans on the console never sped up, ever, even a little bit, after that.

BAM! No overheating, no melted solder, no problem.

Obama: STILL Unwilling To Prove Qualification for Presidency.

This is not Chicago. Problems do not just go away in America because you ignore them. Philip Berg is still trying to get the President to prove (by showing one sheet of paper which he could request by mail if it existed) that he is not an illegal alien from Kenya.

Savage had Berg on the radio a few days back and I forgot to mention it but I will now, and mention that Berg is not the only Serious Person unwilling to just let the whole unpleasant affair drop.

Still I have not seen a report on this national controversy in the obama-friendly mainstream press. I guess it doesn't help my odds of seeing that report, that I don't watch the mainstream news. Nah, that's like saying that playing the lottery increases your odds of winning. (that's a government school math joke, haha)

U.S. Pulls Out Of "Durban II" Conference

Wow, that was fast. It hasn't even started yet, but it was pretty easy to see that the Durban Review Conference was going to go straight for pure racist and anti-semite before it even left the gate.

So we left the table before we sat down to it. I guess Freeman hasn't had a chance to poison BHO's mind yet.

Pray for your country, Christians, and pray for President Obama in particular, that he be given extra wisdom and discernment. With the crowd he's gathering around himself, he is going to need them.

U.S. Pulls Out Of

GOP Won't Endorse Queer Agenda: "What Are You, Crazy?"

Chairman Steele may not have the true meaning of the second amendment down pat just quite right, but here's one topic about which he seems to have got the message:

Americans do not believe in changing the foundational unit of society for the convenience of a 3% minority group's preferred, deviant, unhealthy, sexual behavior!

According to WorldNet Daily his exact words, when interviewed by Mike Gallagher were:

"What would we do that for? What are you, crazy? No."

I am about to fire off a congratulatory e-mail to Chairman Steele for his willingness to stand against the political pressure of the radical queers and ridicule the very idea of "the conservative party in America." going for such a paradigm shift away from everything that is good.

If the Good People out there keep the pressure up, we just might have a few half-decent candidates to vote for in 2010, and it will be 1994 all over again. THEN, by God, we would have some genuine liberty-friendly congressional deadlock!

Hurry Up Before the People Notice! U.N. Convention On The Rights Of The Child, PASS IT NOW!

Sorry, too late you commie [deleted].

Senator Boxer -D(ingbat, California) is trying to hurry up and get the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ratified by the Senate. If you are a person who values the rights of a parent to raise the child, you should be calling your senators' office ON MONDAY MORNING to be sure they know not to sign on to this mess, especially if they are a Democrat.

Children don't have rights many rights of their own, aside from the right to life, except as devolved from their parents. Unless you don't believe in the authority of parents because you had a bad father and became an international socialist, that is. I'll let WND's writing stand in for mine, because it's the same arguments no matter who typed it:

"According to the Parental Rights website, the CRC dictates the following:

Parents would no longer be able to administer reasonable spankings to their children.

A murderer aged 17 years, 11 months and 29 days at the time of his crime could no longer be sentenced to life in prison.

Children would have the ability to choose their own religion while parents would only have the authority to give their children advice about religion.

The best interest of the child principle would give the government the ability to override every decision made by every parent if a government worker disagreed with the parent's decision.

A child's "right to be heard" would allow him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed.

According to existing interpretation, it would be illegal for a nation to spend more on national defense than it does on children's welfare.

Children would acquire a legally enforceable right to leisure.

Teaching children about Christianity in schools has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.

Allowing parents to opt their children out of sex education has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.

Children would have the right to reproductive health information and services, including abortions, without parental knowledge or consent.

The government would decide what is in the best interest of a children in every case, and the CRC would be considered superior to state laws, Farris said. Parents could be treated like criminals for making every-day decisions about their children's lives. "

In Case You Were Getting Your Hope Up

Here are 20 graphs from Calculated Risk to smack you back down out of the glowbama.

The economy is still on the way down, big-time.

You may ask: Why all the fuss and focus on the housing sector? Because, unless you're a business, a house is where all the "stuff" that makes up the industry of our nation ends up. If you don't have a house, you don't need appliances, large or small, like you do in an apartment. You don't need garden tools, you don't need about a zillion other things that people produce here (providing jobs) to sell here (providing more jobs). If you failed economics 101, this will not help you.

If you understand what's going on, you will only have to say, "yep."

Despite the reports of slightly less-negative indicators here & there by the mainstream press, I have a message for you: The hurt will continue. Stand by.

If David Is Not His Job, What Is His Job?

I just wrote that I am not my job. The question arises then, what do I do for a paycheck?

I sell junk on eBay.

It's a little more complicated than it sounds, but that's the cliff's notes version. I work at a company of about 20 people, with a 90,000 square-foot $4M building mostly full of pallet racks holding "stuff" 3 to 5 levels high. The buyers go to auctions, facility closings, garage sales, wherever they can 'buy low.' The stuff is sorted and a lot of it gets sent straight to a recycling division. Those things worth the effort/time/hassle are taken apart and the cool bits are sent along to the distribution area. Testing, cleaning and photography, as well as making ads, is my part of it. I put a barcode label on an item and stick it on a shelf and the inventory fairy makes it disappear until it sells, for anywhere from negative to multiples of 100% profit. All told, the gross is somewhere in the $1-2M range annually, and the fees we pay eBay each month, and the electric bill every quarter, are more than I pay for my mortgage note each month.

BDI Baltic Dry Shipping Index: Recovery or False Hope?

I mentioned previously that the BDI had fallen off a cliff but the crash seemed to be slowing in November 2008. Here it's February 2009 and the our clueless fearless leaders are starting to get the idea that the economy in the US is still on the decline. Well, duh.

But have a look at this here: (click the image to enlarge)



It is entirely possible that this is a sign of foolish optimism on the part of people who make things that require dry shipping. The whole shebang could fall down again. I would prefer to see this new, slightly higher-than-historic level of the BDI continue. If it does, that means we have possibly (worldwide) gone from the leg to the bottom of the current L-shaped recession/depression.

If there is a rebound to levels like what we saw in 2008, that is actually bad for your wallet. We need this depression, as I have previously said, to return the worldwide economy to sane price/income levels. I anticipate that, whatever level the BDI settles on for a few months, it will not rise much beyond that for the next year because of the huge bubble-burst we are going through.

Anyhow, it looks like the end of the world is not yet, and TEOTWAWKI fears are not (yet) going to come true.

Good.

P.S. if you don't know what the Baltic Dry Index is, or why it is important, have a gander at wikinvest.com for more information.

Did You Ever Wonder What The Temple Looked Like?

Like this, maybe, less the 600 foot-tall man in the outer courtyards:



This is what 30,000 hours of dedication has gotten for Alec Garrard. a 100:1 replica of the structures King Herod erected on the Temple Mount.

(Unless you are a muslim in which case it's all just so much Zionist historical revisionism and lies). Dome of the rock my [deleted].

I Am Not My Job. My Job Is Not Me.

. . . my work area, however, will tell you a little about me.

I was unwinding in front of the idiot box when an actual thought made it through (must have been at commercials). I am not my job. I am me.

Profound, right? Yeah I know, Harper Collins is going to call in 5 minutes with a book advance. . . .

Some people's identity is bound up in what they do to get a paycheck. For some occupations (uniformed/armed services, mostly) this is good and necessary. I used to be an AT2, for example. But if you are more dedicated to your job than your family and it's only about money, you're off somewhere. If your company succeeds, but your children end up junkies and your wife leaves, guess what? You FAIL.

I mean that, to me, what's important is what happens under my own roof, and, to a lesser extent, within my national boundaries. Everything else could almost go to pot, and if my home and country were in good shape, I would be okay with it. Well, at least my home is in good shape. Read the older posts here to see what bothers me about our country.

My job is a good one. They don't have the a/c as low or the heat as high as I would like, but it's dry inside. The labor is not too intensive, the people not to bitchy (except for Mondays or after a bender), the bosses are sometimes downright fun to be around. I do my work and they pay me for it. I do a good job and they give me the plum assignments. I like it, but if it folded tomorrow, as long as there was a financial backup for me, I would be okay with that. My last job, the same. Conditions inside were perfect (cleanroom environment) and the people mostly left me alone. We all got along and it was satisfying, daily, to be able to perform to a high degree of excellence (+/- 0.1% of anything is pretty good, and we did it regularly). When that one folded up and moved to Dallas, I took a couple of days off and (thank God) started at this job.

My family, now that I am attached to. My children are coming up right. They obey but they think for themselves. My Darling Wife, well, let's just say she and I are both getting closer to what we want each other to be. Aside from the (free, vintage) printer, everything is working acceptably well. We have enough to eat, hot/cold running water, central heating and air conditioning, a dry roof and close-enough-to-dry windows. When I come home I get hugs & kisses. When I go to work I get waved off. My daughter tells me she loves me and means it, and so does my wife. My sons probably will when they get a little older. As the song says, "that's the good stuff".

My work area? Well, you would say it's a mess. I would say it's a dozen works in-progress. Ask me where a tool is and unless somebody else borrowed it, I'll be able to point straight to it. Ask me for a chemical and BAM it's right . . . over there. Say "why is this here?" and you'll be getting a longer answer than you anticipated (maybe you won't ask next time eh?). Sure the floor needs sweeping but if it's down there it is either of no concern or tough enough to be trod on. The 'stuff' could be arranged more neatly, but if you don't want to see a mess, just don't turn your head that direction. If I had more time, it might be a little tidier, but the things that are important to me are taken care of. My projects are mostly in the same state and location they were when I got distracted from them, last time I was working. The tools and stuff for them is probably nearby. No, thank you, don't clean it for me or I'll never find anything.

