Category: Uncategorized

Greetings and Salutations!
So… good comments and a few things I’ll address here. One is Berglander’s stating “and about a hundred pounds of extra body fat.” and I gotta say, you’re wrong bro. I’m currently (per my primary care Doc) 40 pounds over what my nominal weight should be (275/280). And as far as gym time? Just because I don’t poast about it doesn’t mean I’m a complete slug.

As some have said, this blog has ‘eyes’ on it.

Not everything is out there for general consumption.

In fact TBH I feel better than I have in years. Outside of occasional stomach issues, I’m feeling great. The only recent issue is I did pinch the hell out of C-5/6 the other night (while sleeping I think) and now I’ve lost the majority of the feeling in my right hand. It happens occasionally. It’s not a biggie, as ever since the original injury waaaay back in the day, it’s an on again/off again ‘thing’ I have to deal with. Lord help me if I ever have a stroke come down on me as BOTH my arms ‘tingle’ damned near 24/7… so no early warning there. Nope… My best weight is about 280… Like I said, I need to drop another 40. Anything less that that and I actually look unhealthy.

Considering I was at 340 a few months ago, I’m doing rather well. The stomach issues seem to stem from that I don’t tolerate goyslop anymore… Ultra-Nasty Mcd’s and Boyger King crap? Yeah… that crap lays me low. Kind of a bummer as it is (despite the unhealthy aspects of it) a quick ‘choke and puke’ sort of thing when I’m on the bounce.

Alas… the days of crap-goyslop are long past.

And as far as going to California?

Well it’s been 30 years since my last trip out there. I went to San Francisco with the parental units, and we ‘did’ the Sonoma Valley Winery tour(s), which was utterly fascinating as one of the other fams that was with us (it was a multi-family group… about 12 of us all together) the head of the other household was the CEO of Victory Supermarkets back in New England.

Victory was/is the equivalent of Publix, or maybe DeMoulas… which refers to DeMoulas Super Markets, Inc., a Greek-American family that controls the Market Basket supermarket chain which were the direct competition to Victory.

Victory was bought out a number of years ago, by a Belgian food conglomerate, but at the time was still in whole owned by the family, the DiGeronimo Brothers that started it back in the early 20th century… The oldest son, the great-great? (Not sure… one or two in there) Grandson Jay (Arthur Jr.) was the head of the fam and the CEO of the Victory chain… an old school Italian family of grocers… and Jay’s Dad had built it up to a pretty damned big outfit by the time he’d retired… and then Jay and his brothers made it even bigger if you can believe it…

My connection to Jay is that Jay married one of DeadDad’s best/favorite students, who was like an older sister to me, hence our big family crew rolling west for the Chinese New Year in San Fran (back before it went to utter shytte) and hence Jay became an older brother to me… he was the guy who taught me how to throw and catch a baseball when I was a kid as DeadDad’s athleticism was barely there… no harm to him, he was an academic plain and simple… he even used to make jokes about his inability to “sports” LOL.

So, because Jay was the head honcho of what was about 20 liquor licenses in the People’s Socialist Republic of Taxachusetts, we had the proverbial Red Carpet rolled out for us, rather than the usual ‘tourista’ bullshit. When multi-million dollar contracts are on the line, you get the full on no bullshit Celebrity Royal Treatment…

Fascinating stuff… truly.
Maybe I’ll go into it in another poast… I mean there was soooo much ‘stuff’ that went on… it’d take a full 4-5 pager to write about it, it was that involved.

Anyways, Even with ‘current day’ “stuff” I’m not sweating going out there. Yeah… it -is- a bit far from the Home Base. And yeah, I’d be (for the most part) unarmed, but that only makes it that much more fun! I mean when I hit the streets of Baghdad back at the end of 03/beginning of 04, I was initially unarmed as well… Until I wasn’t. and stayed wasn’t if you will LOL.

At least here being stateside I speak the lingo, whereas in Baghdad, it took me quite a while to learn even the most basic of Iraqi-Arabic… most of which unfortunately has faded with time.

That being said, I’m sure that if shit goes that far gone if I do in fact decide to make the trip, I mean whatever man, we’re ALL toast at that point amiright?

Which brings me to another point:

Why deny yourself some fun or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because -something bad might happen-!!!!

I mean For Fuck’s Sakes!

Literally that is IMO, the very definition of letting them win.

IF I have the financial wherewithal to swing a flight ($256 when last I checked) and a hotel for 2x nights ($120 a night for what by all reports is a nice place within walking distance to the theater) then hey!

Why the fuck not!?!

