More portraits from liberal Austin, TX

Aunt and niece

Нас мало, но моя сестрёнка в тельняшке

(Explanation of the caption)

Dry firing only, else eye protection would have been used

A very stylish hat

Snapshots from my visit with TWS.

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Video playback problem solved.

Turns out that the 3.5mm mini plug was partially pulled out of the computer, so only one of the two stereo channels would come through. Simple!

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Video playback sound problem.

In the last week, I noticed that about 10% of Youtube videos play without audio in all three browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome). For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic4PQ-tnwJw plays fine but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXhQNRsH3uc has no sound. I am not sure how to fix that. Vimeo plays music and sound effects but not voices (http://digg.com/video/the-history-of-aspect-ratio — I can’t hear any of the narration but music and SFX play just fine).

I re-installed Flash. Update: now it’s worse, and almost none of the videos have sound. Under IE, volume controls disappeared. In a lot of videos, music plays but voices either play extremely faintly (with volume at 100% in video controls, PC playback and on the speakers, I can barely hear them). Almost as if the playback depends on specific codec used by the video authors.

Stranger yet, known good tracks have functional instrumental music but the vocals are completely scrambled (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1qc_zg2od0)

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Quick demo of Faxon upper in action

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Domestication as an evolutionary success?

Domesticated animals have been around for tends of millions of years. Many ant species look after aphids in exchange for sugary secretions from their six-legged flocks. Human domestication of selected species certainly assured their survival to a far greater degree than remaining in the wild would have.

Even species that are raised for meat and hides rather than for companionship benefit in the evolutionary sense: most of the females live to reproduce and the overall populations are considerable. The down side is their complete dependency on humans. A toy poodle seldom survives long in the wild, neither does a farm-raised hen. Moreover, other species and humans as well often find feral lifeforms to be a nuisance. Forced to create a new biological niche for themselves, they have no choice but to intrude on the established populations.

Humans have long tried to domesticate other humans. Sometimes the control is almost total (North Korea), at other times bread and circuses or dole/welfare payments were provided in exchange for votes. Individuals from a single dependent generation could transition back into independence, but after several generations of welfare culture, the results appear to resemble feral rather than wild (independent) specimens. Completely dependent people lose the ability to think or to show initiative for lack of need. The inefficiency of the welfare bureaucracy may have been a saving factor that required some ability just to navigate the system. A more perfect system of distributing resources for nothing will likely produce even less capable and more perpetually dependent clients. Would increasing numbers in themselves indicate evolutionary success of those people who succeed in becoming domesticated by others? They are generally safe from the cannibal pot, and even from such tasks as conscription as their labor becomes closer to worthless.

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Tomboy by day, girly girl by night

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Comrade Bronstein, I presume?

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Video card problem?

Just had both of my screens blink to black for a fraction of a second. It did so twice over about five minutes. Exhaust temperature from the fans is cool. Any thoughts on figuring out what’s going on?

(The PC has been reliable for a while otherwise).

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Upgrading the PSL

Romanian PSL is a decent way to launch 7.62x54R without punishing recoil. For a 13 year old marksman, that’s an important consideration.

Sure, she’s fired 338 Lapua Mag rifles last year, but they were heavy, set up on a bipod and suprpessed, the the kick was much reduced. And x54R ammunition runs 60 cents per round vs. 338LM $2.50 for similar quality. Surplus ball is still available for two dimes a shot. So fairly accurate but girl-portable .30 that won’t break the piggy bank…PSL is an acceptable choice.

(Not firing yet. Real live fire would have featured safety glasses.)

The rifle was upgraded with a TWS rail cover to support a fixed 10x scope of much higher quality than the original Romanian surplus optic.

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Photos from range day with Faxon

I promised photos.

The gun runs at about 700rpm and remains controllable. Trigger is good enough for squeezing off single rounds in auto mode, though we shot 2-4rd bursts most of the time.

Beta testing showed full compatibility.

And, of course, girls were posing in pink because that’s very girly. Almost as girly as the 60rd Surefire magazine and 1.5/6x Elcan.

With a longer tube, the rifle can go the distance.

Fast paced, up close varminting is also an option.

Use a 37mm bird bomb to flush the varmints out, then follow up with .223 to take them down.

Works for left-handed users, too.

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Nice thing about bullpups

The fit, in ready to use mode, containers in which nobody would expect a long gun. Very handy when a conventional long gun case would attract too much attention. In this case, a KSG and 40 Brenneke slugs (15 internally) fit easily.  In fact, 20 more could fit on a second layer.

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Little Red

Could you guess her age from the photo?

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Light rifles and heavy

This rifle combines a GWACS Armory polymer lower and a Head Down upper. It is very light, and has little recoil — so little 13 year old Grace could get away with this shooting position. She was pinging a small steel plate at about hundred yards with it. The sight is the new model HD7 with turret caps removed for zeroing.

Just another horribly polite, well-socialized and highly educated home schooled teenager.

She shot my new groupsourced FAL which, contrary to its name, was neither light nor automatic. The rifle is based on a Coonan receiver, with most other parts from a surplus kit gifted to me by a friend. Vortex flash hider and DSA rail were a present from another friend, who also Cerakoted the whole gun to my design. The 6x Primary Arms scope was just thrown on to check accuracy beyond shooting with iron sights. It sits too high in this particular mount but the Magpul stock has an adjustable cheek piece, so it worked out. Eventually, I’ll replace it with something meant for .308 trajectory. So far, this rifle had about a hundred rounds through it, no malfunctions.

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Skull

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And a touch of steel

The same model, a little more purposeful.

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A touch of lace

From a test shoot with a new model.

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Had much fun today

My IP lawyer Glenn and I went shooting with Bob Faxon and his friends.

(Photos by Bob Faxon)

Long-stroke piston rifles were very controllable even at 700rpm. I ended up wearing one pair of gloves over another and still froze. Despite the cold, we all had fun. I will post my observations, photos and videos later this week.

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Jewelry for guns

People buy jewelry for others to make them feel better and happier. Often, jewelry indicates commitment. Replacement triggers are similar to that: they are small, somewhat expensive and make your interaction with the gun more pleasant.

Apex trigger for Smith&Wesson M&P pistol has been mentioned on Sayuncle blog for years. I finally got curious enough to try it and got one of my own. It does improve the pistol considerably.

I already have Timney triggers in my M48 Yugo Mauser and Ruger 1o-22. The next rifle to get the upgrade is the Superior Arms HBAR Varminter. It’s a 1/2MOA rifle but shooting that with milspec lower is challenging.

Triggers are great present for people who just can’t pull the trigger on a discretionary puchase for themselves. Make sure to figure out who — you, the recipient or a gunsmith — will install the upgrade.

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Her goblin-cleaver…

…is chambered in .35Remington.

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Improving the PSL

PSL aka Romak3 is a 7.62x54R AK clone. It’s a Comblock designated marksman rifle popular in the US mainly because it is far more affordable than the Soviet SVD. It usually comes with either just iron sights or a truly wretched 6x scope on a high side rail mount.

Best examples of this gun yield 1-1.5MOA. In .30 caliber semi-precision rifles, PSL is a fairly economical pick that can be further improved with better optics and forend.

Which is precisely what TWS rail cover and forend provide. The 10x scope shown allows the cover to be unlatched for cleaning while keeping zero.

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