Change: Obama Reduces Medicare Funding

The omnibus spending bill includes setting aside admittedly not enough money to pay for the healthcare reforms Obama wants. This $634 billion will end up being at least $1.2 trillion by the time it's all said and done, but what's a lousy trillion bucks here and there when it's for the children? Since it's the lightbringer doing it, the daily kooks don't seem to mind that he's starting by reducing medicare for the elderly.

He's reduced your right to privacy in your own medical records
(increasing risk of identity theft in the process)
Now he's cutting payments to health care providers for the aged.

This will result in fewer participating doctors in the plan and lower quality health care for old people.

Hold on there.

Why?

Medicare is already a hassle. They don't pay for incidental stuff, just the care itself. And they don't want to pay as much as private insurance. The very best doctors can tell their patients what they will pay. The worst (and to be fair, the very charitable and also the average) doctors have terms of payment dictated to them by the insurance agents of the patients. Now you want to pay even less fore Medicare Advantage-insured patients' care? Look for doctors who were ready to dump medicare altogether, to start jumping ship because of this.

Elderly citizens, which party was it, again, that was supposed to want to reduce your health care?

Hillary's ideal health care plan would make it a go-to-prison crime to refuse to take lower-than-doctors-deserve government health care dollars, because she knows that doctors would not participate unless she forced them to. Castro's plan is similar . . . and the Cuban health care system is so good that Fidel got a doctor from another country when he needed care following a stroke.

Is that what you want in your America? Well, you wanted Change, didn't you??

Change: Obama Sends 17,000 MORE Troops to Afghanistan

I didn't mention this because I was sure the mainstream media would eventually pick it up and it would be a non-story. If Bush had sent an additional 17,000 troops there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth, but you have to listen to a conservative news outlet to even hear this story mentioned at all!

Eventually, the need for our boots on Iraqi ground will be reduced, and we will largely withdraw. Don't be surprised if it happens in the next year or two. Don't be surprised if our increased presence in Afghanistan drives some of the faithful away from where they might actually reap their 72 virgins and back to Iraq. THEN don't be surprised to see the surge of American troops going back to Iraq labeled heroic liberators. They would be heroic liberators in Iraq now, and we would be cheering them off as well as cheering them home (as it should be), if the press weren't so rigidly anti-whatever-Bush-did.

Vote with your feet. ABC NBC CBS and any station with those letters in their name, don't watch, and maybe even tell them you won't, due to unbalanced, left-leaning reportage. They won't turn right, probably, but you never know.

Barack Obama: Constitutional Scholar . . . Must Have Missed That Class

Busy this morning, but I'll spare a moment to spread the word:

The Firearm Blog alerts us to an ABC Story that Obama's people are already working towards Assault Weapons Ban 2.0.

Go ahead and tell me again, how Barack understands the second amendment.

They Called Me A Capitalist!

You are aSocial Moderate (56% permissive)
and anEconomic Conservative (78% permissive)
You are best described as a:Capitalist



(You bet yer BOOTS I'm a Capitalist!)




Join me, O my million of VFD'ers, in taking The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

P.S., the only problem with Rush Limbaugh's description of Moderates as people who wait for public opinion to form a consensus and then agree with it, is that it excludes people like me: I have extensively considered my opinions and positions and ended up between the extreme right and left in most areas. My sort of person is also known as "a normal guy."

DOJ Wants To Hold Prisoners Beyond The End Of Their Sentences!

Uncle points us to two-four.net who points us to Wendy McElroy who mentions a Yahoo! News story that mentions. . .


"The Department of Justice on Monday asked a full appeals court to rule that the federal government has the power to hold sex offenders in custody indefinitely beyond the end of their prison terms." It is called "civil commitment."

That is to say, when you do something the government does not like, they can lock you up and throw away the key. You say you expected to be set free when your sentence was expired? Ho-ho! You think you can get a thing like justice and fairness and freedom after you have been to prison for fill in the blank?! Not in OUR collective country mister!

Today, we don't like child rapists. Nobody likes a child rapist. You don't like child rapists, do you? Why not lock them up for life, even after their sentences expire? You don't want them back on the streets, do you?

.

.

.

Well, no, but how about, instead of making a mockery of justice, we give them life (or, preferably, death) sentences instead of letting them out again after a few years.

.

.

.

First they wouldn't release the child rapists, and I said nothing because I also hated child rapists. . . .

DC To Have a Vote in Congress

The Constitution for the United States of America says members of the house shall be chosen "by the people of the several states"

The District of Columbia is not a State. It is a district. If the people in DC are entitled to a vote in Congress then the people of the Philippines were, too, when they were a protectorate.

This is stupid people. Just because the Congress has authority over D.C. "in all cases whatsoever" does not make it a State. For a moment there, I was thinking that, because Congress controls DC in all cases, and they want DC to have a vote, they were just looking to grab a little more power, by having a Representative controlled by Congress.

nah, they wouldn't do that. After all, they're the representatives of the peeeeople.

Neal Street Shooting Policemen Sentenced. Good.

Backstory 1
Backstory 2

A few Atlanta police men decided it was a good day to have a "no-knock" drug raid.

They thought it would be cute to do it without a warrant.

They decided to do it in plainclothes.

They kicked in the front door of the home where a 92 year-old grandmother lived (vs. a coke dealer, like they said).

She fired on some guys coming through her door wearing street clothes.

They fired back.

She died.

They lied about it to try to cover it up

Apparently the informant involved was pressured into saying he had some flimsy evidence after the fact, and

they dropped a kilo in the house to make Kathryn Johnston look bad after she was dead. Stay classy, right? Well, there were a few more lies involved, and the sentences are WAY too short, but now...

There are 3 EX-cops who are going to be spending 5 to 10 years each behind bars, and let's take wagers on how long it takes them to get the ass-kicking they deserve.


Of course, if she had killed one of the only ones coming through her door in plain clothes, without knocking, she would have been up on a murder charge. But for them? Why, we'll let them plead to manslaughter.

If you drive drunk and kill somebody, it's MURDER
If you don't knock the door and come through in plainclothes and shoot someone dead, it's MURDER

Not MANSLAUGHTER.

Awkward.

Depression Is Good For You!

Well, it's good for me anyway. But then, I still have my job.

Eggs and milk are both down by around a dollar each, saving me literally tens of dollars a month!!!!1!

Oh well, it's going to continue for the forseeable future. As long as you can keep your paycheck, and especially if you can keep your paycheck at the same rate of pay, you will be in good shape if we keep a capitalist system.

In related news, I was almost ready to stop participating in political and economic discussions on a message board I read because of all the flak I was catching. Then, I realized the main anti-David commentator is full of [deleted] and doesn't have a clue what's going on. So, I'm considering putting him on an ignore list and continuing with the conversation. :)

My Wish List ~or~ What To Buy for David

It is impossible for me to remember on the spur of a moment what I wished I had a few months ago. So here is a wish list page for me to write down what I wish I had, as I think of it. If you are someone who thinks you know me, you may be surprised at some of the things here.

This page was last reviewed 12/15/2012; don't let the original posting date fool you!

Unless otherwise stated, there is no specific order of preference.

Literature:
"The Art of the Rifle" by Jeff Cooper (also "another country")
"Guidebook for Marines"
"The Tiger's Way: A U.S. Private's Best Chance for Survival" by H. John Poole
"Light Infantry Tactics for Small Teams" by Christopher E. Larson
"Six Ways In, Twelve Ways Out" by the USROG
"Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville
"The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang
"Quartered Safe Out Here," by George MacDonald Fraser
"A Rifleman Went to War" by Captain Herbert W. McBride
"Meditations on Hunting" by José Ortega y Gasset
"The First and the Last" -Adolf Galland
"More Shotguns and Shooting" by Michael MacIntosh
"The Perfect Shot" by Kevin Robertson
"Unintended Consequences," by John Ross
Whatever you can dig up by G.A. Henty, Sir Walter Scott, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, Zane Grey, or Edgar Rice Burroughs
"Brown on Resolution" "Beat to Quarters," "Ship of the Line," or "Flying Colors"by C.S. Forrester
"The Sergeant and the Bandits" by John W. Thomason
"Point Blank Shooting." by Finn Aagaard
"The Road to Serfdom" by Hayek
"The Dogs Of War" by Frederick Forsyth
"She," and "Allan Quatermain" by Sir Henry Rider Haggard
"The White Company" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Dance of the Dwarfs" by Geoffrey Household
"The Brave Bulls" by Tom Lea
"Aphrodite" by Pierre Louÿs
"The Long Rifle" by Stewart Edward White
"The Big Sky" by A.B. Guthrie
"And A Few Marines" by John W. Thomason
"Fancies and Goodnights" by John Collier
A collection of Rudyard Kipling's verse
"Above and Beyond" by Barrett Tillman
"The Soul and the Spirit" (second edition) by Lindy Wisdom
The Feynman Lectures on Physics including Feynman's Tips on Physics: The Definitive and Extended Edition (Hardcover) by Richard P. Feynman (Author), Robert B. Leighton (Author), Matthew Sands (Author)
"Submarine!" by Commander Edward L. Beach, USN
Wolfe Publications three-volume boxed set of the works of Deneys Reitz
"Small Unit Leadership: A Common Sense Approach" by Col. Dandridge M. Malone
"The Battle for Hunger Hill" by MG Daniel P. Bolger
"The Minutemen" by GEN John Galvin
"To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrant's Face" by Prof. Robert Churchill
"Washington's Crossing" by David Hackett Fischer
"We Were Soldiers Once, and Young" by Gen. Hal Moore
"Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield
"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card
"Once an Eagle" by Anton Myrer
"Rifleman Dodd" by C.S. Forrester
"The Defence of Duffer's Drift" by Lt. Backsight Forethought
"Boston's Gun Bible" by Boston T. Party.
Aftermath: The Remnants of War by Donovan Webster
Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell
"Never Fight Fair, Navy SEALs' Stories of Combat and Adventure" by Orr Kelly
"Hill 488" by Ray Hildreth, co-author Charles W. Sasser
"Human Accomplishment" by Charles Murray
"Clash of the Carriers" by Barrett Tillman
"Rifleman Dodd" by C.S. Forester
"Music Through The Dark" by Bree Lafreniere
"When Broken Glass Floats" by Chanrithy Him