I, for one, have sacrificed too fucking much over the past 30 or so years for other people. As JimmyPX said “…burn(ing sic.) your vacation playing HVAC repair man” (most recently) and ALL the ‘other things’ I’ve done…

Truthfully, I think the LAST one and true time I’ve had someone else do something or had someone do something FOR ME was when G got a really nice hotel room at a very nice resort in Sarasota as DC was living here, and about to give me a stroke. I was bout to kill her ass (DC that is), and G knew I was minutes away from going “Full Vesuvius.” So she paid with her cash and took me to a nice place to decompress me, rather than me killing everyone.

I’ll never deny when she did her occasional thing for me…
<Le Sigh>
All for naught I suppose…..

And that was how many years ago?

Yeeeeeah.
So NOW I’m looking for some fun, some adventure.
Some me me me me me time.

And a trip to Cali?

Hey… maybe a big fucking earthquake’ll happen, and I get to have a whole ‘nother type of adventure. Stranger things have happened Aye? I mean I see tfA-t’s POV and as a fellow Rakk, I dig it… but I also know carpe diem is a reality, and IF I have to cash in, better I do it knowing that I did at least get to do this one crazy-off-the-wall stupid thing.

True story: I had an opportunity to see Tom Petty in May of 2017. A guy I worked w/had tickets and offered them up to me. However, I was in the middle of divorce #1, and money was tight-tight, so I passed. It was his 40th Anniversary Tour in 2017. That would have been in May. The Amelie Arena show in downtown Tampa.

In October, the poor fucker had died.

So yeah, no regerts, but still… especially with something like this. Never mind the whole “I got to see this in it’s original format!!!!” thing… Bragging Rights and all that… I mean it is “Forbidden Planet” and Robby the Robot… the original prop is going to be there hosting… no idea who they have doing the voice, but when you have an Emcee like that? Oh Hell yeah!!!

Jes’ Sayin’

I’ll leave it with this:

“Days and months are travellers of eternity. So are the years that pass by. Those who steer a boat across the sea, or drive a horse over the earth till they succumb to the weight of years, spend every minute of their lives travelling. There are a great number of ancients, too, who died on the road. I myself have been tempted for a long time by the cloud-moving wind – filled with a strong desire to wander.”
― Matsuo Bashō, The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches

And yeah, that about sums it up.
And yeah, I’ve been studying Bashō again.
It’s like a balm for my soul.
He just resonates with me…

Anyways…

Now… other than the personal shytte…

More bullshit flying around the net… so much as to leave one wondering if we’re coming, or going. The Izzies are absolutely not responsible for killing Charlie Kirk, despite the scads of evidence both real and circumstantial… the very fact the kid in text messages shows that he was absolutely worried about the whole “no longer being bought” by the Izzies and no longer being willing to be a propogandist for them…

As the Mexican cartels say “plata o plomo” which is a way of saying “take the silver or take the bullets(sic)” (lead). And just like the Cartels, it’s readily apparent to damned near everyone, that ONCE you take the silver, you best stay ‘bought’ or, like Charlie, you’re going to get the lead, one way or another.

And considering that Nutjobyahoo is s-l-o-w-l-y getting pushed into a corner? I mean most people in the US don’t realize or understand that that scumbag was looking at a LOOOONG prison sentence for blatant and obvious corruption (with the Izzies, is there any other type actually?) and -suddenly- the October 7th attack happened, which just so happened to allow ole Benyamin (temporarily) off the hook for his crimes, “…until the current crisis is resolved” which means it’s going to be, (much like the ‘Krain) War! War! War! 24-7-365 as there’s no way, outside of a lucky sniper or atomic weapon attack that ole Nutjobyahoo is going to release the reins of power…

How fortunate.
For him.

The Palestinians?
Notsomucho.

“When Elephants Fight, The Grass Suffers”
That’s an old saying in Kenya apparently.
It’s true however.

And Lord Knows when this stupidity is going to stop.
So that’s about it for this evening. For those of you who want to get ahold of me via DM, the new Email is CountryOfBigness@proton.me

Hit me up directly if’n you need to.
The old email is still operational as well for those who have it.

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Not much going on out there…
Outside of outright treason and rebellion going on in Portland Oregon and now what appears to be Chicongo…

Personally, if I were OrangeManBad?

I mean they’ve already accused him of being worse than Hitler right? And you can be damned sure they’re not going to slow down, but keep acting like fucktards, only being encouraged and emboldened to keep up acting this way right?

I say since they’ve declared Antifa and Trantifa to be terrorist organizations? Well, let me tell you who else was declared a terrorist organization: ISIS and AIQ. AIQ if you remember was Al-Quaeda in Iraq… and we shot them fuzzy-wuzzie sandniggers on sight.

Be a military age man bearing an AK or what have you? In public when it’s already been stated that no, this is an illegal gathering? Fuck it.

