seanp's Blog

That's exactly what we'll be voting on tomorrow.

Steady as she goes, maintain the country and economy...

OR

Let's fuck around and re-engineer society with a carbon tax... etc... and let's ban guns again, because that worked last time... LOL Just kidding. We know it doesn't work because its already been done. But it makes good press. So let's fake it again and spend a few MORE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON IT.

You know, it is amazing to me that for the first time the incumbent PM is an ACCREDITED ECONOMIST, and the opposition parties dare to suggest he doesn't understand the economy?

Phenomenal.

The long and the short of it is that you are right though.

Either it's going to be, "Ok, everything is normal, no need to rock the boat", or it's going to be, "Good morning, I am Stephan Dion, Prime Minister of Canada", and we will enter a new dark ages.

Sorry I haven't been contributing to the forum too much lately. Even though I've gotten over most of my personal issues, there has been one thing that has taken up a lot of my time.

And that is the election tomorrow.

Here in Canada, our national election day is tomorrow.

I know that those of my friends on this forum from the US will be concerned with their own upcoming election,and those in other countries will not be much concerned either way.

Still, I would ask, if you can, spare a thought or a prayer for me tomorrow.

Because it is very, very, very important.

There is only one serious and credible choice for Canadians to vote for tomorrow, but it is by no means certain that we will vote him in.

So far, Canada has been able to avoid much of the turmoil that the US has suffered in the banking industry. This is because of stern leadership from the incumbent Prime Minister, who refuses to knuckle under and coddle special interest groups. This is because of a leader that refuses to bow to fear mongering to take artificial "steps" to "correct" things that don't need correcting.

All of the other parties running in the election have candidates that want to engage in social engineering.

At the taxpayer's expense.

This is not the time for that kind of dodgy experimentation.

Steady as she goes is the phrase of the day.

That's the way to go in these waters.

Well, I don't know about kissing anyone's ass, but as a Canadian I am thankful for the US Navy.

I don't think that anyone could seriously argue that the world would not be a far different place - and not for the better - without the US Navy. And the armed forces of the United States in general.

Probably many people do take that for granted, or even object to it. But even for those that don't, there is a very real understanding that the simple fact is that the United States is probably the only country that is prosperous and technologically advanced enough to even field such a force.

At the end of WW2 Canada had the fourth largest armed forces in the world. But the cost to the nation was enormous. One in ten Canadians was under arms. That means the majority of adult males under sixty. It's not possible to sustain that kind of effort for any significant period of time. And, I would argue that it would not be possible for us to do again. In WW2, Canada had a unified, homogeneous national identity, something that we do not have today. Even the relatively small expenses that we do have for our military seem to need justification. Sadly, our fragmented national culture just will not make the sacrifices it once would.

So, last night I was really not in a good mood. My wife was at the hospital to get blood tests for my two year old son who might have eaten rat poison a few days before. The blood tests are to check his clotting factors to see if he actually ingested any of the warfarin.

So I was generally not a happy camper anyway.

Around eight o'clock I went out to get some stuff from the truck, and I see a guy walking his dog on the berm.

Some background: My house faces the corner of the TransCanada highway and there is a huge berm there as a noise barrier. The berm is quite large and is a good place for a scenic walk. People come from all of the inner neighborhoods of the city to walk their dogs there. Which is fine. Except for when their dogs take a crap there and they don't pick it up. That irritates me pretty bad for two reasons: A) I like to walk along that berm too, and I hate stepping in dog crap. B) In the spring, the smell of decaying dog crap after the snow melts is stomach turning.

So anyway I watch this guy walk his dog on the berm. I watch his dog take a crap on the berm. I watch him and his dog walk away from it. HE watches ME watch HIM.

That's a bit to much to bear. I mean if he had been even remotely shame-faced about it... but no.

"Hey buddy," I shouted, "Did your dog just take a s**t there?"

"What?"

"I said, did your dog just take a s**t there?"

"Yeah."

"You aren't going to clean it up?"

"No. I never do."

So I called him an a**hole, and that might have been the end of it, except that then he says, "What are you going to do about it?"

Now, I just about burst out laughing.

There are just too many levels on which that was funny to even begin to address.

Anyway, I told him I'd report him to city by-law enforcement.

