How To Tell If A Bullet Has Been Fired

One of the class members asked me how you can tell if the bullets in a revolver have been fired. That's a good question.

Swing open the cylinder and look at them. The ones with dents in the middle (like those on the right) have been fired. The ones that are not dented in the middle (on the left) have not been fired.



You could also just look down the business end of the gun and see the tips of the remaining bullets, but that is generally not recommended!

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Update with one more photo:

This is what you will see when you swing open the cylinder of a revolver with all "fired" cartridges:

Shooting is Good for the Environment!

You want proof? Okay, how's this: steel cased ammunition ends up adding iron to the soil:



Steel core bullets also contribute iron, as well as copper.



Okay, it's a lame joke I know but I couldn't resist. I did think it was pretty neat that the steel cases disappear on the ground almost as well as a deer when it stops moving. Also, I can't get over how cool it is to recover bullets out of the backstop.

In related news, I found a few handgun bullets as well. The rifling marks on one side got sanded off by the sandy clay ground. These were shot into targets on the ground at a shallow angle, dug a trench, and skipped off toward the backstop. They looked good enough to reload, almost. So I almost reloaded them:

.40S&W:


.380ACP


For those who can't tell, those bullets were just stuck back into their fired casings. Unless they were pulled for that purpose with the proper equipment, you should generally never reload fired bullets.

Finally Bit The Bullet

My son, that is. #3 is tough as nails. He's so hard core, he chews on bullets instead of a teething ring!

In related news, no it's not live, it's spent. You would be surprised how much he really wanted to gnaw on that spent .30-06 brass. Generally speaking, he had a LOT of fun playing in the brass box. What brass box? Stay tuned folks, the full writeup of Schutzenfest 2009 is coming hopefully tomorrow.

A Trillion Web Pages? Seriously?

Sure, it's old news but I just found out about it.

Google indexes a trillion web pages. No wonder you can always find what you want. Rule 34 image searches included (ewwwwww!)

Please NOTE! If you don't know what Rule 34 is, do NOT make your first investigation into the matter on Google Image Search (especially with safesearch turned off).

I'm A Trendsetter!

One of the guys at work turned me on to the idea, so I started doing it. Now half the people where I work do it.

Nobody in my neighborhood did it, then I started and now look what's happened:

"Hey, Somebody Go See What The Guy With The Machine Gun Wants."

This story was related to me by W.S. who avers it is true, with himself as the Pilot in the following scenario. The time is somewhere in the middle of the Cold War, and the aircraft is a USAF C-130 Hercules.

The airplane is waiting for a load. The men are bored. The Navigator gets out and starts snapping photographs. Of an Aeroflot airliner. On a runway in Ankara, Turkey. For some reason the locals took offense at the taking of photographs and a large number of guns showed up, held by men in a surprising variety of uniforms. Then my friend, the pilot, had the good grace to say

"Hey, somebody go see what the guy with the machine gun wants."

The Flight Engineer didn't want to go, so the Navigator went. He lost his camera but they were able to fly out of there with the entire crew, so I suppose it could be considered 'not as bad as it could have been.' I pointed out that, if they were thrown in Turkish prison, at least they could have had a turkish bath . . . .

Pain Free by Pete Egoscue

I used to wake up with a knife in my left knee. Now, it only gives me a twinge when I do something really dumb. For a while, every few weeks I would get a crick in my neck that would not go away. Now it's gone for good.

Yesterday my Darling Wife's back was hurting to the point that she could not live a normal life anymore. As I predicted she would, she finally broke down and asked me to go through the routine described in Pain Free for her back pain. We did the e-cises for knees that are rotated inward.

Hold on there.

Knees for back pain? Yes. If you read Pain Free, you will know why.

At any rate, last night was a typical result. After only one session of the zero-impact, no/low effort therapy laid out in Pain Free, her sciatic nerve is un-pinched and the only pain is residual from low-back muscles that are sore from cramping (seizing) trying to keep her from falling over sideways.

If your bones hurt for any reason. If your muscles hurt for any reason. If you have strange unexplainable pain and doctors are starting to throw around terms like "cortisone injections" "thousand dollar joint braces" and "surgery" then do yourself a favor and spend $15 on this book. You don't have to live with a stiff neck, sore knees, or bulging or herniated vertebral discs. You probably don't need to spend $400 on an orthotic shoe insert.

Don't be so stubborn. You know it's something simple the doctors are missing (or would, if you would go to a doctor). Get Pain Free.

If you absolutely insist on "being seen" you have that option as well. Heck, it's even expensive so you don't have to feel like you took the cheapskate route. Go to the Find a Clinic webpage at www.egoscue.com and see which of their 24 Egoscue Clinics is nearest you!

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Yes it's a sales pitch. No, I have no dog in this fight. I derive no benefit of any sort if you buy a copy of Pain Free or visit one of the Egoscue Clinics.

I just want you to stop living in pain.

Don't you?

Supreme Court To Review Strip Search of 13 Year-old Girl

From Flex Your Rights:

So a 13 year-old honor student (in government school, where else?) is suspected of having drugs. You know, the real hard-core smack, literally ones (two, total) of ibuprofen pills. Dangerous stuff that. Have to regulate it, zero tolerance and all!

Zero tolerance = zero thinking allowed.

She refused to produce the pills (because she didn't have them) so two (female) school staffers had her strip to her knickers, then shake out her bra & panties.

This, understandably, was disturbing to the girls' parents (who undoubtedly thought it was a "good public school" that was warehousing their daughter). They won at the 9th circuit court of appeals.

Good.

The SCOTUS has agreed to take the case.

Bad? Why does SCOTUS need to hear this 4th amendment case from the 9th circuit?

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Just mark this down as reason #n that I don't want my children being "educated" in government schools. Oh sure, they would never do this in your school district. Right. You go right ahead and think that. I'll do my best to act surprised when the next headline news story is from your child's school.

End of day update: Reason n+1: a co-worker just told me that his 6 year-old learned a new phrase at school: lick your girlfriend's vag!na. Isn't that cute? Look how well-socialized the boy is! Terrible. Just terrible.

Getting Ready

I went out and dropped some coin last night. This is the first time I have ever been in the category of "thousands of rounds of ammunition" in my house and I like it.

A significant portion of what I will be bringing tomorrow:



Note that the number of cartridges there would be higher, but Kel-Tek is very proud of their spare magazines (nobody else seems to make them) and I needed a fresh bottle of Hoppes #9.

Now we just need to whomp up some food for the pot-luck meal and then it's just a few hours and a wake-up.

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In related news, the price of 7.62x39mm ammunition has gone down a buck-and-a-half since the height of the panic (read: just after inauguration day). Good.

Madness @ Work!

One of the men here is taking a college mathematics course. He put one of his homework problems on a whiteboard to show the crazy equations they are doing in his class.

LB went in and put the numbers below on the board. WM went in there and tried to solve it.

R₂D₂
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C₃P₀