Shoot the fuckers on sight.
Rioting while wearing All Black ‘paramilitary’ clothing and masked up?
Gun the fuckers down.
No more Mister Nice Guy…
Live ammo for everyone.
Belt Feds for the National Guard and arrest ALL the local cops, police , mayors and governers for insurrection.
Then execute them as well.
Mail the cremains home afterwards.
Send a lil cardboard box home to mumsie and daddums with a letter stating “Mabye you should have raised them better!”

Better yet, offer up a bounty.
Paid on Proof of Death.
Severed Heads preferably.
Let us old mean and generally pissed off Gen X’ers like myself vent a little anger and hate on these spoiled little fucksticks.

They’ll piss themselves so hard they’d die of dehydration and fear. And it’d serve them right. It’s time to take the gloves off, and start harvesting heads. LITERALLY. Mount them outside the ice facility on spikes… any bets if they’d ever protest anything ever again?

Yeah, me either.
I don’t do sucker bets.
Otherwise…

Might be doing me another mini-vay-kay this coming weekend. I might be taking another boat trip to see about ‘dropping some lines’ as J3 calls it… this time by my lonesome. Just some ‘me time’…

No Phone
No Blog
No News
Sounds nice donnit?

And in November, I’ve got a hankering to head out to California.

There’s a movie playing out there on a Saturday Night in Santa Ana, and the plane ticket is actually only like $250 round trip, leaving out on a Friday night, and coming back on a Sunday/oh-dark early Monday. It’s a one-time showing of a Classic Sci-Fi movie, fully restored and playing at an Art-Haus Theater…. Sort of a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity…

It’s the 1956 movie “Forbidden Planet” starring Leslie Neilson and Robby the Robot. A fully remastered and restored 35mm Film on the big screen! How cool is that!?! It’s one of my favorite classic Sci-Fi flicks, and this’s like a once in a lifetime thing, so I think I may just have to do it…

So that’s the plan so far…
Staying busy, trying to have some fun, and doing MY THING for ME. I mean I deserve a bit of ‘me time’ which is something I think I haven’t done in 20-30 plus years… and doing a weekend bounce-trip to the ‘shaky side’ (as DeadDad used to call earthquake prone California) to see a once in a lifetime movie on a trip like that?

Hells to the Yes!

So am I nuts? Or do y’all think it sounds cool?
Let me know in the comments!
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
This’s becoming a Queen song I swear man…

Hegseth fired yesterday/todayNavy Chief of Staff Jon Harrison because Harrison, an unusually powerful aide, reassigned staff meant to support newly confirmed Navy undersecretary Hung Cao, undermining Cao’s role and consolidating control.

All I can say is “Who’s next?” at this point

Dropping like fucking flies man…
Just a quick one tonight…
And as you may have noticed, I added the Spot Gold and Silver Monitor to the side… Just for casual observation donchaknow?

And CA has a New updated site!
https://westernrifleshooters.online/

Save the link!
and now?
I’m off to bed.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Chung Mee: “Opium is my business. The bridge mean more traffic. More traffic mean more business. More business mean money. More money mean more power.”

Lawrence Bourne III: “Yeah, well, before I commit any of that to memory, would there be anything in this for me?”

Chung Mee: “Speed is important in business. Time is money.”

Lawrence Bourne III: “You said opium was money.”

Chung Mee: “Money is Money.”

Lawrence Bourne III: “Well then, what is time again?
Tom Hanks ‘Volunteers’

Always loved that movie…
Yeah, as said in the comments, so much ‘stuff’ going on out there these days the information overload is in the beyond Red Zone. A positively OVERWHELMING amount of ‘stuff’. Between the whole Kirk fiasco and then the out-of-left-field Marine(s) shooting up two different locations, BOTH with casualties… I think the one in North Carolina was 3 KIA and the Mormon Church ended up with 4? KIA?

THAT particular one…
VERY Odd that one…
Literally a guy who the Leftard Media practically salivate over.
Veteran w/PTSD? Check
AR Style Rifle used? Check
Trump Supporter? Check
Voated Repugnican? Check (last I heard that is)

I mean this guy is exactly what those fucking jackals in the Enemedia pray for. And yet….

The silence is deafening.

Things that make you go Hmmmn….
Makes you wonder if -someone- waaay on high told them to ‘pump the brakes’ on this particular story. The Jarhead in North Carolina, while his exact motive hasn’t been released, his past history is fraught with cray-cray lawsuits and whatnot, so he’s a nutjob IMO.

The guy who ‘did’ the church?
An uber-anti-Mormon extremist from my understanding. Fell hard for some ultra-hardcore Devout Mormon, and when he didn’t conform (like getting his ink removed) she flat out shitcanned his ass… and he blamed the Church and it’s Elders.

