Extractors, Ejectors, & Kel Tec

My Kel Tec P-11 repair was a bit more complicated than I anticipated.  I initially called and explained that I needed an ejector.  I was assured that one would go in the mail that day.  Soon after, I got a package in the mail.  Excited to get my P-11 back in working order I ripped open the package, only to find a P-11 extractor.

Disappointed, I called Kel Tec again and made sure to enunciate and say the word ejector multiple times.  I'm sure the guy on the other end of the line thought I was crazy.  Four days later I finally got my ejector.

Ejector on the left, extractor on the right

Replacing the ejector was a snap.  Remove the slide, drift out the ejector retaining pin, catch it before it flies across the room, replace the ejector and put the pin back in.  As easy as that, I again have a fully functioning Kel Tec.

Man Gunned Down After Argument In Street

If all you ever read is the headlines, you might be temped to believe that the above headline would lead to a story about blood in the streets from one of those evil CCW people.

If you read the article in the Denver Post all the way through, two things become clear.

1. Nothing good happens on the streets at 4AM on a Sunday.
2. Car thieves, as a general rule, are not "good people".

 For some reason, the Post waits to reveal fact #2 until the last paragraph.  Don't worry though, it's not gang related.

Why The Number of Guns I Own = Many

I recently bought a new gun for concealed carry.  I took it an my every day carry gun, a Kel-Tec P-11, over to Blucore Shooting Center for some new gun wringing out and recoil therapy.

I shot both the new gun and the P-11, going through drills as well as just doing the usual get to know your new gun routine.

About 7 magazines through the P-11 I started to get FTE's.  I tried to keep going, but it was clear that the P-11 was done for the day.  At that point I moved back over to the Taurus TCP 738.  It performed well, giving me a fair grouping at 5 yards that I am confident I can improve on with a slightly different grip.

Back at the house I started with cleaning the Taurus 738.  The slide bound up (recoil spring) and required persuasion from a rubber mallet.  Not terribly confidence inspiring.

Next was the P-11, after cleaning it and verifying the extractor was working fine I finally spotted the problem.

The ejector done broked in half.  I called Kel-Tec the next day and they are sending a new ejector gratis.  That means my EDC gun is out of commission.  With the problems with the slide on the Taurus and the fact that it's only got about 50 rounds through it, I'm very glad I've got other options.

For the last couple days I've been comfortably carrying the 1911.  Having many options is nice when want suddenly finds a way to turn into need.

Wine Country Colorado

This past weekend, to celebrate my wife's birthday, we headed West to wine country.  We didn't go to Napa Valley or Willamette Valley.  We went to the Grand Valley and the small town of Palisade Colorado.  They have a new motel in town, but we chose to stay in a small bed and breakfast called A Divine Thyme, where we were served pig candy, fresh fruit, and cinnamon french toast.

From this excellent base of operations we headed out to sample the various fermentations of fruit, grain, and honey.

The first stop, at 10:30 AM, was Carlson Vineyards.  It is a charming setting up on the Mesa and the Carlsons are excellent hosts.  We tried a variety of wines and were well on our way to restocking the wine cabinet.

Of course, we had to take advantage of the February special of cherry wine and chocolate.  The gewurztraminer is also excellent.

From there we were off to sample the fermentation of honey.  The Meadery of the Rockies has both traditional meads and things like Raspberry Chocolate Satin mead.  I am a big fan of mead, and although my attempts at brewing mead at home have so far produced mixed results, I am still determined to make a great tasting mead here at home.

From there we hit Plum Creek, one of the Colorado wine makers whose wares we frequently enjoy.  Their wines are readily found at many liquor stores in our area.  We picked up a few of our favorites, including the Riesling which was on sale.

Our last stop on the winery tour was St. Kathryn Cellars.  They make use of the abundance of area orchards and produce some excellent fruit wines.  We took advantage of the pear and the strawberry rhubarb (tastes just like grandma used to make).

From there, after a short nap, we headed off to the Palisade Brewing Company.  The IPA was good, as was the Dirty Blonde (a dark wheat beer), but the stout left a bit to be desired.

After we had our fill of beer it was off to Peach Street Distillers.  They pour with a heavy hand and after a $7 quadruple martini and a copper cabra (vodka, lime, and ginger beer) it was time to call it a night.  We couldn't leave without some souvenirs however.

