{"id":9316,"date":"2026-04-19T01:58:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T01:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/?p=9316"},"modified":"2026-04-19T02:46:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:46:29","slug":"who-designed-this-thing-and-appreciate-all-of-yall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/19\/who-designed-this-thing-and-appreciate-all-of-yall\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Designed This Thing!!??!! And Appreciate All of Y&#8217;all"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Greetings and Salutations!<br>So the gig with GunGal is not happening.<br>Not enough biddness to justify hiring me.<br>Damned shame that.  She -is- selling the place, and doesn&#8217;t know if the new owners are going to keep the staff on, however&#8230;  Sapper is the only full-time paid employee, and the others who work there work for the discounts on the weapons.<br><br>If the new folks want to have a master gunsmith\/DotMil qualified Depot Level Smol-Arms repairman on hand, who ALSO could sell damned near any weapon to anyone, I&#8217;d be the go-to-guy IMO.<br><br>Either way, I have other &#8216;fish on the griddle&#8217; so to speak.<br><br>&#8220;I&#8217;m not ded yet!&#8221;<br><br>So&#8230; either way I went down to see about a job there as well as putting one of the Lee Enfield rifles on consignment.  Only to find out she&#8217;s so close to a sale of the biddness, she&#8217;s no longer getting or doing consignments.   Meh.  Not a biggie.  Gunbroker is a thing if I need to.<br><br>I mean I still have all my vay-kay (50+ hours) to be paid out, plus a month severance.  Add on I had to cancel the Mexico Cruise (dammit!&#8230; DC did get <strong>one more &#8216;fuck you&#8217; in on me <\/strong>the fucking bitch &lt;hawwwwwwwk-SPIT!)  Which ALSO means the $200 in Pesos I got BEFORE the trip (to avoid the usual ruinous tourista exchange rate when I was there) I can turn into the bank and get back some of it for a smol fee&#8230;<br><br>The cruise company DID fuck me however.<br>I got only a 1\/3rd of the invested $$$ refunded&#8230;<br>Fuckers.<br>That&#8217;s what I get for declining the travel insurance amiright? <br><br>Some is better than none&#8230;<br>&#8220;It is what it is!&#8221; as I&#8217;m so fond of declaring.<br><br>Now, to the title.<br>Today at the Gun Shoppe, Sapper started showing me some of the new toys that came in.  One of which is a Daniel Defense Short Barreled 9mm Carbine.  At first glance, it&#8217;s kind of cool looking:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162437-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9317\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162437-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162437-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162437-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162437-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162437-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162437-1200x900.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">It takes CZ Scorpion mags, as well as a bunch of other aftermarket mags.  Officially it&#8217;s the DD-PCC-SBR, which stands for the Daniel Defense Pistol Caliber Carbine, Short Barreled Rifle, which is a fucking mouthful.  It retails for about $1800 and change.  That being said, on my handling and inspecting it?  Let me ask: can anyone tell me what -I- saw that made me go &#8220;Oh HELLS No!&#8221;?<br><br>Here&#8217;s a close up of both sides of the upper and lower receiver and functional switches so to speak:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162502-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162502-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162502-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162502-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162502-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162502-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162502-1200x900.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162453-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162453-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162453-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162453-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162453-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162453-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418162453-1200x900.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Anyone? Anyone?<br>Bueller?  Bueller?<br>The Magna Carta&#8230;.<br><br>So&#8230;  let me explain here.  It&#8217;s got an ambidextrous mag release, as well as a bolt catch\/release.  If you&#8217;ll notice, to &#8216;lock the bolt to the rear&#8217; you have to pretty much push <strong>down<\/strong> on the bottom part of the release, as I have circled here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1-1024x653.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9320\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1-1024x653.png 1024w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1-300x191.png 300w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1-768x490.png 768w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1-1200x766.png 1200w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1.png 1304w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Guess what ELSE you&#8217;ll &#8216;hit&#8217; while you&#8217;re trying to lock the bolt to the rear?<br>Yep.<br>The fucking <strong>MAG RELEASE!!!<\/strong><br>Talk about a fucked up design.<br>Now, granted, this is a rarity, BUT having had a in-real-life OMFG Moment with an M-4 that required me to lock the bolt to the rear during a firefight, this is a thing of <strong>badness.<\/strong>  See&#8230; I had a misfeed one time&#8230;  meaning I had one too many rounds trying to chamber at once (caused by a bad mag with a cracked feed lip I found out later).  <br><br>In the Infantry, we had a drill pummeled into our heads when you had a jam.  &#8216;The immediate action drill to clear a jam on an M-16\/M4 platform is\u00a0<strong>SPORTS<\/strong>\u00a0(Slap, Pull, Observe, Release, Tap, Squeeze), designed to fix 99% of stoppages. The &#8220;Pull, Tap, Release&#8221; segment refers to\u00a0pulling the charging handle, tapping the forward assist, and releasing the bolt (if locked) to chamber a new round.