Otherwise…
And onto the next episode….
Seems we have another Perfumed Prince from the Potomac who called it quits:

Seems the above-mentioned Gen’rul Fenton, the (now-former) SOCOM Commander called it a day.

When I told Sapper this, he was a wee bit perplexed
“Wouldn’t the head of SOCOM be like a fire-breather/blood drinker?” I too, was a wee bit curious, so I looked at his Wiki:

Hmmmn
Yannow what I don’t see in what would appear to be a heavy award-ribbon and achievement rack?

NO C.I.B.
Which for you civvies is the Combat Infantryman’s Badge.
He’s got the E.I.B.
That’s the Expert Infantryman’s Badge at the top.
-I- have an E.I.B.
Never earned the C.I.B. No shame in my game…
Dis fukkin’ guy however?

To be the head of ALL SPecial Operations worldwide??? And not have a C.I.B.??? Uh…. yeah. Add on his ONLY commands listed are United States Special Operations Command, Joint Special Operations Command, the then Special Operations Command Pacific? Yep… a Perfumed Prince for certain.

NOT a trigger puller.
I mean FFS his degree is from Notre Dame and in Business Administration. Even his ribbon rack positively screams “Palace Pogue”… The Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, and 2x Legion of Merit? Those are given out to field grade occifers who don’t shit on the floor or catch the clap for two consecutive years (or so I was told by my friend the Major). And the three Bronze Stars?

Yeeeeeeeeah… I watched an ENTIRE company of Rear Echelon Motherfuckers on Camp Victory ALL get awarded the Bronze Star one day in 2004… ALL of them were clerks and jerks… Pogues who never went outside the wire but got the Bronzie for “being under fire” while my boys from 2/8CAV who were kicking doors nightly in Sadr City could get an award to save their asses….

Good Fucking Riddance.
All I have to say is NEXT!

ANd on that note… things are good right now… went at J3’s urging and got de-hobo’d so to speak… The hair and beard were getting a wee bit out of control, so a cleanup was in order:

I’ve looked worse…
The scale also tells me I’m down 15 pounds… so I got that going for me as well…

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations
Yeeeeeeah… I had step waaaay awayto adjust my ‘timing and headspace’ as things around here got a wee bit depressing. A LOT of different things that just pretty much left me utterly mentally drained. To the point I even quit drinking completely.

Which is a plus, but not conducive to my creativity as a little ‘synaptic lubrication’ via some ethanol intake makes it a wee bit easier to cogitate some of my ‘stuff’ when I put the fingers to the keyboard. So, I had to ‘reset’ the thinking meat back into the ‘on’ position…

I’m really sorry to have freaked y’all out.

It makes me feel really appreciated and I thank you all for the concern. To the point I got a text from her (as she is checking this thing on occasion) saying y’all were wondering if she tried to poison me. Nope. Not the case. She did come by and gather a bunch of her stuff w/her brother (he’s a great dude for a Navy guy), which left quite a few open ‘holes’ around the house… furniture and whathaveyou which was part of the bummer, as I know it’s done-done now.

Hence my radio silence.
However, I am resilient so onward.
The other things that have gone on around the world as of late have been so utterly insane as to leave even one normally loquacious sumbitch such as myself as to be speechless. LOTS of weirdness… One of the only things (outside of SecWar’s speech, which I’ll go into in a bit) that I’ve been closely monitoring has been the prices of silver and gold.

Currently, as of this moment, silver:

Which is down from an all time high of $48.22 at opening today at 08:13EST. And gold? Hoo boy…

Which is down from an all time high of$3908.90.

The fact that they’ve gone down as it did tells me -someone- intentionally tried to get it to go into a slide. I’ve monitored precious metals since I was a kid. DeadDad and MomUnit got Fedbro and myself into it at a young age as a way for us to ‘invest’ our $$$. Instead of buying stupid shit when we got $50.00 from Grandma for Christmas, we’d either save up for a one ounce Gold Coin or get a few ounces of silver.

Man… selling that shit oh so many years ago…
Young and dumb I was…
I had amassed quite a treasure chest worth of coins from back in those days… like 75 ounces of silver and like 5 ounces of gold… in American Eagles, Maple Leaves and one China Panda. After Spawn #1 was born, and I had gotten out of the Army, I sold it all in 1996 for what by today’s standard was a fucking pittance (like $200 per oz for the gold and $8-10 for the silver) but I needed the cash at the time, so hey… It’s only money.

By today’s standard that would have been a LOT of money…$3500 in silver and $19k worth of gold…

Ugh.

It is what it is.
I’m debating on getting a tattoo of that on my chest in 3 inch boldface font… I swear I am….