Once I break into the Colorado Straight Bourbon, I'll write up a review, but I can tell you now that the gin and vodka they distill is excellent and drinking from a copper cup is somehow very satisfying.  If you ever find yourself with time to kill in the Grand Valley of Colorado, Palisade offers many alcoholic diversions in a gorgeous high desert setting.

Tax Dollars Well Spent

Based on the Superbowl commercial for the Chevy Sonic below, I've got no other option but to assume that GM did what so many others in this country have done when given money they didn't earn.  That being finding the showiest and most obnoxious way to set it on fire.

If you'd like to see how part of your more than $23 billion dollars were blown just click play, sit back, and enjoy.



At least with all the airbags, the bungee jump should have an added level of safety.

Would Have Been Nice

It looks like Colorado legislators chickened out and decided that the citizens of Alaska, Arizona, Vermont, and Wyoming are more trustworthy than Coloradans.

Not that I expected that this bill would pass, but it sure would have been nice.  Maybe next year we will prove to the Democrats that we aren't all crazies.

Unexpected Christmas Gifts

I'd planned on going shooting with some of my family on Christmas Eve.  After an unsuccessful duck hunt I gathered up my son, my brother, and my soon to be cousin-in-law and headed to the shooting spot by the dump.  We shot the AR-15, the 15-22, and for the first time that I've owned it the Mosin Nagant.

In order to be accurate, the bayonet was affixed.  The fact that some previous shooters had left a rather large and only slightly shot SpongeBob was an unexpected early Christmas gift.  After poking several 7.62 mm holes in SB, my son was given the honor of finishing the poor sponge off.



One would think he'd been hanging out with Jay G

Gun Gifts

There's an interesting poll up at MSNBC of all places asking about thoughts on giving guns as Christmas gifts.  The results are somewhat predictable.  After all, guns are one of my favorite gifts to give or receive.

The Best Beer I've Made

Among my many hobbies is beer making.  I may be a jack of all trades and master of none, but in my own not so humble opinion I make some good dark beers.  The best beer I've made to date however, wasn't dark and was mostly an accident.  It goes like this:

• 6 lb Light DME
• 2 lb Wheat
• 0.50 oz. G. Northern-Brewer Hops - Boiling hops (60 mins)
• 0.50 oz. Cascade Hops - Finishing hops (15 mins)
• 1.25 oz. Hallertau Hops - Finishing hops (15 mins)
• 0.50 oz. G. Northern-Brewer Hops - dry hopped
• 0.75 oz. Hallertau Hops - dry hopped
• 1 tsp. Irish Moss
• dry ale or kolsch yeast

The hops bill will likely change depending on what I can find (which is how I ended up with the above).  The original recipe was for a Kolsch, but this beer is much more wheaty.  The original called for only 1/4 lb of wheat.

The procedure is to crack the wheat, place in a grain bag, and steep for around 10 minutes at about 165 degrees F. Remove the wheat and add the DME and the boiling hops.  At around 45 to 50 minutes add the finishing hops and the Irish moss (this helps to clear the beer a bit).  After the wort cools add the yeast.  I used a dry ale yeast as the brewery supply store I was at didn't have a kolsch yeast.  After primary fermentation has slowed add the dry hops.  Rack at around two weeks and then bottle (or in my case keg) after two or three more.

The beer is full without being heavy, hoppy without being overbearing, and sweet without the typical citrus of a wheat beer.  This is a beer I will be making again and again and again.

The Only Thing Better Than A Night At The Range

I've been out tromping around the woods all last week looking for elk.  Right before I headed to go hunting I got a package containing some 380 ammo.  This wasn't any 380 ammo however, this was free 380 ammo.  The fine folks at LuckyGunner.com were kind enough to send me a box of Magtech to run through my wife's Beretta.

Figuring asking for forgiveness is easier than asking for permission, I swiped the Beretta out of the safe and headed over to my new favorite range, BluCore Shooting Center.  While I was there I figured it was a 380 Auto type of night and rented a S&W Bodyguard 380.

I started the night with the Beretta and the free Magtech ammo.  I figured shooting a pistol I was comfortable with and using ammo someone else payed for was a great way to start off the night.