&#8217; (H\/T goolag AI)<br><br>So&#8230; when the weapon misfed, I looked,(observed) and realized that I needed to lock the bolt back, so as to shake the &#8216;extra&#8217; misfed round out of the chamber.  I did so, and was able to shake the round out, release the bolt, and Charlie Mike.<br><br>With this thing?<br>Under pressure?<br>You&#8217;re going to 90% if the time is my guess, drop the mag while trying to unfuck a jam, and leave you with your dick in the wind.<br><br>0\/10 Would NOT recommend.<br><br>Not sure who came up with that, but it&#8217;s <strong>obviously<\/strong> someone who&#8217;s never been &#8216;in the shit.&#8217;  I mean the <strong>idea<\/strong> is sound, but the <strong>placement?<\/strong>  That&#8217;s about as wrong as two boys fucking, with a third waiting in line.  I mean people talk about KelTec&#8230;  sheesh&#8230;  And as far as the placement, they have no other place to put it&#8230;  although I do have an idea&#8230;  it would involve turning the release 90 degrees to either the front or rear, <em>away<\/em> from the mag release, and leave it on only <strong>one side.<\/strong>  Enlarge the locking paddle <em>juuust<\/em> a wee bit, and have it <em>completely<\/em> away from the mag release.  Here&#8217;s a crude quick photoshop of what I mean:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"888\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9322\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-3.png 888w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-3-300x236.png 300w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-3-768x605.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Make it so it&#8217;s a larger button that can be depressed so as to allow a quick and dirty bolt lock.  YMMV&#8230;  <br><br>So yeah&#8230;<br>Then, on other fronts<br>G is doing OK.  Not as haunted, but I think that&#8217;s because the both of us are exhausted.  Poor Muldoon is so used to being picked up the second he starts crying, we&#8217;re in for a few loooong weeks with breaking him of that&#8230;  just like how he expects to be fed every. single. time. he throws a fix, hence why he&#8217;s the chunkiest monkey -I&#8217;ve- ever seen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418102421-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9323\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418102421-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418102421-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418102421-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418102421-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418102421-1200x1600.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20260418102421-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Makes me feel better about my own beer gut lemme tell ya&#8230;<br><br>Now to be fair, I took that <strong>right after<\/strong> he&#8217;d torqued down his lunch, hence the insane gut&#8230; which also covers the drool factor.<br><br>Blonde and Bloo-eyed&#8230; the same hair color as the Nukular Powered Red\/Strawberry Blonde Gran.  He&#8217;ll get back in shape eventually (round is a shape innit?) and he IS good natured and smiles and giggles a lot.  He does seem to know that DC ain&#8217;t around anymore, but as he&#8217;s so young, it&#8217;s not a big deal as she&#8217;ll fade with time.  Right now he&#8217;s grooving to having me around, as I can tell he knows that a male figure is here, which has been absent from the scene since the get-go.<br><br>And G is completely focused on him, so as I&#8217;ve been telling her, focus on the future, and not the past.  &#8220;Just keep Swimming&#8221; as Dory said&#8230;  which also brings to me the realization I&#8217;m going to be rewatching a LOT of Pixar animation over the next few.<br>Pray for me<br>That being said, I do want to thank ALL of you, the Studio Viewing Audience for all the kind words, both positive and negative so to speak, when I needed them.  It&#8217;s why I haven&#8217;t either gone on a Crocodile Dundee &#8220;walkabout&#8221; (i.e. disappearing into the woodline forever) or suck started my gauge, not that I&#8217;d be apt to do that having seen what I saw this week&#8230;  It&#8217;s been since 2006? 2007 since I&#8217;ve seen brains like that, and I&#8217;m good for another 10 years thanks very much.  I&#8217;m also sure G has seen enough too&#8230;<br><br>But seriously&#8230; I appreciate all the support&#8230; Tactical Hermit, Concerned American, Mike Hendrix, Phil from BustedKnuckles&#8230; all sorts of weird and wild fuckers have been calling me and making sure I haven&#8217;t lost my shit, as this sort of shit would break lesser men.  TBH, at this point in my life, this&#8217;s just another &#8220;Tuesday&#8221; amiright?<br><br>Best to keep a sense of humor, even a dark black one.<br><br>So More Later<br>Big Country<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"506\" height=\"565\" src=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/save.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/save.png 506w, https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/save-269x300.png 269w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 85vw, 506px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings and Salutations!So the gig with GunGal is not happening.Not enough biddness to justify hiring me.Damned shame that. She -is- selling the place, and doesn&#8217;t know if the new owners are going to keep the staff on, however&#8230; Sapper is the only full-time paid employee, and the others who work there work for the discounts &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/19\/who-designed-this-thing-and-appreciate-all-of-yall\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Who Designed This Thing!!??!! And Appreciate All of Y&#8217;all&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9316"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9334,"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9316\/revisions\/9334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}