Dispatches

February 20th, 2023
(Monday)

Wisdom does not come with age. Wisdom comes from making observations and following that observation through with rational thinking.
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One should never shoot faster than you can assess the threat.
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Camping is learning. Learning to improvise. Learning to adapt. Learning what to pack, what not to pack, and what to never forget again. Camping teaches you to think, in the sincerest form, if you do it enough. We all “think” we think, but in reality we have “thoughts”. The two are very different. One has to to talk themselves into viable solutions, sometimes inwardly, sometimes outwardly, and those solutions don’t always work the first time. I’ve spent many a deep and quiet time inside my own mind only to be heard saying aloud “Think Stupid. Think.” Or stand almost motionless for twenty minutes in my workshop formulating a plan, or design imagining the project through to completion. That is thinking.
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Some men go on to become who they were meant to be. This is not always a good thing.
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Now that we have all questioned authority to the point we understand that it should be kept an ever watchful eye on, perhaps it is time that we question a few additional things. Such as, lacks in discipline, morality and this ever present chaos being pushed down our throats.
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The job of the tactical community is to teach one how to think tactically. Not teach one how to purchase.
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There is a significant amount of difference in how well one can see fifteen minutes before sunrise versus how well one can see fifteen minutes after sunrise. A little patience goes a long way in waiting for situational clarity.
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Communism always cloaks itself behind social injustice because it relies on deceit to seduce all of it’s victims.
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“Sensitivity makes cowards of us all.” – Florence King
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There is this on going notion that both the revolver and the 1911 pistol are antiquated with no place here in the 21st Century. I would like to point out that the most advanced military in the world, with nearly unbelievable technological resources has recently been left mystified by the fact that the “Chinese Spy Balloons” are undetectable to our tracking systems. 18th Century technology married to that of the 21st is now seen as a threat to our national sovereignty.
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Of that note, the topic has been “will we soon be at war with China?” One should point out that we already are. The populace tends to think of the spy as wearing a tuxedo, bedding women, and carrying a PPK. The reality is that the job of a spy is to spot and recruit sources to sensitive information, sow seeds of dissent among those fringe elements who will, with the right encouragement, commit acts of sabotage. Of course pointing out the several dozen fires at food processing plants, avian bird flu among chickens, shooting power transformers, train derailments carrying toxic chemicals that poison the ground water is nothing more than wild conspiracy theories. The average American is now completely unfamiliar with the such things as guerrilla warfare, insurgency, and saboteurs. Worse still is the willingness to suspend the belief that it is happening all around them.
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“Marksmanship is one thing, but crisis management is still another.”
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The free market has one glaring difference from that of Communism. No mass graves.
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Greatness is never fully maintained. If something starts out as a “great thing”, it will , if left on it’s own path break down as it progresses forward. Often growing bigger with more machinations than ever needed until the “great thing” eventually comes to ruination. A thing that was once “great” must suffer set backs, and near destruction in order to avoid being destroyed. Nothin is too great to fail.
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Having sympathy for another person’s plight is one thing, being manipulated by it is another.

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As a kid I was profoundly terrified of the the dark. In my mind there was always something terrible just beyond the reach of my hand waiting . To overcome this became the great challenge of my remaining childhood. Eventually, learning to overcome this allowed me a great advantage in my adulthood, often to my professional credit. I have crossed many miles of land and city scape in the dead of night without the aid of a light, or a sense of dread. But it took a lot of mental toughening to accomplish this. I say that, to say this, be cognizant of children and their fear of the dark. Do not mock them for it, or worse ignore their fears. A light left on, a door cracked open is a reminder to them that there is a safety in you. There remains a hope that if you understand this not so small thing to them, then you can be counted on. And to be counted on, dear reader is in short supply these days.

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April 10th, 2022
(Sunday)

It is best to remember that human behavior is complicated.

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“Science investigates. Religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power, religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly in facts, religion deals mainly in values. The two are not rivals.” -MLK

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It should alarm all of us that we have devolved to such a place that the National Park Service has to issue PSA’s reminding people that their cell phones are not a light source, a map, survival kit or always going to have reception. One would think such things are obvious to the point of being laughable, until you see people on the trail.

For instance we once were day hiking a mountain in Idaho to see an alpine lake near the summit. We encountered a young couple on the trail who were coming back down wearing shorts, t-shirts, flip flops and were sharing a bottle of water. When we asked if the made it to the top, the young man said “I wouldn’t try it, we keep twisting our ankles”.

He would have been surprised to have discovered a moderately, yet properly outfitted eight year old made the climb without incident.

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Apparently CZ-USA has discontinued production of their extremely fine, and compact CZ-527 bolt action rifle chambered in 7.62x39mm (the infamous AK round for those of you outside the religious order). I was fortunate to pick one up late last summer and have thus far run a couple hundred rounds through it.

The trigger is superb, as is the fit and finish of the blued rifle to it’s Turkish walnut stock. I did replace the rear barrel mounted sight with one of NECG’s stellar peep sights.

It is currently at the local gunsmith having it’s action glass bedded, along with one of Dove’s Custom Guns “Scout Rails” drilled and tapped onto the rifle. I look forward to it’s return and future writings on this particular piece.

The shame is that CZ halted the production of this rifle, but it shows one more nail being placed in the coffin of nice firearms being produced for the American shooting public, due to being out marketed by the Walmarting of America.

The plastic 9mm pistol and AR style rifle is fine and all, but there is much to be said for enjoying other things in life beyond the status quo.

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I admit to being late to this news, but Federal Ammunition has released a new cartridge called the .30 Federal. According to the data it falls somewhere between the 380 ACP and 9mm in the ranks of energy.