"You do that," he says.

I say, "Ok, then, if you're fine with that, you won't mind telling me your name and showing some ID so I know where to send them?"

He was not fine with that.

To make a long story short, things went on from there. It turns out that he lives just down the block, so we sort of came to an understanding.

Still, we're not going to be having any BBQ's together.

Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. But I'm sick and tired of letting people get away with crap like that. I think that a lot of how society has slipped is down to stuff like that. We don't speak out about the little things. We don't say anything when people are rude or inconsiderate. We don't want to rock the boat. Don't want to make waves.

Maybe in the interest of neighborhood harmony I shouldn't have said anything, or maybe I could have handled it differently. I dunno.

What would Ogre have done?

Seanp - I said the differences between the Canadian '16 (the C7, not the C1, my bad) and the American '16 were no where near the same difference between the Russian and CZ rifles. "Not even..."

-skaramine

Yes, and I acknowledged that.

The point that I would emphasize though, is that there were "significant" design differences. Differences enough that the SAS selected the Diemaco made AR's over all US made products of the time. It's kind of a moot point now, as all of the Diemaco "improvements" are standard features on ARs, and Diemaco has actually become Colt Defense Canada.

That had been kind of my point. They LOOK alike, but the difference between the C1 (that's what they call it) and the M-16 are minor. They might have been the first flattop AR's.

-skaramine

No. The C1 is an FN-FAL rifle. It is actually called the C1A1, which means: Canada One Amendment One. The Amendment is the design difference between the Canadian service rifle and the FN factory model. The major changes in the Amendment are a smooth plastic carrying handle instead of a grooved one, and a cocking handle that folds against the receiver.

AR type rifles are C7's and C8's.

I think theirs were the first to be topped with dedicated optics.

-madogre

Correct. The Elcan. A lot of guys going on rotation to Afghanistan these days though privately buy Eotechs.

If the British military M-16's were "Canadian versions" they were still M-16/AR-15 platforms, not even the level of difference between an AKM and a Vz58.

-skaramine

Can't believe I missed this topic.

Anyway, skaramine, at the time there were significant differences between the Canadian made rifle, called the C7 and the American rifle, the M-16, though not as much as the AK vs Vz as you say.

The C7 was made under license but with notable improvements. It was the first to have a brass deflector behind the ejection port and an integrated pic rail, features which are now pretty much standard on AR's. The barrel was also heavier in contour than an M16 and it was never issued with triangular hand guards, the ribbed round ones were there from the start.

My commendation on your survival and handling of the situation.

I'd like to make a few observations and ask some questions if I may:

Based on the picture of the seat, there seems to be surprisingly little blood spray, especially given that a major bone was broken and fragmented. Was there subsequent major hemorrhaging? Or were no vital arteries hit in spite of the severity of the injury? Were you wearing a garment that restrained blood spray/loss subsequent to the initial penetration?

If you can tell us, what was the brand, loading, bullet weight, and type of bullet that resulted in the injury?

I notice that in the initial post you mentioned that the bullet had expanded and just wanted to confirm that this was so. I don't know if you can say or not, but did the bullet expand in the way it was intended to - spreading out like flower petals - or did it "crown out" or crumple from the jarring impact of hitting the bone?

Sorry to sound ghoulish, but wound ballistics is an interest of mine and there are damn few opportunities for a non-medical practitioner to get first hand observations on the subject.

Now I'm surely not doubting that force plays a big part in it, but at the same time I ask myself, "how does somebody take an elk, moose, or bear with an arrow if it's a simple matter of F=MA or KE=1/2MVsquared?" because an arrow flying from a bow sure as hell doesn't generate as much force as a lot of rounds people wouldn't use to hunt elk, moose, or bear.

Penetrative wounds on an organism kill in three ways: Hypovolemia (blood loss), disruption of the nervous system, and destruction of critical tissues. The more rapid or massive any of those three effects are, the more certain is the lethality of the wound and the quicker that lethality is arrived at.

An ice-pick inserted into the carotid artery can be applied with minuscule force, but is certainly lethal. Inserted through a flap of skin it would be painful, but not too harmful.

A shotgun slug striking a finger represents vastly more kinetic energy but is unlikely to be fatal. A shotgun slug to the head would be catastrophic to the recipient.