The killer is even now, those prices, accounting for the fake and ghey markets and manipulation of inflationary standards, gold and silver have always been sorely underestimated and undervalued. It’s intentional as when we were on a true one-for-one silver and gold standard for money, and not the current “Money Printer Go BRRRT!” fiatbux the economy was faaar more stable and operative. There is, outside of some insane jubilee (never going to happen IMO) or a conversion over to some electronic bullshit crypto-coin (what they appear to want to have happen) the economy is on it’s last legs.

Myself, I think we’re going to keep seeing a sloooow unwind.

Of everything.

The economy, morals, laws… you name it.

It’s going to be more “Bladerunner” than “Mad Max” I think… Leastways I also hope it’s that… that’d be better than “The Day After” for damned sure…

Now…
Pete Hegseth, love him or hated him gave a “Out with the fatasses” speech to the 800 oh so fat and worthless senior “Perfumed Princes on the Potomac” aka Generals and Senior NCOs in a meeting. He came right out and said the Warrior Spirit is going to be first and foremost on the new agenda, and anyone not onboard was welcome to GTFO.

Not a bad speech IMO.

And what do you know?

The four star, the Vice Chairman of the US Air Force Global Strike Command up and retired the next day.

One down, several to go.

I will give the guy credit however… he didn’t come right out against anything that was said in the speech… he didn’t burn any bridges per se. In fact this retirement maybe for personal and family reasons… but personally I think it has more to do with the regulations regarding his retirement…

Which a LOT of these fucktards seem to be forgetting about.

Miley could be and needs to be stripped of his retirement for treason which is exactly what he did when he went behind OrangeManBad’s back and told his counterpart General Joe Chink that he’d warn the chinks if OMB was going to try something with them… That’s fucking treason.

And as a retarded Gen’rul, he should know he can still be called back to active duty and charged with treason, stripped of ALL his retirement, rank, and in this case, put up against a wall and shot. Which in this case I think that fat fuck deserves no less.

Because Fuck That Guy.

So yeah… that’s about as much ‘steam’ as I have for today.
Again sorry to worry you guys so much but hey… sometimes a dood gets wore the fuck out. I’ll try to do better

And to the fuckers commenting on the cleanliness of the kitchen? Considering the maid has been gone for a while, yeah, its a wee bit funky, but fuck it… we used to drink from garden hoses and eat dirt when I was a kid, never mind how nasty it was in Iraq, so this ain’t shit. GFY.

More Later
The “I’m not dead yet’ Big Country

Hey Gang!
Got shit cleaned up.
Will be back tomorrow. I’ve also been sick… exposure to smol hoomon(s) that probably passed on the cooties from school.
Body Aches
Puking
The ‘reeahs
Man I’m worn the fuck out.
More Later
Big Country

No Idea, No Clue.
Someone got in and purged a bunch of my poasts.
I’ll try to restore as I go but just FYI if I’m out of contact, it’s b/c I’m chasing some shit down. I’m trying to figure it out on my own… it looks like -someone- got into my PC here and used my cache to open Ye Olde Blegg.

No idea who did it (and no, I’m sure the soon to be Former Miz BCE had nothing to do with it, as we have a deal regarding this… I actually had a good meetup today w/her) but I’m on the hunt.
More Later
BCE

Greetings and Salutations!
Got hemmed up last night on a project for The Boat.

Hence my absence.
Back when I decided to go ‘Full Contractor’ with The Boat, during one of the “Prime Days” a month and a half ago or so, I found a a rooftop rack for the truck that had a pretty decent price, as well as a coupon that saved me some additional shekels. The problem was when to do the installation as there’s two types of weather here in Tampa…

Too hot or too wet.

As of late it’s been a combo of both.

However we did have some rain the other day that allowed the night (last night in particular) to cool off enough that I was able to finally do the assembly and installation of the rack.

It was thankfully a pretty straightforward job in its assembly.

It’s ALSO large enough and from what I can tell sturdy enough for my liking. It has a 250 pound cargo rating, so that’s another bonus.

My rationale is that like in Iraq, I want to make sure I can stash an extra full size tire and rim, plus be able to externally haul ammo cans/water cans/cases of rations what have you like I did back in the day in Iraq:

Maaaaaaaaaaan I miss that truck…

My 2006 Semi-uparmored ‘Burban.

I got it in trade from a maintenance Company that needed a lo-boy trailer. I was going to have it shipped home on the down-low (in a 20 foot container, sent to McDill) but ‘things happened’ and I didn’t get a chance to pull it off unfortunately.

The Boat is also going to be sporting a Hajji-Squisher like Godzilla (that was it’s name BTW) had in a paycheck or two down the road as well. I mean why the Hell not? Considering that the way things are going? I mean I did get home a lot of the Kevlar door panels that have now been installed on The Boat as I think it’s prudent to get into “Mad Max Mode” sooner, rather than later Aye?

Better to have a ‘battle wagon’ than not amiright?