Gear:
A Buck model 186C folding pocket knife (STRAIGHT, not serrated, blade) these are no longer made, you'll have to watch eBay for them
8 intake valves for a Hyundai Beta I cylinder head (e.g. 2000 elantra) OEM, only, no aftermarket.
Gasket set for a Hyundai Beta I engine (e.g., 2000 Elantra) (this will have intake, exhaust, and head gaskets, as well as valve stem seals and a valve cover gasket) or at least a 2002 Elantra head gasket. OEM, only, no aftermarket.
Big spool of 'parachute cable'
Tent that sleeps at least 6
Adult size sleeping bag (or two)
Batteries (AAA, AA, D, or C, or 9V, or 303/357)
A Buck "Special" model 0119BKS-B knife
Comp-tac MTAC for a Glock model 22
Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DSLR camera lens
Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 DSLR camera lens
As long as we're swinging for the fences how about a D7000 or D800 camera body (with accessories)

Guns & Ammo:
An SKS, at least "shooter grade"
A Chiappa 1911-22 a $300 Made-In-USA .22LR pistol that looks like a M1911 .45
A box or two, or a case or two of ammunition in calibers 7.62x39mm, .22LR, .380ACP, .40S&W, or .30-06. Almost any type of bullet is just fine.
Spray-can of Break Free CLP
Bottle of Hoppe's #9
A good cleaning kit for any of the above calibers (or a universal kit)

Schutzenfest 2009 Questions & Answers

A few people had questions about the schutzenfest. The more get asked, the longer this page will get. I'll also try to remember to update the Main Page as the questions are added.

Q: What is the entrance fee or range fee?

A: Our host was a little taken aback, and needed the question repeated to be sure he understood this one. There are no fees for showing up. Ammunition, food, and gas will be enough of a cost. It costs him nothing to host us, and it's in the public interest, so it's pro bono publico this year.

Q: But I Don't Have a gun!

A: So? Come anyway, you can use someone else's. If you've never shot a gun before, please plan on attending a new shooter's class at 11:00.

Q: Where is it?

A: Southeast of Austin, Texas. Respond as requested via e-mail and you'll find out exactly where.

YOU Voted For These Louts!

Every day that goes by there are more people reporting more B.S. in the new "stimulus" law for you to be outraged about.

a) where's the outrage and
b) why did the congressman you voted for not bother to read an 1,100 pages-long bill that will cost you a trillion and a half dollars, before signing on to it?

And what are you planning to do about it?

Hmm?

"how to turn your marlin .22 into full auto"

To the person who found my blog with this keyword string on an internet search engine:

Hint: don't.

Actually, don' t even try. It makes Uncle Sugar want to stomp on your pee-pee.

In fact, don't even try finding out how. You want to know how free you are in America in 2009? If you have a Marlin .22 and you have the information you would need to know, if you were going to turn it into a machine gun, then you are a Federal Felon.

Besides, everyone knows the SKS is really the gun to convert to fully automatic.

Will You Council Your Maker?

Mrs. Feistel was married to a man she loved, and they had spent years in Taiwan planting churches and winning souls to Christ. They were about to cut another church loose to local control and start on another new one, and Mr. Feistel died of cancer.

Mr. Burton was a preacher and had a wife he loved. She, too, died of cancer.

Mrs. Feistel was fortunate enough to become Mrs. Burton, and the new Burton family moved to Rittman, Ohio, for Mr. Burton to be a preacher in a city with around 6,000 inhabitants, at Calvary Baptist Church, . He says, "you have to be lost to find Rittman, Ohio" and he's only half-joking. In Rittman, there is a grand total of one Chinese restaurant.

Mrs. Burton spent several years telling strangers, in Chinese, about Jesus. If there is a Chinaman anywhere near, she will be ching-shung-chimmy-ching gong-chong telling them all about how to avoid hell and gain heaven.

The woman who runs the only Chinese restaurant in Rittman, is Chinese. You may be excused for your lack of surprise when I say that Mrs. Burton got this woman's ear and started talking, and now she's a new Christian, learning about how to be a good Christian, in Chinese.

Was it worth it for those two vintage Christians to die so that hell bound sinner could get saved?

Maybe that woman will touch someone else's life and that someone else will lead the nation on a path to revival and a renewed nationwide Christianity. Or maybe, just that one woman will be kept out of Hell. Was it worth it then?

It seems that God thought so, or at the least, it is an acceptable part of His design.

Both of the people who lost a spouse in this case struggled with the loss, and wondered what God might be doing. Eventually, they came around to the perspective God wants us all to have, and accepted that his way is best, even when his motives seem inscrutable. So help us all, O Lord, to accept what you have for us without murmuring or complaint.

Obey Your Last Order First

In the U.S. military we have a general principle that all must follow: Obey orders in the order you received them, or "obey your last order first." In addition, we have a somewhat related principle: do as you are told, and any complaints you may have about your orders may be registered AFTER they have been carried out.

As with all general principles, there are some exceptions, but here is an ideal infantryman: He will not march off a cliff when told to not march off the cliff. If, after being told not to march off the cliff, he is then told to march off the cliff, he will march off the cliff. . . and he may feel free to complain to the next person up his chain of command, after he hits the bottom.

There are several reasons for these principles, most of them written in the blood of dead men. In this case, the lieutenant who gives the order knows, and the sergeant who delivers the order suspects, but the rest of the platoon is ignorant of the fact that the cliff is only 2 meters high, and being at the bottom of it will prevent the platoon being mowed down by a strafing enemy aircraft in the next 10 seconds. If they took the time to explain to the satisfaction of the last man, they would be explaining to dead men, so they train for OBEDIENCE RIGHT NOW, of the last order you were given, and "because I said so" is more than sufficient explanation.

I met a man who used to be a 'dirt eater' and was wounded in the current war against faithful muslims radical islam terror, who now has clear direction from the Lord, and goes to places where he stands at great risk of harm, at no small expense, to do what he knows he was told to do. He it was, who expressed to me the following:

The last words of our Lord Jesus, just before he left, were in effect "get out there all over the world and tell people about me." That was the last audible verbal command anyone ever received from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. To an ex-soldier, this is the last order he was given, and (after a process of getting his mind right and getting over himself) he realizes that he is to be about carrying out that order. So should you.

Yes, yes, and so should I. We should "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" but don't be too hard on my laziness, please, remembering the childrens' song:

God's still working on me / to make me what I'm going to be / I took him just a week to make the moon and stars, africa and asia, jupiter and mars / how loving and patient he must be / He's still working on me"

Oh, NOW I See What He Meant

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.

Bitter and Clingy is right at step 2. Progressives want you all the way to step 8 already.

Sorry, some of us still like being at step 2, and we are clinging like all get-out but we're probably happier than you would believe.

Military-Style Weapons Have No Legitimate Sporting Purpose

Because, I suppose, marksmanship is not a legitimate sport? What other explanation can you have for a rifle built on a military design, specifically to participate in match shooting sports?

I mean, really, how can you say it has no sporting purpose, when it's even called Sporting Rifle?

That's a leftist/government school logic class joke, in case you missed it.

Uncle shows us this amazing stroke of semantic GENIUS by STI against the people who think a Militia has something to do with "Sporting Purposes" and "Shall not be infringed" means "Shall be restricted in every way imaginable"

Of course, it doesn't even make a dent in a hoplophobes defenses that there isn't a single street gang member out there who is going to spend his crack sales money to the tune of $1800 to buy a cognitive-dissonance-inducing gangster http://www.stiguns.com/idx.html?guns/SportingRifle/SportingRifle.html">sports rifle.

America's Lost Decade

Japan's Lost Decade is a subject of much discussion in economic circles recently. Well, Americans like to have everything and now we have a lost decade of our very own. Congratulations! It's a 12 Year Record!

Yesterday the commentary was that we were at stock index levels not seen since 2002. Well, we weren't growing as fast last decade as we were this decade (duh, the bubble was inflated in this decade) and stocks continued to fall today. Today, the markets have closed at levels approximately what they were in mid-1997. The markets will continue to fall.

We have largely given back all the gains of the bush and clinton and bush years.



Welcome to 1997.

Hold on there.

The government you keep re-electing has over-regulated (deregulation is the opposite of the problem in this case) the free market to the point that it finally collapsed under the weight of its own insanity. What were you making in 1997 doing the same job you do today? If you get fired, look for wages about what you would have made back then. The positive side for you as an individual is, if you keep your job and if we keep a capitalist system of government, prices are going to fall to those levels too.

TSA Wants To Screen You . . .

. . . before you get on your own private aircraft, at the BFE podunkville airport.