Firearm projectiles also differ from traditional penetrates like knives, in that bullets produce both a temporary and a permanent wound channel.

In terms of creating a blood loss situation, an arrow is a tremendously more effective instrument than even a .45 caliber bullet, because the broad head is much wider than a half inch, and cuts through blood vessels in its path like a scalpel. It's passage through tissue is unimpeded because the razor sharp contact surfaces generate little friction to slow down the passage of the arrow. In solid tissue, friction on the flat areas of the broad head and shaft will slow down and stop the arrow relatively quickly, but the relatively "hollow" thoracic cavity allows the arrow to penetrate deeply. The heavier the arrow, the deeper it goes. That's a physics concept called "inertia"

What does this mean to us? Bigger hole = more blood loss = more lethal. Whether it's an arrow or a bullet.

But as I mentioned above, high velocity penetrates have slightly different wound characteristics than slower ones. This is in the creation of the temporary and permanent wound channels. Illustrations of these are very evident in the "ballistics gelatin" tests which are abundant on the Internet.

The long and the short of it is this: Higher velocity bullets produce bigger wound channels, temporary and permanent. This has lead to the idea that "speed is king." In other words, a 22 caliber bullet at 3200 fps produces huge wound channels within a certain range.

It only penetrates 10 inches though.

In Cypress, there is a report of a peace keeper who shot one round out of his L1A1 (7.62)... and killed six people.

What this means is that very small projectiles need very high velocity to produce acceptably lethal wound channels.

A larger, heavier projectile will produce an acceptable wound profile at a much lower velocity at a much greater range.

I'd like to mention to the "bigger is better" crowd that I've been shot by a 230 grain HP .45 ACP from 2 feet.  It did NOT instantly cripple me nor did it take my arm off though a year later I am still working through bone grafts and healing.  Bigger is not a magic recipe to instant kills.

I think that the phrase "inquiring minds what to know" is applicable here. What happened? What kind of round? What was it like? What damage did it do? What about the recovery process? Pics?

And, most of all, if you are lying to us, we will crucify you.

:-)

So... Show me, show me, show me!!!

Nah. That girl is fooling with an AR. Ogre likes AK's. His boys will marry chicks with names like Olga Marrowsquishervich. Chicks that can carry the truck out to the highway to save gas, and teach their sons to shave... by example.

I wouldn't mind sending you up a set and box of Hornady brass if you have a hard time finding it local.
David

Thanks! There are a couple of gun shows coming up that I will try first, but I might have to take you up on that.

Dude... You linked me to that? DUDE... Seriously.The little asian dude popping up talking to me... then the pop ups that don't let you leave the page.

:D It was an add on the right hand side of this page. I had about the same reaction you did.

Event Horizon does stand out in my mind, and it really does pale in comparison on DVD.

Another good flick is "Sunshine"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_(2007_film)

I'd consider Event Horizon to be it's spiritual parent in many ways.

I'd love to handle a Witness in 10mm. I haven't seen one up here yet. If the price was right and there was someone who could buy one for me and ship it to an FFL willing to do the export paperwork...?

Ogre, I'm looking at you here :D

I'm not entirely joking, actually. I've got a buddy who is a 10mm aficionado. His shooting iron right now is a Glock. I'm sure that I could make him jealous with a steel framed piece. Or at least sell it to him if I don't like it :lol:

Never mind - I totally misread what you wrote.

Now that I understand what you were saying, yes, you are quite correct.

Ah, you can easily add an extension to the Remington 870.
I didn't say you couldn't. I said you couldn't easily change the magazine. The magazine tube itself can be unscrewed and replaced with another by an end user. The same isn't true of an 870.
David

Are you sure about that? I've never tried to add an extended mag to an 870, but I have taken a magazine extension (factory) off of an 870 and replaced it with a standard mag cap with no modifications, and I have seen a sack full of 870's with after market extended mags. I thought most of them were just screw on replacements.

The Mossberg 590A1's that we had come through the store when I was there were all marked as "590A1" on the left side of the receiver. They came in 18.5 and 20" barrels, with an option of full or sporting length magazine tubes, and they had either bead sight or ghost ring with a front ramp with a neon orange insert.

:lol:

I can't decide. I have a few that I really like.

caliberÉ

ÉÉÉÉ

WTF has happened to my keyboard, hereÉ

Even as I was writing the above, I was thinking: "Didn't Lee do a run of these recently?".
So I checked, and they have: http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=197309
I'd be concerned that the carbide ring in the sizer would be that same as they use in a .45 ACP and would work your expensive brass somewhat more than absolutely required. But for $25 and immediate availability, it might be an option.
David

*************************************************************************************************************************
Hey David,

Unfortunately Midway doesn't ship to Canada any more - word around the campfire is they got a six digit fine for not crossing all their t's on an export permit.

And unfortunately the local Wholesale Sports seems to be sold out of those Lee dies too. Which is funny, because when I worked there, there were several sets. A sudden run on the caliberÉ

Guess I'm going to have to wait for a bit.

I was also thinking about the carbide dies working the brass too. I`m not too worried about that. Even though it`s a big bullet, it`s a low pressure round, so I wouldn`t expect the brass to expand too much in the first place. The carbide probably wouldn`t wear the brass more than steel in any appreciable way.

As for how it shoots: don't know yet. :-) That ammo I pictured it with came with the gun and is antique itself. I just can`t bring myself to buy a $60 box of the Fiocchi until I know I can reload it.

The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford has been out for well over a year.

Did that ever get a theatrical release?

Ads on the right hand side of this forum:

http://easyweightlosstea.com/?session=873tc6pbf8h4basulrjgidb6u0

Don't these f***ing people understand that I have magnums? And we're not talking champagne!

I still want a Webley and Scott break top 455 but I'd honestly prefer a reproduction if one existed. I hear real ones cost a bundle.

Some of the top breaks are not too expensive. I've seen a pretty good restored model go for around $450. Thing about the Webleys though is that the majority of them are bring backs. So and so's great-grandad brought it back from overseas in 1918.

That's beautiful! Do you handload?
David

Sure do! Looking around for dies for this now. And bullets. And data. :D Not a lot out there for this cartridge.

Here she is:

It's an authentic WW1 issue S&W in 455 Webley. An officer's bring-back, and I have the documentation for it.

To be honest, it's a little scary. Because it has been used as a serious fighting weapon with a known history, and, although I am not much given to anthropomorphizing objects, you pick it up and it's a gun that "feels" like it should be shot. It's a very comfortable pistol to hold. The frame size is the same as a Model 29, but the wrist of the grip is much narrower. The barrel is more slender. Overall, it is a lighter and more pointable pistol than it's 44 caliber descendants. In spite of it's use - and abuse - the action is as smooth and crisp as one would expect from a S&W of that era.

The box of ammo with it is also what you could call "period correct", and priced at $9.60. Contemporary ammo from Fiocchi is $60 a box :D

So: some time ago, I got a pistol chambered in .455 Webley as part of a trade.

I kind of scorned the .455 as an obsolete cartridge.

But, since I got the gun, I might as well shoot it. And looking at the cartridge, it seems kind of impressive. I mean, it's not a barn-blaster, but the standard load is a 265gr slug at 850 fps.

That's a scary chunk of lead - at a manageable recoil level, too.

Here it is sandwiched in between a .44 Mag and a 9mm:

It's shorter, but way fatter than the .44.

And as I said, a huge hole with a mild bark. I'm seriously thinking about getting a junked Webley and having the barrel cut down and loading it with what Webley used to market as their "Manstopper" rounds. A flat wadcutter faced 265 grain all lead hollow point.

I think I like this one best... if it was done with the rock lettering like this one:Kinda combine both of these, do it on a clean sheet with no texture - that would be ready to go on shirts and stuff.The logo that Khorn has - I like it too. But I think the fists need AK's or Mosins or something.

Can do.

I'll be the first to say it:

In spite of my efforts, it's not what I had hoped it could be. Straight out, I think the concept is a good one, and it needs more work to go. This is pretty cartoonish and staid.

My thought is that if we want to go with the 3 fists and ogre nation theme, it needs to be redone. I can do the concept art, but I am ready to admit that I might not be the guy to carry it to completion. I'll bust off another concept sketch and post it later.