I also just realized something…

The Boat and Godzilla share that same gold-ish/tan color.

Neat!

I also sanded the hood and front bumper a wee bit as the paint is DOA and the fiberglass of the hood itself was starting to get messed up and had a little bit of delamination due to the UV damage. By sanding it, and eventually (probably tomorrow) priming it, and ‘rattle canning’ it with a couple of layers of clearcoat gloss, it’ll look a LOT better than what it currently is.

I also was busy making sauce

The last ‘bottomless bucket of sauce’ finally ran out, and we’d been without any sketties for a week or two, so I started off cooking up 5 pounds of ground beef (80/20 mix for those who want to know):

I seasoned the Hell out of it, then drained it.

While that was cooking I used the Air Fryer on “Grill” and did up a dozen Mild Italian Sausages, which I then diced into rounds, and added to the pot:

For grins and giggles, I then cooked up a package of pepperoni in the same pan I’d done the beef in. Mind you, I lightly pan-fried it up, and then drained the excess oil off as well. Once done, it too went into the pot:

Sausage, Ground Beef and ‘Ronis?

Check, check annnnnd Check.

Three large cans of plain tomater sauce, 2 smol cans of diced tomatoes (I like some textured ‘maters in my sauce) and then seasoned it alllllll over again to make sure it’s got the right flavor and then hey!

A pretty decent meat heavy sauce.
Damned near an “Italian Chili” to be honest…
Thick as all git oot and GREAT on sketties…

So that was last night…
Oh and I forgot… there was also Weapon Maintenance as well.
On the new piece:

Damn Palmetto State and Zezzle
An Italian made Beretta ‘Cheetah’ 84BB in .380
For $299 on clearance.

I carried the same piece in Iraq back in the day as a ‘backup piece’… ammo was rare and hard to come by but it was a nice lil peashooter… easily concealable, a large grip and a 13 round magazine. The one I had in Iraq had the smooth wooden grips (which I’m keeping an eye open for to add to this ‘un)… The reason for this purchase (besides the outstanding price-point) is that it gets added to my “Guns of Iraq” theme where eventually I own a model of ALL the firearms I had over there…

The bitch is going to be sourcing my Dragunov…

Looking it over, it hardly has ANY ‘wear and tear’ for a former police weapon. It’s truly in remarkably great shape as you can see…

The springs are tight, the slide is actually really hard to pull back as the mainspring in ‘like new’ and overall?

Like I said, NO ‘real’ wear and tear…
The barrel is pristine:

And tomorrow, Sapper and I are going out to Cowboy’s place to bust some caps we hope, weather depending. I’ll then know if it shoots worth a damn, as well as the Glock .45 which needs to be tested as well…

So that’s the beginning of the weekend.
Hope y’alls goes nice and smoothly as well as mine currently appears to be doing!

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Sooooo a wee bit of a interesting changeup here in Florida!

Seems that as of September 25th of this month “Open Carry” will now be legal here. Seems that the ruling from the 1st District Court of Appeal stated that the law regarding Florida’s nearly 40-year-old prohibition on openly carrying guns, contending that it is unconstitutional due to recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

Namely Bruen and other laws. That being that “The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen struck down New York’s strict “proper cause” requirement for obtaining a concealed carry license, ruling that it violated the Second Amendment. The decision declared a constitutional right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense and established a new framework for evaluating Second Amendment challenges, requiring gun regulations to be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

So cool on that.
Now, I’m not one of these assholes who plans on running around open carrying an AR because I can. The reason -I’m- pleased with this is NOW I don’t have to worry about ‘printing’ anymore. A BIG problem I have (as do many others) is that in order for me to do the ‘concealed carry’ is that UNLESS I’m wearing a circus-tent sized shirt, I ‘print’ like a motherfucker.

And any weapon I can carry fully concealed is a wee bit too smol IMO for a good defensive carry. I mean my Smith 669 is a good CC, BUT I really DON’T want to carry it as it’s getting hard to find them, as they’re collectible, and IF I have to use it, it’d vanish into the maw of the ‘just-us’ system, which to me is unacceptable.

So Now?
I can carry my Glock .45 and NOT worry about the whole printing issue which is AWESOME!!!

So I got that going for me…
Otherwise, I’m still avoiding Poly-Ticks.
Although a few memes out there caught my eye:

No shit right?

No Lies detected….

Yep.
So the only thing I’m going to comment on it the rifle that was ‘supposedly’ found an attributed to the shooter. The picture that we have is not the greatest, which I’m pretty sure is intentional. The one I got with the best resolution is thus:

Now…
A couple or three things ‘jump out’ at me right off the bat.
One is the scope placement.
That sucker is so far back that it positively would have given the shooter a ‘scope-eye’ black eye. It’s LITERALLY as far back as it could possibly go. Normally the turrets for the H/V adjustment would be about midway along the bolt… not in this case.