Your tax dollars at work, people. Heck you never know somebody might get in their company's G5 and smash it into a building designed to withstand a hit from a 727 and smudge the paint on the outside of the building or something. . .

Of course, if you are a Federal agent, you can take your duty sidearm on the plane with you . . . and they will confiscate your nail clippers.

.

.

.

Thomas More To Represent Savage Against (un)Fairness Doctrine

Dr. Savage complained nobody was mentioning it, so I'll mention it. He's already staved off one attack from butt-hurt muslims who didn't like him speaking truth about them, and now he's got a huge lot of help. The Thomas More Law Center has agreed to represent him pro bono publico if when the next battle in the war against free speech comes his way.

May God defend the right!

"Conservative talk-radio host, Michael Savage, and the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, have joined forces to challenge the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.” Several liberal senators and former President Bill Clinton have made recent threats to muzzle talk radio by reinstituting the Doctrine, which is reminiscent of a totalitarian state and not a free democratic society.

"“Michael Savage is the personification of what the liberals hate about conservative talk radio, and we’re proud to represent him in this crucial battle to preserve the grand purpose of political speech protected by the First Amendment,” said Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center."

Maze Is Good For You

Cubicle Buddy and I listened to Maze on the way into work. 35 minutes of driving and 4 songs got played. That music was from a time when you didn't have to cut your songs at 2:59 or the radio stations would and no wonder they had "Happy Feelings." I sure do.

Worse Than The Great Depression?

Yes.

"The credit bubble that just popped exceeded that preceding the great depression, not just in the US but worldwide. Thus, it is unrealistic to expect the deflationary bust to be anything other than the biggest bust in history. Those looking for hyperinflation or even strong inflation in light of the above, are simply looking at the wrong model."

Click the link above and read the whole thing (it's long) if you think all the money being printed and borrowed right now is going to lead to near-term inflation. The contention is made that the Fed would have to print about GDP x 25 to even make a dent in the depression.

Sidney Poitier is a Marxist @sshole

... told CNN he thought it would be a good idea for everybody (not just banks that take the bailout $) to have a $500,000 salary cap.

If you don't understand how this would destroy the economy of our country, you need to go talk to an economist who spits whenever the name Keynes is mentioned.

Madness @ Work!

He got by for two years with hollering and gesticulating wildly, arguing with the old General Manager and both company owners.

But it only took a couple of weeks of hollering and gesticulating wildly with the New Manager (formerly Warehouse Manager) to get the job done.

fireD!

Here where I work, there is a long standing tradition. If you leave, your work area will be raided by the vultures remaining employees.

Well, K.E. is gone and the raid is largely over now. I got a drill press, a couple of (hen's teeth around here) channel-lock pliers, a hammer, various chemicals and tapes and other small hand tools, and a tripod that is, for some reason, short.

One of the other guys who is going to take over working on computers, went and snagged an external DVD drive to use the Ultimate Boot CD to break into computers . . . he was heard laughing maniacally when it worked like a charm on the first try.

Aaah, the fun of working at a small company.

Miley Cyrus SUED for Being Offensive

TMZ has the photo here

Note: the asian dude in the photo doesn't look like he's being offended and discriminated against. Unless they are steel-hearted racist bastards, all the people in the shot seem to be having a good time making a fun joke. The asian is a round-eye and everyone else is a slant-eye. Haha, get it?

I really, really hope the judge tells the asian racist agitator goldbricking [deleted] who brought the lawsuit "case dismissed, with prejudice, all legal fees for the defendant to be paid by the complainant". Anything else is plain BS.

Oh, and if you are asian, and this offends you, realize something: it is not directed at you and you should not take personal offense. You racist. Get over yourself.

Congolese People Figure Out Why I Am The US Militia

From Fox News

Things have gone to pot in Congo and Uganda, but you knew that.

What you may not have known is that the Congolese town of Bangadi has discovered the hard way that, when you call for aid from your own government and the international community, they won't necessarily come.

They got together and planned for the time when rebel fighters would come to Bangadi intent on murder, rapine and pillage. The attack came, and the rebels were repulsed with high casualties. The repeat attack came, and the rebels were repulsed again with zero dead amongst the people of Bangadi. How?

Because the people of Bangadi had a fighting spirit and an unwillingness to lie down and be trampled on. They had a few guns, and now they have a few more taken from the rebel fighters.

Unfortunately, before they figured out that they could do for themselves, they called for help. When it became apparent that they didn't need it, the help was finally sent and now the soldiers sent to Bangadi are unpaid, unprovisioned, and soon to be a net drain on the people of the town. Unless they grow some balls and go on the offensive this could still go to pot, due to the fear of the people to go into the fields and get food. Oh, and the international hand-wringers are concerned that the armed populace may go on the offensive. Yeah, they should and you should arm them or leave them alone, but we'll see what happens.

Christians, pray that these people should be led to Christ, and that they should succeed in their battle with the rebel forces against the people of Congo and Uganda. If you fancy some merc. work, you might propose an expedition to Blackwater, but good luck getting Congo to pay for it.

According to US Federal law, the people (not the National Guard) are the militia. This sort of story is one reason why individual citizens owning military arms is a good idea.

Obama Housing Plan To Promote Theft?

New buzzword to listen for (and remember i told you): Obstructionist. See below.

Rumors are circulating around the talk radio shows that BO's plan to fix the housing mess in the USA is going to include a provision for lowering principal balances on loans. It is clear that Barry O' thinks this is A Good Thing to Do (and we must Do Something!)

Hold on there.

Let me be quite clear about this:

A cram-down that forces the bank to accept a lower principal balance IS THEFT of principal from the lender.

How? They loaned you $100k for your house. You are now obliged to pay only $70k for your house. They will never recover those $30k. They have been robbed to the tune of $30k. Why would anyone make a mortgage loan in an environment where this can happen?

Well, sure they will. For people with excellent credit, who are willing to pay higher interest rates. This will cause an escalation of the same credit standards-tightening that is being decried as "not lending enough" and "too hard to get a loan" already. Just wait for the howling to begin when banks' actuaries figure out they need to charge 9% on a 1 year ARM and 8% on a 30 year fixed note.

If you don't see this as a logical result of President Obama's plan, you are mentally deficient. Sorry, but you are. He is. Dr. Savage calls this particular mental disorder "Liberalism."

The only good thing I can see coming from this morally corrupt action by the President is higher taxes coming in to the treasury. Wait, what?

Because you have been given $30k in equity in your house, the IRS considers this the same thing as being handed $30k from your boss for a job well done. You will be taxed on it. That puts you from a net gain at tax time to paying several thousand dollars to the IRS, and disqualification for the "earned income tax credit" as well as additional child tax credits. You people who screw your banks out of principal will be screwed by the IRS AND YOU DESERVE EVERY BIT OF IT. You don't care about dishonor? I hope you get to care about paying taxes (like the evil rich people do) for a change.

There are two things that could modify the above, and both of them mean you (the taxpayer, not the @sshole screwing your bank) take even more of a bath.

a) tax liability for the "income" from gaining equity in your house could be waived, depriving the .gov of a pretty fat source of income from you that year (theft without consequences)
or
b) Uncle Sugar picks up the tab and pays your lender the difference in what the bank is going to get from you and what you signed a contract agreeing to pay them. This is a potentially huge drain on the national coffers but it wouldn't surprise me to see the Communists @ the Dept. o' the Treasury go for it. After all, it's our money, see, not your money.

If you don't think so, you are bad.

If your Elected Heroes stand in the way of this evil action and the attendant assaults on the rights of Contract and Property, they are to be labelled OBSTRUCTIONIST and against the poor poor pitiful poor people. SCREW. We need some partisan politics when the alternative is stealing peoples' money to pay other people for doing dishonorable things to counterparties who acted in good faith.

Why should the bank take a bath? Because they signed a contract? You signed the same contract you jerk and I think YOU should take a bath.

I am beginning to understand why there used to be such a thing as Debtor's Prisons. Because this is just as evil as murder. Hit me up in comments if you want to know how so.

Etymology of "Testimony"

Testify, Testament, Testimony, all have a common root: Testis or Testes.

Hey that sounds like . . .

Yes, those testes.

Before there was a Bible to swear on, going way back in history, they needed something else that held extremely high value in the eyes of a person who was making an oath. Something to swear by, that everybody had. Well, everyone who would be making an oath of any importance had two of these, so they would put the left hand there and raise the right hand. The Romans swore oaths that way, but that's practically yesterday.

A few years *ahem* before Rome was established, Abraham said "Put, I pray thee, they hand under my thigh" (to make an oath). His servant (slave) ". . .put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that matter."

Did you ever wonder why Abraham had his slave put his hand under his master's thigh? It wasn't to touch his hamstring, it was to establish a testament.

The squeamish and argumentative P.C. crowd will say the root-word has a different connotation. When the American Heritage Dictionary mentions the body part explanation as the first one in the Word History footnote I'm going to go with them.

Now you know.

No, You Should Say "Micro Farads" (Not "U F")

One of the guys at work is the most recent, but not the only, one to annoy me with this.

Capacitor capacity is rated in Farads or a portion of a Farad. The symbol for 1/1000000th (micro) is µ. It looks a lot like a u. It is also a special symbol, and some capacitor manufacturers (especially air conditioning & motor manufacturers) mark their products in "uF" instead of "µF". Some mark them MFD or mfd, which is confusing because 1/1000th (milli) is designated with an "m", and the first letter of micro is also (drumroll) "m". Also, "M" is the standard symbol for 1000/1 (mega) and I don't think any one yet has made a 1MF capacitor, so we are somewhat safe in assuming mfd is an abbreviation of millifarads.