After a few mags through the Beretta it was time to switch over to the Bodyguard.  Unfortunately, I had to use range ammo through the rental gun.  Even more unfortunate was that the laser was not working on the Bodyguard, so no fun with lights.  I really didn't like the Bodyguard.  It didn't fit my hand well and was in need of a cleaning as it was having FTE's every 5th round or so.  The nice thing about BluCore's rental program is that one fee gets you as many guns as you want to shoot.  I traded the Bodyguard out for a Kahr P380.

The Kahr fit my hand much better and was much more accurate for me.  I improved from pie plate at 5 yards accuracy with the Bodyguard to silver dollar at 5 yards with the Kahr.  I've been looking at various pocket pistols and the Kahr 380 definitely moved up the list during this trip despite the higher than average price tag.

By this time my fingers and nose were getting cold due to the BluCore state of the art ventilation system bringing in outside air at a fairly rapid rate.  I decided to load up the rest of the sweet sweet free (did I mention free...thanks again LuckyGunner.com) ammo and see what my accuracy looked like at 7 yards.

Not too bad for frozen fingers.  As has always been my experience with Magtech 380, the entire box ran through the Beretta flawlessly and was far more accurate than I am.  It is a good choice at a reasonable price, with LuckyGunner.com offering it for $0.31 per round.

Young And Unskilled?

I've been working in the field running a turnaround on a small production plant.  As the week has gone on something struck me.  All the senior field guys are over 50.  All the skilled laborers, the welders, the foremen, the operators are all over 50.  It doesn't seem to be an issue of the older guys simply refusing to retire either.  The younger guys in general do not have the skill set to do these jobs.

The younger guys in general have a tendency to take their time starting work and knock off early even if the job is not yet complete.  If something isn't working they will keep on trying it instead of looking for a better solution.

I am not sure what happens when the 60 year old skilled workers have all retired.  What happens when all the kids that should be working with a wrench or screwdriver or welding torch don't know which end to hold because they've all been told that college is the answer.  Instead of a rewarding career building, making, and fixing they are sitting at home trying to figure out what to do with a business or liberal arts degree.  What happens when we figure out that we can't outsource these jobs to China?  What happens when there aren't enough Americans that know how?

Keep Your Hands Off My Ballot

I got an interesting text last night.  It was from Jefferson County Students First, who are kindly offering to hand deliver my ballot if it didn't make it into the mailbox.

I have a hard enough time trusting my mailman to get my ballot in to get counted, a complete stranger with and agenda not a chance.

Send It In

If you live in Colorado, the time to mail in your ballot is now.

I'm not going to suggest how anyone vote, but I'll give you one guess on how I voted on the tax increases in Prop. 103.  When they tell me it's for the kids, well I've heard that one before.

Zombie Targets

At the range today I neglected to bring targets.  My range of choice was well stocked with Birchwood Casey Zombie targets.  I figured why not and added one to the stack.  What I learned is that even knowing that it's a zombie, it may be tough to break the habit of aiming for the boilermaker.

Evil Corporations

This post by Dave Ramsey captures a lot of what I feel about the Occupy Wall Street folks (HT to the Pantsless One).  The one thing Dave doesn't really cover that has struck me as I've read various stories and laughed at some of the signs is that there seems to be a lack of understanding on what a corporation is and does.  Mostly this has been addressed with the type of sarcasm shown in the linked picture above.

What I would like to do is to discuss what a corporation is and some of my personal experiences with "evil" corporations.  A corporation is simply a legal entity that provides a group of individuals personal protection from legal and financial liability.  If a corporation goes bankrupt or is accused of a crime the individuals making up the corporation don't automatically end up bankrupt or in jail.

My younger brother is a chiropractor.  He is also the sole owner of a corporation.  His corporation of one is not uncommon.  It allows him to practice medicine with a lower financial risk.   Many of his patients have no idea he is also a corporation.  As an individual and a doctor, he treats them, but he bills them as a corporation.  Is he rich?  Far from it  Since opening his own practice he is barely breaking even, and most months puts almost all of his profit back into his business.  This is the "evil" of a corporation.  Healing people with his own two hands.