Number Two is the mounts themselves.
Is it me, or does that front mount look like it’s bart of the barrel itself? Like as in the chamber looks strangely oversized without a seam?

Now because of that, I went down a wee bit of a ‘rabbit hole’.

As many of you commented, a Mauser Actioned .30-06 was pretty common ‘back in the day’. And as we see here, it does appear to have a Mauser style bolt-rear. The thing is, that appears to be a new stock… composite/plastic from the looks of it.

According to a LOT of sources out there, it was supposedly given to him from his Grandfather…which if true makes sense that it was an older rifle passed down to him. HOWEVER

I’ve only found ONE RIFLE with a similar set of rings and action that even comes close to this one:

Up to and including the rear screw and weird angle of the front ring mount…
What say you?
Even (despite the exceptionally blurry pic) the rear of the bolts appear to match up. There’s only one major problem

The rifle above?

It’s from a McKay-Brown rifle… in this particular case a $21,000.00 sold-at-auction rifle. David McKay-Brown stopped making rifles back in 2021 when he semi-retired at aage 80. He was/is considered the ultimate rifle/shotgun ‘small batch’ custom gunmaker. His weapons are world-renowned for his unbelievable craftsmanship.

So I’m pretty sure that that CAN’T be a McK-B.
At least I sure as fuck hope it isn’t.
BUT
Like I said, I’ve been doing some insanely deep dives trying to ID that thing, and let me tell you, I’ve been pulling up a dry hole so to speak. If anyone has a better idea, let me know.

Also, as far as the whole entry/exit wound issue.
I want to know, no matter WHAT it was, Where was the cloud of spatter!?! Almost every. single. person. I’ve seen shot (and unfortunately, I’ve seen quite a few) there is, invariably a spatter/cloud of flesh/blood that goes along with a bullet entering and exiting. Usually the exit wound is VERY messy… to the point one poor bastard who caught one next to me?

I had to wash chunks of his brains out of my hair afterwards…

VERY messy/gross/PTSD inducing…

So as cold hearted as it sounds? Where was Charlie’s splatter factor? I mean the fountain of jugular blood was about right, but there was no pink mist/flesh spray like you’d see with that shot… and considering how he was shot with a .30-06 which just happened to be the main round used in WW2 in like ALL our primary weapons from the Springfield 1903A3 and the M1 Garand, as well as the M1917/19 Light Machine Gun?

I mean even watching old battle footage from back then, you can SEE the clouds of blood/flesh and splatter when the GI’s are lighting up either Herman-the -German or Luke-the-Gook…

Charlie getting hit?
Nada. Zip. Zilch.
How Bizarre, How Bizarre…

No spatter…
No clue on that for me… which is really odd…
Add in that for -some reason- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or as I like to call him “NutjobYayhoo” came out and strangely stated that the Izzies had nothing to do with CK’s death…

No shit amiright?

Make of it what you will… too much weirdness going on out there. I’m just going to hunker in the bunker, and on the off chance I have to leave the Casa, at least NOW I can do so geared up appropriately without fear of getting hemmed up.

I also in the exceptionally near-future will be doing a writeup of another project I finished recently that has been in the works for a few years. It was a money issue but now, I finally managed to get it finished… and it’s going to be cool AF IMO.

So more later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Currently I’m too tired to think.
I got maybe 8 hours of combined sleep from Friday until now. The fishing was fantastic and since it was sort of like being on a combat op, I’m still a bit woozy from the lack of sleep. Granted I wouldn’t trade it for anything right now. It was well worth the time and effort and J3?

Dude is a God among Frens for that hookup.

In fact I’m really enjoying the whole post trip analysis.

Part of my issue and pre-trip reticence was that when I last went for a deep sea fishing trip, I was like 10. I spent the entirety of the trip seasick to Hell and Gone. Leastways that I can remember. DeadDad didn’t fare too well either as I recall. I guess that “Mal de Mer” runs in the fam…

That or we’re “Natural Borne Grunts”

Myself? 100% Grunt, thru and thru.

See… Dramamine/Sudafed/all the other ‘cures’?
T’ain’t none of them work worth a damn on me.
All they do is make me extremely sleepy, which means I’m blowing chunks whilst halfway into a coma. No fun at all to say the least.

So that being said, The Scopolamine Patches that Doc Samizdat hooked me up with? Oh Holy Hells Batman!!! I owe Doc another bottle when next we meet up. THAT shit worked like a charm!

So as you all saw, the first night home, I cooked up some pan seared and fried Blackened Snapper over rice. It was (of course) off the chain as I mean it was so fresh it started ‘twitching’ when I dropped it in the pan to cook. I also when I first got home realized that I had SO MUCH of it, I just had to share with my next door neighbor, Miz Ellen.

Miz Ellen is my church lady next door neighbor.

She’s a 80+ year old Born-Again Christian Black Lady who I really dig… she’s been a great source of intel on the local comings and goings, and keeps me in the loop as to what she hears and see in general around our local A.O.as she’s wired in in her local church. She’s been here since I first moved in back in 2005. My first X was so asocial that Miz Ellen never really interacted with me, nor my fam. Afterwards (post deeee-vorce from Frau #1) when G moved in w/me, G got Miz Ellen to open up, and she’s been cool with us ever since.

Even more so as during the Hurricanes we’ve had in the past few, I’ve made sure Miz Ellen’s house was secure, windows taped and helped her with anything she needs. Heavy Lifting being the #1 request for me and Todd… carrying in her flats of bottled water and suchlike.

So since she’s on the ‘cool kid list’ I brought her over a half-a-filet. Now… understand getting Miz Ellen to accept ANY food/gifts/help is like pulling teeth. She “(I) …don’t want no charity!!!” as she’s put it from her POV which I can respect, not that she needs it… however, for this offering, I explained that this fish was so damned fresh it just had stopped squirming, and to give it a shot as it’d be the best she’s had I’d wager. She reluctantly took it, and hey… Mission Accomplished.

Now… the next night (Monday Night) she came out while I was walking the doggos. Normally she doesn’t come near the two puppers as she’s deathly allergic. In this case however? She came blasting out, hugged me and told me that “…in all 83 plus years that God has graced me to live here on this here planet, that was the best fish I’ve ever had in my entire life!!!” She apparently was overjoyed at the gift. Told me she wasn’t sure to begin with as she was supposed to cook up some fried chikinenz, but switched out, and was thankful she did!

I told her she was welcome and to let me know if she wanted more. She thanked me again and bailed. Until this afternoon.

Around noon the doorbell rang while I was on lunch… seems it was none other than Miz Ellen bearing gifts! Now, she’s the head of the food pantry at her church, and in the past when they have too much, she’s dropped off the occasional care package here at the Casa. I guess since the fish was such a hit, she dropped one off today as a ‘thank you’ which was cool AF IMO.

I of course then got to show her the pics of the trip, which impressed the Heck out of Her, and then, I ran inside and gave her another full filet this time. Needless to say she was beyond grateful again, and to me? It’s good politics to have the local Head Black Matriarch of the Local Church in your corner so to speak.

Good neighbors and all that.
She’s in the past even teased me when I scream some racial epithets when I do something stupid… she’s really cool like that.

So that was yesterday.

Tonight?
Well besides me getting ready to crash the fuck out early AF as I’m tired-tired-tired? Well dinner HAD to be made and I had almost two pounds of mixed leftover fish left that needed to be cooked tonight no matter what… some parts were amberjack, some were snapper, and one of them bags has my triggerfish meat as well…. but I’m pretty sure that that wasn’t in this bag… either way…

I started off by making a beer batter.
I used the leftover blackening spiced to season the batter:

THEN
I pat-dried all the remaining chunks, and pre-seasoned them with some MOAR of the blackening seasoning:

I got the deep fryer set and ready, and laid out the wire rack to cool off the post-cooked fishies. Little known thing: When you deep fry a chunk of fish, if you don’t ‘air dry/drain/cool’ the piece, it’ll get all soggy on the side it’s laying on. Pro-Tip: Let it drain on a wire screen/rack like you see… it’ll keep it’s all-around crispiness instead of all going super-soggy.

Jes’ Sayin’

I dredged and dropped each piece, and cooked them for about 4 minutes, 30 seconds… then I pulled them, and let Sapper get his ‘feed on’

The ‘tater cake’ is a breakfast hash brown. I realized as I was cooking that we didn’t have any french fries to cook up, so this was the substitution. I mean what the Hell? It worked right?

So the next thing was to ‘wash rinse repeat’ which I did, and my plate ended up looking like this:

Needless to say…
I’m so full….> UUUUURP!!!! <
Holy Crapola!!!

Man… talk about “Goodness From The Sea”
I just may have to forego the next weapon purchase and look at a rod and reel. Seems there are day-trip fishing expeditions out of Saint Pete that’re short and cheap… granted if you DON’T have any luck, well that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

HOWEVER

Red Snapper at my local Publix?
It’s $22 a pound for ‘previously frozen’ Red Snapper.
$75 for a six hour tour (my, how positively ominous Aye?) and IF things play out? It pays for itself in many respects.

So that’s tonight’s intel dump.
My brain is still trying to process a lot of ‘junk’ and I’m NOT up to speed. I’ll attempt to get better, but it’ll be slow going.

So More Later
Big Country

Amazing how that works Aye?