Uncross your eyes. They use confusing markings on capacitors sometimes.

But please, please, please: if it says uf, pronounce it microfarads. Not "U.F.".

Also, if you mean Zero, please say Zero, and not "Oh".

Words have meanings and measurements have meanings. Get it right or you might be the subject of someone else's rambling blog postings!

BOO!

California Legislature Adjourns with No Budget!

Seriously? SERIOUSLY? You can't set aside your pet spending projects, even when your State is bankrupt? You really can't agree on a budget bill? Wow.

Do they think the problems witll just go away by magic?

YOU HAVE TO STOP GIVING MONEY AWAY
YOU HAVE TO STOP DRIVING BUSINESSES AWAY
YOU HAVE TO STOP PUNISHING TAXPAYERS

Duh?

********

Oh well, I'm sure everything will work out just fine somehow, la-la-la-tra-la!

Good People of California, remember that you elected them!

********

Wow. Just wow.

Obama Special AR Full-Auto Receiver

Uncle showed us a link to this gem.

If all the internal parts were there to go with the "yes we can" it would be pretty popular. . . if there weren't hundreds of dollars in taxes and a background check to go with it. Stupid Federal regulations.

Presidents' Day

Boo.

I'll celebrate Washington's Birthday, and maybe Lincoln's Birthday. But if you ask me to lump Carter and Clinton and Obama in there with 'em? No. TR yes, FDR not just no.

I say again: Presidents Day: BOO!

Action Item: Petition Your Texas Legislature for An Open Carry Law!

Folks, it is downright dumb that, in Texas of all places, you can't walk around with a gun on your hip. We already have rules against them being used to do Bad Things, so why not let the Good Guys have them out in the open? What, you don't want any of the sheeple to experience feeeeeeear? Get over it, Liberty is scary and dangerous. I'd rather have a rule that says "anyone but felons" but "anyone with a CHL" is more likely to pass as long as we have hoplophobes speaking their peice also.

NOTHING will get done, however, unless you and I tell our Elected Heroes what we want!

The following came in the mail and I plan on taking action as requested. Please do thou the same and maybe, just maybe, we'll make Texas a safer place to be, in spite of the efforts of that OTHER McCarthy.

********

Dear Texas Open Carry Petition Signer,

At over 55,000 signatures, we sure have come a long way in the fight to decriminalize open carry in the great state of Texas, but we're not done yet!

We still have not had a bill introduced this legislative session.

All you need to do is take 10 minutes out of your day and give your State Representatives and Senators a call and let them know that you signed the petition for open carry in Texas and that you would like them to introduce an open carry bill this session.

Here is a link to find your Representatives/Senators and their contact information:
http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/

Not sure what to talk about? Here are some talking points:

* Oklahoma and South Carolina have already filed NO-LICENSE open carry bills this legislative session in response to petitions that are almost 18 TIMES smaller than the petition for Texas!
* Arkansas is following suit as well.
* Open carry also helps to protect CHL holders from wrongful arrest if their firearm becomes exposed.
* If a bill is not filed this session, Texas could become one of just 3 or 4 states that criminalize open carry.
* The current drafted bill by Representative Riddle is for licensed open carry. This means that the people with CHL's that are already carrying handguns would simply have the option to carry openly.
* If open carry gets legalized, it will not be a return to the wild west as many critics argue. Is it like the wild west in all the other states where it is perfectly lawful to openly carry a firearm? No.

If your Representative or Senator is not supportive of unlicensed open carry, ask them how they feel about licensed open carry.

Any step in the right direction is a good step.

You would be surprised how big of a difference a few phone calls makes. Let's give them a few THOUSAND!

Working Hard For You,
Ian McCarthy
Chairman - Texas Open Carry Work Group

A Glimpse Into America's Future?

Hugo Chavez has won a great victory for Socialism in Venezuela. He is, after a constitutional amendment just voted in by the people of Venezuela, allowed to run for President again. As I read this article on Yahoo! News, I noted that

a) there was a sizable minority against the change, committed patriots who are still working within the system (not yet to the "shoot the bastards" stage)
b) the change was voted down a few years ago
c) the President got a new constitution for Venezuela shortly after he first took office, which limited him to 2 x 6years in office. He was in favor of limiting the number of terms . . . back then

and

d) put yourself in the U.S. of A in 10 years, after a handful of elections have gone toward the Socialist/Democrat side most of the time, and consider:

If you substitute Obama's name for Chavez', and strike out the part about how Chavez was a soldier, is it too far-fetched to think this article might be written about OUR nation?

********

If you favor a Constitutional Convention to reform the tax code, remember what happened the last time we had a C.C. to reform the Federal government. And for crying out loud remember the LOW QUALITY of our current politicians! NO! Just say NO! to a Constitutional Convention for ANY stated purpose! For as long as any of the current crop of jerks is in office!

Are You Fewer Than 10 Steps from Running Water?

Then thank God.

You could be like these people.

Also, please take a moment and pray for the Christians in Sudan, especially in the Darfur region. You might be afraid of embarrasment when you pray over your lunch, but they could very well be eating their last meal because they were seen praying over lunch.

Celebrating Birthdays (etc.)

It is the custom of one of the wife of one of the owners of the company to bring in a cake or two when someone in the company has a birthday.

One of the men here at work had a birthday yesterday, but he was off work that day.

Today, he brought in a pile of hot dogs, buns, chips, and condiments. And there was cake. Seven-up Pound Cake. 'long around lunch time this fellow came through and announced it was time to eat. We went and enjoyed his largesse, wished him well, ate cake, enjoyed each other's company, and went back to work. That has got me thinking.

Two days ago, a man I knew died of old, who had lived what I consider to be an acceptably full life. He was a Good Man and died just past his 91st birthday. His 90th birthday was celebrated by a party with something over 50 and under 100 attendees, with recitations, music, and a meal. That was a good time.

My last birthday, I got exactly what I asked for: Nothing.

For whatever reason, to date I have been a bit of a spoil-sport when it comes to birthdays. I never much cared to celebrate them, although getting a present I wanted was not altogether unwelcome. Today I think my mind is beginning to change.

I had a good time at those two birthday celebrations, and I thought to myself how nice it would be if, at each man's birthday, he brought in $20 worth of cheap food to go before the free cake, and everyone would have a good time, wish him well, and get back to work.

This last Christmas was the first time anyone ever said in my hearing (and it wasn't even said to me) that we give presents at Christmas so that others may practice receiving them, to memorialize the receipt of that greatest gift ever given to our pathetic race.

This past Wednesday, #2 was most ungrateful and rejected a valentine from his sister, despite the candy attached to it. I chastised him for it and said part of being a man is being gracious and part of being gracious is allowing others to present us with gifts, without turning up our nose at them.

I realized even as I said it, that I might as well be lecturing myself. It is turning out to be better for my own character than I thought it would be, to be a parent (thank God).

So, then, I begin to realize by paying attention to those around me that they enjoy celebrating my birthday as well as the birthdays of others, and that there may be something of some merit to this valentine's day business after all.

Last year I said "Valentines Day is For Jerks" and I stand by that, but I have some meditation to do on the subject.

In related news, I discovered quite by accident a few weeks ago that deep thought is short-circuited by the televisor being on, regardless of what is being shown (and there is nothing much worth watching anyway).

The older and wiser I get, the more I realize the poverty of my own rearing. It may be just as well that I don't remember much of my younger days at all, for I don't seem to have derived much benefit from them.

Stupid People "Protected" by Stupid Police

Okay, I'll grant you that it may not be the smartest thing (these days) to bring a dummy grenade to school for show & tell. But in a building full of ostensibly responsible and well-educated adults, nobody thinks to just take it away from the child and have the parents come to school to get it? Hello? Can you not look inside the big hole and see that there's no explosive inside? Do you really have to evacuate the whole school?

I guess those 'educationalists' went to the same firearms recognition training as the people who reported a man with a long gun near a high school . . . that turned out to be just a bundle of sticks. Of course, the police officers who responded had also gone to the same training, because, instead of a single officer approaching and having 2 minutes of conversation, a bunch of officers showed up and converged on him with guns drawn. And then they searched him and ran a quick record check on him.

The future of our country (the children in government schools) is being acclimated to this type of activity. What will they tolerate from their government, when they are grown?

What will you tolerate today? If this happened in your city, would you be one of the ones who called the chief of police to call him a dumbass?

Or do you let it slide (again) because it's just an isolated incident? Consider: would these police officers have had a job tomorrow, 50 years ago? 100 years ago?

A New Type of Ball Point Ammunition

This is the one I reloaded, a .30-06.



Available for a small fee. Email me if you can't figure out how to do this for yourself.

The Ted Spread is Back Down

Well, lookee there! I had stopped checking it daily, because it seemed to be stuck around 2. Now it's back down to 1.

That means either the economy is turning around, or people have stopped trying.

I'm guessing, for now, the smart money has stopped trying to grow and started heading for the T-bill. As always, time will tell.

Austin: Keepin' It Weird (and SUPER Expensive)

I heard on the radio this morning on the way into work that Austin is plainning on building a solar electricity generation facility. It is expected to cost about $10,000,000 per year. As I told a co-worker:

In the first place: Huh?

And second, I thought power plants were supposed to make money.

Ooooooh that's right, it's green so being in the red is okay.

I had heard about this before, but the proposal looks to be getting more serious so it's time to start making fun of it now.