Now clearly, innovation and new ideas have to be tried to see what sticks. That is after all how we have every cartridge of this current era, but this hardly seems the time. While I am no great fan of the 9mm per se it undoubtably reigns supreme these days (with good and obvious reasons).

I have a very distinct memory of reading of a then new secret “10mm Lite” that was set to take the world by storm way back in 1989. This of course was the 40 S&W and it ran well for a good many years, primarily during the AWB years. It effectively killed an odd ball competitor called the 41 Action Express, that had a rebated rim of that of a 9mm, so it’s pistol, the Jericho 941 could easily convert from 9mm to 41 AE. No one of course really remembers this round, and it does not take much bandwidth to see that the 30 Federal cartridge may be as easily forgotten ten years from now. Of course there will be some segments of the “Must have new trend” crowd that will latch onto it in some small way, but it lacks any real viability to do anything better than what is already being done. We have after all the 9mm Makarov and 30 Luger, which is poplar in Europe, that already falls in this category.

But, who can say. Cartridges like the 38 Super, 357 SiG, 41 Magnum and 32 H&R Magnum have managed to hang on.

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Most of us are old enough to remember that adults who had predilections towards talking to children about sex were called sexual predators.

There were numerous “after school specials” and “movies of the week” back in the day that dealt with warning children and parents alike about the grooming techniques of said monsters.

Now we call them Progressives.

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Be the culture you want to see in the world, to borrow a phrase. Because lest you have not noticed we are in a rather rapid descent to the ground level of the next dark ages.

As with the original period, this came about with the fall of a western empire. Specifically the Western Roman Empire when Romulus Augustulus was deposed by Odoacer in 476 AD.

When Frederick Nietzsche proclaimed that “God is dead” he was issuing a warning, not a celebration as many a modern Communist and atheist would believe. He warned that man’s future inability to find meaning in life would result in nothing short of a global catastrophe for humanity.

In his own words, he noted “What I relate is the history of the next two centuries. I describe what is coming, what can no longer come differently: the advent of nihilism… For some time now, our whole European culture has been moving as toward a catastrophe, with a tortured tension that is growing from decade to decade: restlessly, violently, headlong, like a river that wants to reach the end, that no longer reflects, that is afraid to reflect.”

It’s no wonder, faced with such a prophetic vision of the future he died in madness.

Thus we are tasked with combating the despair and hopelessness of the current, with the sincerity that life has meaning, and that there is value in living.

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Midway through 2020 I had the opportunity to purchase one of Smith & Wesson’s 325TR revolvers chambered in the old war horse cartridge (the 45 ACP), built off their N frame, though made from Scandium to reduce the weight. Without question it is a large handgun in it’s own right, despite weighing very close to that of a loaded Glock 19.

Stowed in one of Mike Barranti’s Summer Classic In-the-Waistband rigs, it carries like a dream and one can achieve remarkably fast reloads with moon clips. Despite it’s bulk it has moved to the front of the pack as my absolute favorite carry and general use pistol. Recoil is completely manageable and in no way unpleasant for a typical range session, and the engagement of targets out to fifty yards has been no issue.

Given that the general loading of the 45 ACP is the 230 grain bullet I think Smith missed the boat by not building the six gun with a stout set of fixed rear sights instead of their traditional adjustable sights.

Personally, I think a seven shot version built in identical fashion but on their K frame and chambered in 9mm would make for an outstanding revolver. A three or four inch barrel being ideal.

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“Need is a relative thing and without a proof-positive performance benchmark, it is also something that is damned hard to prove. Needs vary as do the speculations on how to fill them. Your needs and speculations on fulfilling them do not support the alteration of another man’s concept, they only mold and define yours.” – Richard Mann

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A few years back we had a client, despite never having been diagnosed with schizophrenia certainly exhibited many of the characteristics. Most notably her bizarre paranoid tendencies. One of these was the sudden awareness of large amount of electrical wiring that ran throughout her basement, that according to her “suddenly appeared overnight”.

Upon investigation this proved to be the wiring that provided power to her home. When we made several attempts, including showing inspection dates for approval down to throwing the breakers to the off position thus powering down the house, which led to an moment of behavior that one would have believed we had transported someone from the 16th century to present day middle America.

She was at the time, and for several months prior to our involvement living on two hours sleep a night, and less than a thousand calories a day. All of this culminating into a perfect storm over her mental and physical health.

I have since learned that long term increases in cortisol levels mimic schizophrenic types responses in the brain. With paranoia and hallucinations being very prevalent.

Never underestimate your brain’s need for not only rest, but food as well.

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Far too much nonsense has been made about the so-called “tactical reload”. It was originally conceived to reload your handgun should you find yourself in a brief lull in the fighting. Today it is how one “teaches” handgun tactics as a social media influencer as they are largely responsible for it’s general misuse and misunderstanding.

All of this clicking, popping, and racking came about from the “modern auto-pistols” failure to be repeatedly dry-fired without racking the slide. It has now turned into the abomination you now see amongst “the reels”, where our social media hero fires a single shot from their fully loaded pistol, changes magazines for another fully loaded magazine and then completes the course of fire. I have had this explained to me, by persons who are members of the single shot cult as “not understanding”.

Allow me to part with some very worthy advice. Use as much ammunition you already have in your pistol, because this is where the rubber is going to meet the road in a gunfight, and you will likely resolve your bad life circumstances with the first few rounds. If you find yourself in the middle of a gunfight and your gun runs dry…then one should reload.

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“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease.

Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.

For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.”

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer