Neanderpundit

Haven’t done a lot lately, but it’s because I’ve been up to my ass in alligators. I have been doing a lot of stuff, just haven’t had time to post anything.

What’s going on at present, is I’ve got about five project guns.

1: Enfield 17, I’m debating between rebarreling it to big game, or taking it all back to stock. It’s been (badly) sporterized, but the iron is all there, and good, and it shoots like blazes.

2: LeFever Nitro Special in 20 gauge. I love this fine old double shotgun, though it’s stock is rugged. Was dad’s rabbit gun, and a damned good one. I’m trying to find someone to hook me up with a decent stock blank so I can duplicate the stock.

3: Hopkins & allen falling block. This came to me by accident, and was originally chambered for 32 WCF, though the block was missing. I’m trying to put my hands on a new block, but I may have to settle for welding up and redrilling the old one. I already have a nice octagonal barrel.

4: 93 (spanish) mauser, for which I have just ordered a new Shilen barrel in 7.62X39. THe 93 action won’t tolerate anything more powerful, but the 7.62 is gentle enough not to blow apart the relatively weak 93 action. I’d have gone for the 257 roberts,but the 7.62 is the world’s commonest round.

5: MArtini schuetzen rifle. This is a wreck with a bad barrel, but an ornately engraved receiver, and I want to take the ornate octagonal barrel and rebore it from it’s original 22 hornet to 25-20 wcf. I think it’ll be well worth the effort. I’m going to start working on the replacement stock soon, mocking it up in Bondo before duplicating in european walnut.

As i do more, I’ll post pictures.

I had no overwhelming urge to stand in the freezing cold last weekend, so I spent ten bucks and hit the range.

There’s a decent (if small)range within a half hours drive, and though it’s a bit stuffy and close inside, it’s not horrible, and I spend a couple hours there. I shot up about a thousand rounds of 22, including some PMC match ammo, some Aguila match ammo and some Wolf match ammo. Bottomline? I can’t shoot any better with the spensive stuff than I can with the cheap Remington golden bullets.

The good news was I got shooting. And it felt good. And I’m gonna go back, over and over again, if I can.

As the cartoonists in Denmark have learned.

Another rambling rant. Sorry.

Kim Du Toit reminds us that the “my imaginary friend is better than your imaginary friend” debate is plain stupid, and I couldn’t agree more. Trouble is, as he points out, when someone does or says something to piss off Christians, they tend not to issue a fatwah.

There is no questioning freedom of speech; when someone says something that pisses someone else off, you have to be aware that there are repercussions. I’ve pissed off my share here, and I’m the least confrontational person I know. I find that the more closedminded people are, the more likely they are to take off if you question their beliefs- or challenge them to question their own.

When you display pictures of the Virgin Mary created in dung, expect some Christians to get up in arms. If you publish cartoons of Mahomet, expect people to pick up their arms. It’s just that simple, folks. I’m not doing those things because I don’t want a fatwah issued against me, I have more than enough to keep me busy, thankyouverymuch.

All that aside: Frances Poretto reminds us of a core truth, which cannot be denied: Islam is toxic to human life. The time for negotiation is past. Kim, I believe, doesn’t buy this assertion, a lot of my friends labor under the completely erroneous conclusion that I feel this way because I am a Christian, and nothing could be further from the truth. Where it comes to Islam, even an atheist can easily see that this is a theology that calls upon it’s followers to create havoc, as a core tenet of it’s belief. There is no such thing as a “peaceful muslim”, there are only muslims that have taken up the sword, and those who have yet to. This proves itself to be the case over and over again.

Kim says he doesn’t have a dog in this fight, and where judeo-christian theology is concerned, no, he doesn’t. There is another (small G) god we all serve (so to speak) and that is the god of democracy. While that human-created god is neither perfect nor all knowing nor all powerful, it is one worth hanging on to, and the entire islamic culture is determined not to let it exist.

I don’t have any interest in what anyone believes, anywhere, ever. If you have convinced yourself that you should worship a judeo christian creator, a giant turtle carrying the planet on it’s back, an easter island statue, the almighty (dollar, yen, ruble), the Designated Hitter Rule, or John Moses Browning, there is only one thing I ask of you: Keep it out of my face. I’m not interested in imposing my beliefs on anyone, as is evidenced by the fact that nobody could even GUESS what my beliefs are. They’re rather odd, and I keep them exclusively to myself.