Here's the money shot as far as the watermelons on the city council are concerned:

Even though the Webberville plant would be huge, it would add a relatively small amount of power — 30 megawatts — to the 2,900 megawatts the city can now generate, Solar energy is more expensive than alternatives such as natural gas, nuclear and coal, which produce more pollutants and political objections.

Note: pollutants from fossil fuels are arguably a concern. Political objections over nuclear plants make me want to pull somebody's ear. I still haven't put out my rant about nuclear fuel, have I? Hmm. I'll remember to do it sometime soon. For now, we'll just not mention how much pollution is required to MAKE solar cells, and how they will never give as much energy as it took to produce them.

I guess solar generation of steam (solar power tower) for driving a conventional turbine would be just too unconventional. I thought they wanted to keep Austin weird. Maybe they mean weird as in, we'll use the least efficient means of electricity generation possible.

Oh well.

Ontariao Police Officer Should be FIRED

This is disgusting.

OPP officer caught going 50 over

If you are going 165km/hr in a 100km/hr zone, you should be arrested. Your car, of course, would be impounded.

If you are a policewoman (or man) and you do it STREET RACING in an unmarked police car you should be FIRED the same day.

Failure to enforce the law breeds contempt for it. Police officers should be held to the highest standard of compliance with traffic laws when they are not in process of responding to a call.

Marlin Model 60 Trigger Job

This page was last updated on 15 September 2011 with a word of encouragement for those who have never done this sort of thing before.

DISCLAIMER: On this page, I tell you how I improve the triggers on Marlin self-loading carbines. If you choose to do what I tell you how to do here, you do so at your own risk. This page is presented for informational purposes only and you bear full liability for any property damage, injury, or death that may occur because you messed up your rifle. I am an amateur gunsmith (for love of the art, not for profit) and whether you or I work on your rifle, any of the activities discussed below will almost certainly void the warranty on your Marlin. If you know someone who will undertake to do this work for you, the majority of it could be done if you sent only the complete action and trigger assemblies, without sending the FFL-required receiver or a whole weapon.

The work described below was done on Model 60 rifles, but your Marlin's action should be very similar. This trigger rework will also work with minor (if any) variation for Models 60C, 60SN, 60SB, 60SS, 99, 99DL, 99M1, Glenfield Models 99G, 60G, 60, 65, Models 60DL, and 60SSK, as well as Revelation model 120 or any of the other private label/rebadged rifles from Montgomery Ward, Coast to Coast Stores, Western Auto Stores and Cotter & Company. Marlin Model 795, 795SS, 70PSS, 7000 and Papoose rifle owners, this should work for you as well, according to several readers' comments.

For the curious: Yes, you might hire me to do the labor detailed below. It would cost something like half what a new Marlin 60 would cost at retail. Several readers have asked if I would work on their rifles and all have turned away at the price; let me turn you away also: You CAN do this work. Read this page through, try to memorize which part is what on the parts diagram, then read it again. See how there are a bunch of steps, but each step is simple and logical. Then get out a good screwdriver and take the stock off your Marlin. It is easy to take off the stock, and then you are half way there. Look at the pictures some more. The tools I use are (mostly) not specialized tools. In the very worst case, replacement parts are available for most modern guns if you mess it up . . . but you will be so confident and careful . . .

Go on, try just opening the stock and looking inside . . . :D

********

Once upon a time, I took my newly-acquired Marlin Model 60 out shooting and shot it until it was so dirty it started to malfunction. I noticed that the accuracy was pretty good, but I also noticed that the accuracy would be better if the trigger were better. Sure, you can train for trigger control, but you shouldn't have to fight a weapon that you have in your own personal arsenal just to keep it on target.

Stock, the trigger felt like a Glock's trigger: one long, creepy, stacky pull, with a slight but obvious hitch right before it let off. As with a Glock, you can learn to live with a trigger like the one my rifle had. But you're not here because you want a Glock trigger on a rifle you might need to give you dinner tonight.

After the work I am going to describe to you below, the trigger on my latest reworked rifle feels entirely different. It has two very distinct stages, and a crisp release; it gives no notice it is about to trip. It's no glass rod breaking at 2lbs, gunsmithed-by-angels 1911 trigger, but it is much nicer than it was before. It breaks at 3.6lbs. One reader reported that his trigger went from 9lbs to 4.5lbs after this work. If you want a cleaner, lighter, shorter trigger pull, keep reading.

Tools Required:

Medium and smallish flat-head screwdrivers

Needle-nosed pliers (maybe)

Gun cleaning stuff (for me, this means CLP, an old T-shirt cut into 3" squares, and q-tips)

Fine sandpaper. I used 1200 grit and that was plenty coarse. If you have finer you can use that, but I wouldn't go any coarser than 600 grit on this job. I used CLP on wet sanding paper for the whole job. Honing stones would also be handy

For spring modifications, heavy-duty cutting pliers and coarse sandpaper (200-ish grit)

First: Check to be sure the weapon is unloaded.

Then check it again.

Please click both of those links and then come back. Go ahead, I'll wait.

For those of you cursed with good eyesight and who therefore do not walk around with shatter-resistant eyewear 24/7, now is the time to put on your safety goggles. Reader Cyde Ways pointed out that we're about to have springs under pressure potentially flying across the same space where you have your eyeballs. If there is nothing between your eye and the spring, you'll regret it. Glasses on.

Then disassemble the rifle. Remove the two screws holding the barreled receiver to the stock, and remove the action from the receiver. Remove the screw holding the trigger guard assembly to the stock and remove the trigger guard assembly. Set aside the barrel/receiver, stock, and breech bolt. You will only be dealing with the action and trigger.

Wait, what?

If you are lost, either stop and turn your weapon over to a competent gunsmith, or keep studying here and elsewhere online until you understand everything on this page.

Right, let's all get on the same page. That page is in the back of your manual. The parts diagram and parts list page.

NOTE: Google reduces image quality on this page to speed up page loads. Click on any image to see it at full size and resolution.




This is what the action looks like properly assembled.



Clean the action if it needs it. Seriously, this is somewhat delicate work, and you are going to have your fingers all over the place in there. You'll want it clean.

I am certain the people at Marlin don't do it this way, but I found out by accident how to remove the hammer spring very easily. Push the hammer down to cock the action, then push the disconnector forward to fire the action. The disconnector is part of the left hand sideplate, part 51, and it doesn't come off during this procedure. Push the little hook part to which the orange arrow points, to fire the action.



You may have to push surprisingly hard. If your rifle is like mine, the hammer spring will go flying across the room. The hammer strut bridge (circled in red) rotates enough to let the hammer strut slip out of (or into) the hole in the bridge.



If the hammer spring was not released, you will have to do it another way. Reader Jim emailed me and said he could not remove his hammer spring by letting it all fly to pieces when he fired the action, so a few more comments are in order on this point. I have taken down actions without removing the hammer spring before removing the sideplate as described above, and it is nothing to worry about. Reader Martin emailed and said, if you don't want the hammer spring to go flying, you can have it your way. If you want to make life easy on yourself when you reassemble the action, and you are not going in there to cut the hammer spring (this time, see below), you can ensure the hammer spring remains on the hammer strut, and the strut bridge will be correctly placed in the action. Before disassembling the action, cock the hammer. Note the hole in the end of the hammer strut:



Cut a short piece of a heavy duty paper clip or some other stiff piece of wire, and insert it into the hammer strut's hole.



Loop the wire to form a ring, and fire the action. When you get the action taken down far enough, you can remove the hammer, its spring, strut, and bridge, all in one assembly. This is also possible to assemble after the hammer is out of the action with the spring and bridge loose, but I had to use an assistant's hand as well as both of my own, because it is a bit tricky. Possible, but tricky. This tiny bit of wire is a HUGE help when it comes time to reassemble the action, because there is no fooling with the hammer spring when everything is loose, about to be put together. It just drops right in.



Skip the hammer spring retention paper clip for now if you want to have the action all in pieces. Fire the action to reduce the amount of potential energy inside, but if that does not free the hammer spring, you have several choices. Before I cover them, I will mention that your hammer strut may be too long, and these methods will not work if it is.

First, you could try pulling a little on the hammer in the "fire" direction of motion, to see if the strut slips out of the hammer strut bridge. Another thing to try, if it looks like you are aaaaallmost theeeere is rotating the hammer strut bridge a little to let a corner of the strut out of the hole in the bridge. Your sideplates may have been machined differently to mine, so rotating the bridge may not be possible. If it seems you cannot remove your hammer strut spring before removing the sideplate, it is no great worry. Just remove the sideplate anyway and remember there is one more spring-loaded part inside.

Whichever method you use, a rag or a hand placed over the action might be a good idea, on the off-chance that the action does attempt an auto-disassembly.

Speaking of springs, here is a closer look at all of them, before you send any more of the little things flying.



If your rifle has the automatic last shot bolt hold-open, you will have one more spring to deal with:



Remove the 3 small pin rings (E clips) holding the receiver side plates together by prying gently with the tip of your small screwdriver. There will be 4 clips if your rifle has a last-shot bolt hold-open feature; you need not remove that fourth (larger) E clip, unless you are going in for a deep cleaning. Don't pry the clips up away from the sideplate, pry away from the pin along the surface of the sideplate. Place the action clips-side up. Gently pry and pull until the plate comes off the works. I heard from Ron Atomic that these clips look an awful lot like the clips that hold radio controlled cars together. You might check your local RC hobby shop if you need a new pin ring.



The feedthroat is held in largely by spring tension. Moving the spring off the top of the feedthroat caused the feedthroat, cartridge lifter, and ejector lifter spring, to fall out energetically into my hand which was waiting on top of the receiver in case this sort of thing should happen, like so:



to prevent it flying apart. The feedthroat may be a snug fit in the sideplate, but go ahead and lift it, the cartridge lifter, and the spring, off the action. Pull the hammer and hammer strut bridge out of the action and set these parts aside for now. If the hammer spring was still installed, be careful not to let it, or the hammer strut bridge, go flying away.

The sear is held back with the sear spring. Note in the image below, how the bent leg of the sear spring lies against the sear as you take it apart. The end of the bent leg rests inside the sear when you put it back together. Unclip and pull the spring out, and pull out the sear.



The disconnector spring is also coming out. Note that BOTH ends of this spring are hooked, so be a little gentle when you pull the ends out.





The tip of the sear (blue arrow) goes into the groove on the base of the hammer (red arrow) when the action is cocked. When it is fired, the sear rides on the larger-radius face of the hammer as shown. When the action cycles, the sear rides very briefly on the smaller radius face of the hammer (to the left of where the red arrow points). You want to smooth out the round bottom faces on the hammer and make the edges straight and flat on both sides of the groove where the sear goes. The point is to have smooth metal rubbing against smooth metal. You want to smooth it. You do not want to remove metal unless (as on some hammers) there is some funky machining on the part already. When this trigger rework is done, you will have a freshly-shaped sear edge riding on these surfaces. Don't leave them rough so the sear will get all ground out of shape again!

Do I really have to say it? I will anyway: rub with your sandpaper in the same direction the parts rub against each other in the gun. Ready? Let's go.

The tabletop made a flat-enough flat surface, and I put the sandpaper on it and rubbed the larger radius of the bottom of the hammer smooth. Then I wrapped my sandpaper around the charging handle (any flat, rigid, small thing will serve) for a sanding block and smoothed the smaller radius face as well.



You want these faces to remain flat. Using a very fine grit sandpaper helps smooth it all out without risk of changing the geometry.

Bend and crease your sandpaper and rub inside the little groove where the sear sets, to make the inside faces flat. The edges on the corner of the groove should be straight and square and slightly sharp, but not razor-sharp. If the edges are too sharp, they will break under the stress of normal operation. When you are done, go back and give them a quick, gentle swipe with the sandpaper just to "break" the edge.

This action has a worn spot between the disconnector and the sideplate.



This is an obvious source of friction, whether your action is this badly worn or not. I used the disconnector as a sanding block and sanded the inside of the receiver rail, then flipped the sandpaper over and held the sandpaper to the rail, sliding the disconnector to smooth the hidden face of it. Sand it down until it feels like the disconnector is sliding smoothly on the sideplate.




Orange arrow: I squared off this face a very little but mostly smoothed it out. This is where the disconnector acts on the sear. Changing the geometry of this part may result in your weapon not being able to fire, so be careful.

Red arrow: This is one of the very most important parts to get right. This face of the sear rubs the hammer. When the corner slips out of the groove in the hammer, the hammer falls. You want this face to be smooth as a baby's bottom, and the edge to be as close to dead square as you can get it. If the edge is farther into the hammer on one side or in the middle, your trigger release is going to be sub-optimal (creepy). The whole face of the corner slipping away from the whole face of the corner in the hammer in the same instant is what you want. Again, you are smoothing the face of the metal, not removing metal. If the finish is gone all the way across this face of the sear, you may have gone farther than you needed to. PLEASE NOTE: if you change the angle of this face, you will either increase trigger pull weight or, going the other way, render the rifle less-safe, possibly up to the point where it can have accidental discharges*. Keep the geometry the way it was!

Blue arrow: This one is a little tricky to get with the charging handle/sanding block. You want to smooth it a little and so make the red arrow/blue arrow corner sharper and straighter. Don't go nuts on this part, it is really only touched up to get the corner into shape. When you're done with this face, very lightly "break" the sharp edge you just made, as you did on the hammer.

There may be some very minor burrs on the edges of the holes in the sear. Deburr the edges with a knife. Then hit the holes with some sandpaper like so:



Making the holes bigger will lead to slop. Just smooth it.



Put the hammer and sear on their pins on the sideplate. Rotate them. Do they have any grit or resistance to rotation? Then wrap your sandpaper around the hammer and sear pivot pins and lightly smooth them out as well. The idea is to have them rotating smoothly. Only do this if they don't, and then only do this until they do.



*Be careful not to go too far. Removing too much material at this point will make your rifle a display piece. If your hammer has zero engagement with the sear, it will never stay cocked. That means either the action will never fire, or it will fire 100% of the time as soon as the bolt closes. I am NOT sure if the action will fire hard enough to discharge a round from the rifle as the bolt closes; I only mention it because if it did then this is a dangerous condition! I don't know about you, but sometimes I charge my rifle with a slightly lighter grip than I use when firing. Just imagine what would happen to you if it fired the entire magazine when you were holding it with that loose grip. Or your child. This is NOT the way to convert a Marlin to automatic operation. As far as I know, there is NO WAY to convert a Marlin .22 into a machine gun. The other possibility is that, because the hammer is riding the bolt as the bolt flies forward, the firing pin may strike the rim of the next cartridge before the bolt is fully in battery. Do you really want to find out if it would have an out of battery explosion, with only the side of the cartridge casing trying to hold in 25,000PSI with a couple thousandths of an inch of brass? Really? I don't. All removing too much material from the sear/hammer interface could do is prevent firing or else remove your control over when the rifle fires. This is not select-fire, this is DANGEROUS. Do not remove too much material from the hammer/sear engagement surfaces. You have been warned. Back to work!

Use your finger as a sanding block and smooth out the spot on the top of the trigger where the disconnector rubs. Just make it smooth. The top of the trigger (at the top of the image) rubs on the rear face of the disconnector.



The corresponding wear on the disconnector is also plainly visible:



Gently smooth that also.



I read several reports of good success using the cover spring screw from a regular 3.5" floppy disc in place of the trigger reset spring so I decided to go for it. I pulled the trigger guard assembly out and measured the pull weight of just the trigger reset spring. It was 1.1lbs. That's one pound of pull, JUST to move the trigger! There oughtta be a law! Well maybe not, but at least we can fix THAT without much trouble. There are two screws that hold the trigger guard in the bottom of the stock. Remove them and the trigger guard assembly pops out as a unit. For those of you who will forget to note which screw came from which hole, here they are all lined up:



And here is the whole shebang, before disassembly:



Note that the trigger pivot pin is swaged on one end, and should NOT be driven through the wrong way. Drive the pin out to the left, as shown



The parts of my rifle which I can reach are clean. I am a member of the Cult of Shootaguncleanagun. Look what came out with the trigger reset spring:



Clean the trigger out with q-tips until it rotates smoothly.

Try compressing the stock trigger spring by hand. It digs into your fingers. That spring is strong. The spring on the left is the one I made from a cut-and-bent floppy disc cover spring. It bends very easily by hand.



I read that one person gave up on this spring replacement because his trigger wouldn't reset with the new spring installed. Mine wouldn't either. The spring jammed into the gap between the trigger and the guard. I noted that the spring seemed to "want" to sit wherever it was placed, either by the trigger or away from it. The problem is, there's nothing to hold the end of the new spring away from the trigger.



Okay, I said, lets move that spring away from the trigger. A bushing was made from another short piece of a heavy-duty paper clip. It moved the spring away from the trigger, but the spring would still get lodged between trigger and housing. I used a pocket knife to cut a tiny notch into the trigger guard.



The spring fairly leapt into its new seat, and stayed there like a champ. Done. I broke out the force guage again, and the same trigger that was over 1# to move, now did not register on the gauge at all.

One of my Marlins had a hammer spring that was unreasonably difficult to reassemble into the action. This would also tend to cause un-necessarily hard firing pin strikes AND a heavier trigger pull. I cut the spring down. That is, I cut ONE (only) whole coil off the end with heavy-duty cutting pliers. This is the end of the spring, stock:



I used 220 grit sandpaper and rubbed down the cut-off end of the spring, so that it would have a better chance of sitting flat on the hammer strut bridge without damaging anything:



It ended up looking like this:



Reader Martin emailed and said he also had good success cutting his hammer spring. I have seen reports of light strikes (failure-to-fire) when other people cut 1.5, 2, or more coils from their hammer springs.


You're done. Put it back together and enjoy. Assembly is the reverse of disassembly. Before you put the sideplate back on, you want your springs to look like this:



After it looks like that, all you have to put in are the lifter and feedthroat. You do NOT have to springload the feedthroat yet. N.B.: the bolt hold-open spring goes on the pin inside the ears of the sear, with the sear spring, not outside the sear!



When all the sideplate retaining clips are in, THEN spring load the feedthroat. The top end may fall into its groove on the feedthroat by itself, but it is easy enough to place. Use a flat screwdriver to push the spring down into the action



There is a little cut-out in the lifter that looks like the spring gets hooked into it. That's not where the spring goes.



Keep pushing. The spring goes all the way through the action and hooks on the bottom of the lifter. It also hooks onto the bolt hold-open lever.



If your bolt hold-open won't hold the bolt, it is likely you didn't push the spring all the way down to its the proper location on the bottom of the lifter. The lifter spring may be a minor hassle to install the first time you do it; this is normal.

In case you were wondering, yes, you can spring-load the bottom of the lifter first, and then put the top on the feedthroat. I find that to be the hard way. If you put the lifter spring in upside-down the action will not seat properly into the rifle when you go to put it all back together. If you try to screw the action in, you may damage the spring.