I've worked for a couple of corporations.  One was the type most folks think of when they hear corporation.  It was (and is) a multinational corporation with manufacturing in the United States, China, Italy, India, and Switzerland to name a few.  Their sales offices are all across the world.  This evil corporation payed me a good salary, trained me, and sent me to their manufacturing facilities in Switzerland and Italy for further training.  I got to ride a train through the alps thanks to an evil corporation.  I also got to become a much better engineer.  I was also personally involved in supplying parts so that a hospital, a water treatment plant, a geothermal power plant, and many other industries and facilities could either be built or continue to operate.  We made money, but I don't remember having to fulfill our evil quotient.

One of the other corporations I worked for even had the evil word in its name.  When I started there we had four full time employees and three part time employees.  This corporation gave me my first job.  The pay wasn't great, but the experience was invaluable.  Working at a corporation of 7 forced me to wear many hats, and gave me an understanding of business and engineering that many of my peers do not have because they haven't been exposed to it.

So when I see signs protesting the evils of the corporation, understand why I might have a tendency to point laugh and shake my head in disgust.  Corporations have allowed me to feed and clothe my family.  Corporations have provided me training and allowed me to grow as a professional.  Corporations have allowed me to be where and what I am today, and I'm not the only one.

Snipe Hunt

I went looking for ducks and ended up on an honest to goodness snipe hunt.  I brought back two Wilson's Snipe.  Just enough for lunch.

Cleaning them is accomplished much like cleaning doves.  Cooking them is fairly simple as well.  We got a box of fancy rice, situated the cleaned snipe in the rice, added water, covered, and threw in the oven for 45 minutes at 400.

The result was delicious.  If you've never had snipe (I'd never had them before today) I highly recommend it.

A Winner Is Me

Apparently #29 is my new lucky number and I will soon have a box of happiness heading my way.  My number was drawn for two AR-15 magazines topped off with Carteach .223.  When I sent my donation to the Wounded Warrior Project, I did it with every expectation of winning nothing more than the knowledge that the money would be put to good use.

Pictures will be posted of the aforementioned box of happiness when it arrives.  A big thanks to Carteach for running this fundraiser and opening up wallets across the country to the tune of $2300+.  I guess I can no longer say, "I never win these things."

Concealed Confusion

Tonight I attended the monthly meeting of a local 4WD club that I'm thinking of joining.  There has been a good deal of discussion within the club recently surrounding changing their bylaws.

Before tonight their club banned firearms at all club sponsored events.  I've been told this was to combat the stereotype of guys getting liquored up, driving down a trail (and beside a trail and making their own trails), and shooting up signs and anything else.  The other reason is that the club is "family friendly".

With concealed carry becoming ever more popular, some folks took issue with the bylaws and looked to have them changed.  The online vote they conducted apparently had over 70% for changing the bylaws to allow concealed (and only concealed) carry at club events with 20% opposed.  The vote during the meeting was much the same.  From that standpoint it was a good meeting.

The disappointing thing was the amount of disinformation being passed around by both those for and those against changing the bylaws.  Some of the misconceptions/misstatements included:

• Places where an individual with a concealed carry permit is not allowed to carry
• The legality of drinking while carrying concealed (in Colorado drinking is legal, being intoxicated while armed is not)
• How reciprocity with other states (Utah in particular) works
• The legality of open carry in Colorado (with the exception of a few cities, perfectly legal in CO)
• What brandishing a firearm is

The disappointing thing is that some of the misinformation was coming from the club's resident gun expert.  No matter the state you live in, no matter if you carry or not, if you are a gun owner you should know the laws and how they apply to you.  I first utilized the excellent local resource provided by Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.  If your state doesn't have something similar, the NRA-ILA is a good source.  When you move or travel to another state, you've got homework to do if your guns are coming with you.  Don't end up like the gun expert in the meeting, and don't end up in jail like this guy.

I was discussing Labor Day with my wife this morning and we came up with this truism.

To hell with unions...unless they want to invite me in.

I figure that covers around 90% of Americans' attitudes.

Good Excuses

If you've ever needed a good excuse to donate to an awesome cause, look no further.  Carteach has put together a fund raiser with some really nice goodies.  All proceeds go to the Wounded Warrior Project.  If you haven't yet sent some money their way, now is as good a time as any.