For the disconnector spring, put the disconnector end in before the sideplate end. The sear spring, as mentioned previously, has to sit just-so against the flat front side of the sear to hold itself in there. Put the sideplate back on, and push the clips back on their posts. If you removed the buffer, be sure it goes back in (!) before installing the sideplate. lightly oil all the parts that rotate, and very lightly grease (with a good gun grease) the parts that slide against each other. Reassemble the rifle.

For those worried that the bolt hold-open might have been reassembled improperly, you shouldn't lose any sleep over it. That mechanism is fairly straightforward if you have already come this far, but if it makes you feel any better, this is what it should look like from the outside when properly assembled:



And pushing on the lever (as to release the bolt) only makes it do this: (hint: the bolt hold-open catch by the feedthroat is down in a groove on top of the sideplate in the following photo)



One reader caused me some mild distress at this point. He did as I instruct on this page, and his action would not fire! It turns out he had reinstalled the hammer strut bridge the wrong way round. If it is inserted incorrectly, the action will not be able to fire. IF your action will not fire, have a quick look at the hammer strut bridge. It may have a circle rubbed onto it by the hammer spring. It definitely will have a cut out for the disconnector. It (properly) only goes in one way. Thanks [redacted to prevent potential embarrassment] for your feedback!



Now you need to test the trigger. Pull the bolt back and let it fly forward (or release it with the hold-open release). Pull the trigger, slowly and gently. That's nice, right? Don't do it much, you'll ruin the face of the chamber and/or the firing pin with dry firing. Find a spent casing to put in the chamber if you want to go showing everyone.

What's that?

You wanted it lighter still? Okay, reduce spring tension further. I have seen one sideplate with a small hole drilled in it just below the lifter spring post. The end of the sear spring was inserted into the hole. This would reduce the amount of tension holding the sear into the hammer. While this is likely perfectly safe with positive hammer/sear engagement, it gives me the willies thinking about a sear that might be so loose it gets knocked out of the hammer by a sharp impact to the assembled rifle. You might also be able to relieve some of the disconnector spring's tension. Unless you are going for a match rifle, you may want to leave the sear and disconnector springs alone (see notes on safety, below).

That's about all you can do to your Marlin's trigger to improve the crispness of release and lightness of pull. If you want a shorter first-stage pull (takeup), you can have that too. If you want to have a one-stage (no take-up, just a crisp let-off) trigger, that may also be possible. It may also be ill-advised (see notes on safety, below).

You can also install a set screw at the rear of the trigger guard to prevent trigger over-travel. If I get to it, I'll append this page with instructions on how to do this modification as inexpensively as I can figure out how to do it (not everyone has a tap & die set).

Use a high-strength, high-temperature epoxy (some people have used J-B Weld) and put a daub on the trigger where it contacts the disconnector (or the disconnector where it hits the trigger) and sand it down. Take off a gnat's whisker thickness at a time from the blob of epoxy with fine sandpaper, then reassemble the rifle and check for function. Be sure the receiver is seated all the way back in the stock (the relative geometry changes depending on how far back the action sits in the stock). Remove epoxy just until the action will reliably reset. If the epoxy is too thick, your rifle may not function properly. Another method I have seen is to install a very small set-screw into the top of the trigger where it rubs the disconnector. This would involve drilling and tapping the trigger, and you would want to polish the rubbing end of the set screw and use some loc-tite on the threads, but it seems like a good idea for those who like to tinker. The best image of a trigger set-screw I have seen to-date was made by, and is here used with the permission of, HotRod9mm at RimfireCentral.com:



He says to make sure it is offset to the left, so that it will touch the disconnector.

There are two pins in the trigger guard assembly. One of them has a relatively humongous hole in the trigger. This is possibly due to the constraints of mass-production techniques. You are not mass-producing. Several people at rimfirecentral.com have reported good success when they installed a short length of .014" or .016" thickness brass or bronze tubing around the inside of the hole in the trigger. This is reported to take up some of the first stage travel and prevent over-travel. It is also reported to interfere with proper function of the safety, so some filing may be required to have a functioning safety (please do the filing, see notes on safety, below).

I am eager to do the pin bushing modification. I am not ready yet to build up the face of any of my triggers.


A brief note about the safety catch on the Marlin 60 action: It is pretty chumpy.

Check this out:


There is a little tab on the back of the trigger. That tab bumps into the safety pin you push through the trigger guard to set and release the safety. The safety is basically a doorstop for the trigger (similar to the SKS' safety lever). Anything you do inside the action to make it tend to fire more easily, will NOT be made less effectual by the safety. You should try to make your internal modifications either safety-neutral or "intrinsically safe" - they should have the effect of making the action move away from firing.

Now a longish note about the action in general, heavily laden with my own personal opinion.

The Marlin 60 action/trigger is a two-stage design. The first stage is actually two stages itself, in stock form. Properly (safe and reliable being part of 'properly') set up, it will still be a two-stage trigger when we are done in there. The first part of the first stage of the stock trigger pull is taking up the slack in the trigger itself. This is a short distance of light resistance pushing against only the trigger reset spring. You may not even notice it. The trigger will eventually touch the back of the disconnector. The main part of the first stage of the trigger pull is the trigger pushing the disconnector forward until it touches the sear. The disconnector is spring-loaded to about 1-2lbs.

I am a fan of two-stage triggers, but you may not be. This action CAN NOT BE safely modified in isolation (without the receiver and stock to which it will be mated) to the point that the first stage of trigger travel is eliminated. There is too much slack in the stock where the action mounts. It is possible to rework your trigger so that, when the action is set slightly (thousandths of an inch) forward in the stock, it is safe. The same action, moved back just a hair, would be completely unreliable and a hazard even to load. It is NOT a "set trigger" type of action. It is a two-stage trigger. You can set up the trigger with a very short and light pull, but in order to be reliable the trigger must have some first stage to it. Look at this gap (between the sear and the disconnector, action out of the rifle):



That is a small gap, maybe 2mm. When the first stage of the trigger is comletely taken-up, you have pushed the disconnector forward to this point:



The second stage of the trigger is the (very very short) amount of travel required to push the sear out of the hammer, firing the action. If you should decide to install a set screw or add epoxy to the front of the trigger where it pushes the disconnector, you absolutely MUST take this gap into account! When you are adjusting the set screw or shaving the epoxy, please, please, for the love of everyone on the range including yourself, check this with the assembled action in the stock with the trigger guard/trigger assembly installed in the stock also. If there is any play to the trigger guard's mounting area, set your trigger as far forward in the stock as possible before tightening it down for this procedure. Then fit the action into the stock, without the barrelled receiver, and slide it as far forward as it wil go. Note that the nose of the trigger is completely OFF the back of the disconnector. This is the longest-travel scenario for your trigger pull (unless the trigger guard assembly is mounted farther back but that would be against the point of this exercise). Now slide the action straight back in the stock. Notice as you slide it, that the trigger first touches, then pushes on the disconnector. It may push the disconnector through as much as HALF of its travel. If you add more thickness to the front of your trigger, than is taken up when you slide the action back in the stock, you may end up with an action that will not (or not reliably) reset, or you may end up with an action that will discharge with the slightest touch of the trigger or even a light impact to the rifle itself.

Isn't that the idea, VFD? I thought the point of this exercise was a light trigger!

If you use your Marlin only as a match gun, this might be just the ticket. You, dear reader, are of course 100% responsible and would never violate any of the Four Rules. You, I trust absolutely (which is why I wrote this page instead of only running an advertisement to do Marlin trigger jobs in the first place). But here's the thing. If you think you may ever hand it to anyone else, you are putting your neck on the line. What happens when someone used to a 6lbs two-stage trigger puts her finger in the trigger guard with your 3oz. trigger? Bang, is what. This is not a safe condition for most people's rifles. This is also not so great for hunting. If the rifle will fire when you are jostling through the trees or trying to get into a firing position, you've missed and frighted your game. In my opinion, you NEED to have a bit of first stage travel in this type of action.

When the action is as far back in the stock as it will go, and the trigger as far forward as it will go, you want your work to leave at least several (read: 10+) thousandths of an inch between the disconnector and the sear when the safety is set and the trigger pulled back, HARD. That is to say, set the safety and pull hard on the trigger, and see how close the disconnector comes to the sear. If it has a little gap, you're golden. If there is no gap, you may effectively have a single-stage trigger on a rifle with no safety. If that's what you are going for, go for it, but I recommend against it for safety's sake. There may also be so much preload on the disconnector that the action will not reset, which is not so great for having a working rifle.

The second stage of trigger travel is very short, and when you are done working on your hammer and sear it will be shorter still. Because of the potential hazard, I recommend doing the rest of the trigger job, installing a trigger pivot bushing FIRST, then finally doing any trigger nose buildup you think you need to do. You are responsible for the safety of your own weapons.

I'm ready to go for it! I loves me some set trigger action!

Consider this then: It is just possible that you will not put your rifle together the same way every time. There is too much slop in the receiver-to-stock fit. It is possible you could give yourself a very light single-stage trigger when the rifle is properly assembled, but when it is off by 0.002" you could have a rifle that will not reset. The problem with this kind of not-resetting is that the hammer will be falling as fast as the bolt flies forward after ejecting a spent shell. Firing out of battery may be possible, and could be harmful or fatal to you or an innocent bystander. This is bad, mmkay?

Good luck!


If you liked this article, you may also enjoy my SKS trigger job DIY

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me using the email address at the bottom of this page.