Revelation Model 205

Back in 1991 I was a stuggling cop with a growing family, trying to outfit the growing kids with things like shoes and jeans. I wanted to buy a rifle for my son to hunt whitetail deer with me and in a used gun shop I stumbled upon a Revelation Model 205, a lever action rifle remniscent of the Marlin 336. Later, during my research, I learned that this particular rifle had been made by Mossberg for the Western Auto chain stores. Still, it was a knock-around lever action .30-30 and my son carried it hunting for several years. We lived in the country then, and the rifle accounted for it's share of varmints, to include alligators in the pond.

Sometime around 2000, the rifle started exhibiting a tendency to fail to feed. It would hang up tighter than a bank vault. I took it to a gunsmith and he told me that the rifle was worn out. Worn out. The receiver is two piece, an aluminum inner and a steel outer and according to the 'smith, the aluminum inserts in those rifles would wear out.

"What can we do about that?" I asked.

"You can say you wore out a rifle."

I took it home and put it in the locker. Eventually, my son claimed it and I forgot about it. My second son, Matthew, is a master mechanic and loves a mechanical challenge. Yesterday, he came by the house and told me that he had something in the truck. When we walked out to the truck, he handed me the Revelation.

"Here ya go, Pop! I rebuilt that old rifle for you."

I was stunned. The rifle he handed me didn't look anything like the old rifle that I remembered. The stock had be refinished and the action slipped open like butter. "What did you have to do to it."

"I finally decided to take it apart and see what the problem was. There was a pin, and a spring, and the e-clip on the pin was missing. After I figured out how it was supposed to work, the rest was fairly easy. While I had it down, I refinished the stock, media blasted the barrel bands and cleaned it up a little bit."

"Well, damn, son" I objected, "I bought that rifle for you."

"I know, Pop, and I fixed it for you."

It's in the corner near the desk. I'll play with it a bit, maybe kill a deer with it, and when his son is old enough, I'll have a story to tell him.

The Consensus

It ain't happening. The science has spoken.

The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

Really? The globe isn't warming? What in inconvenient truth?

Shooting Sunday

This afternoon after lunch, my youngest son and I slipped off to do a little evaluation. I had loaded some .308 ammo and he's got a gun that will shoot. It's a Savage 10FP, the heavy barreled cop gun and he's mounted it in a Choate Sniper stock. If you're evaluating ammo, you want a proven platform to evaluate it and his rifle is proven in that caliber.

Our standard load for that rifle is 43.0 grains of Reloder 15 under a 168 grain Sierra MatchKing bullet. It's a proven load in many rifles and I believe that it duplicates the long-proven Federal Gold Medal Match ammo.

One of the basic tenets of handloading is that if you want to change a load, you can drop down a bullet weight without getting into pressure problems, so I wanted to test that load with a 150 grain bullet and a 125 grain bullet. Both the 125 grain Sierra Gameking and the 150 grain Hornady Interlock SST are proven game bullets and if I could get them to fly from Joey's rifle, then they'd probably fly from any .308 caliber rifle.

So, after lunch, we loaded the bench and sneaked off to our range. It's a 100 yard range that we've built on family land, perfect for a quiet afternoon.

That's Joey on the bench. Yeah, that's a southpaw rifle and we had to modify the stock to fit the left-hand action. It wasn't much of a modification, though, only a simple cut on the off side to accommodate the bolt handle, and we had to fill the right-side cut where the bolt handle normally goes.

We decided to start with the 125 grain Gameking load, and it turned in a weird little target after we shot the fouler shot. The load looked like it was stringing vertically, but when we measured it, the vertical stringing was just barely over and inch.

1.04 tall and 0.811 wide, that's not a bad group for 10 shots. Not shabby at all. I might have found a soft recoiling load that I can use for pre-teen grandkids. We next tried the same load, but with a 150 grain Hornady Interlock SST. This is a great little bullet designed for hunting thin-skinned game, like the smallish whitetail deer we've got in these woods. After the barrel cooled from the first string, Joey hunkered down behind his rifle and tried to stack them all in the same hole. He very nearly succeeded.

Yeah, that's a one-inch target dot and the flier above the group he called as his 10th shot. That is a ten shot group, folks and it measures just 0.89". If you take the called flier out of the group, he's put nine shots into just 0.515. Damned fine shooting in my book.

Afterwards, we took out the .308 Handi-rifle and took turns ringing the 100 yard gong. Not a bad way at all to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Sunday Morning Dawg

I missed a good shot last week for the Sunday Dawg. It seems that the dog was supervising activities near the pool, forgot where he was, lost his footing, and fell in the pool. Milady fished him out before I could get my camera. Another lost opportunity for the Sunday Dawg.

I suggested this morning that we re-enact the event. Throw the dog in the pool while I have my camera ready, and record for all posterity his frantic attempts to get out of the pool, then record his pitiful attempt to forget about the whole incident. A re-creation of the event for event for the amusement and edification of my internet audience. Milady objected, so that idea was quickly quashed.

The dog is disgusted with the whole scenario. Doesn't want to talk about it.

That's Racist!

The way the anti-gunners think.

All in all, once again the VPC agrees with other organizations that African Americans should stay away from guns. Those organizations include, NAACP, Storm Front, ACLU, The American Nazi Party and your local Klan Association.

Well, anytime the NAACP and the local Klan association agree on something, it must be worth considering.

Hat tip, SayUncle.

Shooting with Termite

My buddy Jonathan called me this week. I've known him for several years, we met on an internet gun forum (aka: Termite) and later realized that we lived just several miles apart. He wanted to help familiarize his teenage daughter with a revolver, so we went out to my private range to do a little shooting.

That's Jonathan and his lovely daughter, Nicole. She's a student at Louisiana Tech and wants to learn about revolvers. We began with a short safety course, talking about the Four Rules and instilling things like muzzle control and trigger discipline. Then we dry-fired a bit, got our eyes and ears covered, and started to learn the basics.

Her pistol is a little Smith and Wesson Centennial, an alloy framed revolver. We tried some .38 special loads and she seemed to handle the recoil fairly well. That's a light pistol and she wasn't sure about the grip. Her pistol has a Crimson Trace laser grip and it seemed to irritating her firing hand in recoil.

Her Dad let her try his Ruger, a heavier pistol to let her concentrate more on sight alignment and trigger control. That heavier pistol soaked up the recoil better and she was able to settle down and fire it just fine. Within a few cylinders, she was going through the firing drill like a pro. Of course, we stopped from time to time to laugh, answer questions, and reinforce both the practical and safety aspects of shooting revolvers.

She did really well with the revolvers, handling loading, unloading, and misfire drills. I had some .38 special loads that, frankly, had misfires. While I normally don't try to induce misfires, it's important to understand why they occur and what causes them. (In this case, I don't remember checking each round for powder, although that's part of my process.) Still, she handled them just fine.

After a short session with the Ruger, she went back to the Centennial, saying that she liked it's compact size and weight better than her Dad's big Ruger. A little familiarization goes a long way and shortly we were shooting a variety of pistols with different grips so that she could form opinions based on actual experience.

She shot everything on that tailgate, including my Airweight, so that she could learn what grip type she best enjoys, or more particularly, what types don't work for her. A valuable learning experience for any shooter. By the end of the morning, she was doing quite well, as evidence by her target with her revolver.

As we ended the session, I asked her if she'd like to try my .44 and she happily agreed to try it. I had it loaded with Skeeter's Load and after showing her how to operate the pistol, she gladly gave it a try.

In that photo, I managed to catch her in recoil with the big revolver. I'll also note that I got the same insane giggle that I've gotten when I let other young ladies shoot that handgun. It's quite heartwarming.

All in all, a beautiful day, a lovely young lady and a sack full of revolvers. What a way to spend a Saturday morning!

Saturday Morning

I'm finishing my third cup of coffee while piddling, waiting for a friend to show up so we can go shooting. He's got a college age daughter who has expressed an interest and we're taking her to my private range to familiarize her with handguns. I may try out my Airweight depending on how the session goes. I might not even take it out; we'll see. This is about her confidence and first steps, not about me.

I've got all my gear stacked and I'm going through the mental list in my head. In another half hour, we'll be heading to the range.

Goblin Down

I remember when Kim duToit used to do a feature about goblins who earn their just desserts. I don't know of anyone that's doing that meme, but here's a little item I found.

It seems that some old coot in Pennsylvania was riding his bicycle and some young punks tried to rob him. Oops, wrong ole man.

The man was riding his bicycle about 11 a.m. on the Thun Trail near the Bertolet Fishing Dock in West Reading when the boys knocked him off his bicycle and pinned him against a fence in an apparent robbery attempt, police said.

Only problem with their plan, is that no plan survives the first contact, intact.

Two of the boys were assaulting the man when he pulled a handgun and shot them, police said.

Julias Johnson, a 16-year-old on probation, was pronounced dead at the scene. The other boy was taken to Reading Hospital with a single gunshot wound and is expected to survive.

Well, hell, that's 50%. I'm betting that the surviving boy will be charged with murder. That peculiarity in most codes where when you're committing a felony and someone dies, you're guilty of murder.

Berks County District Attorney John Adams said he does not condone violence, but said the man had no choice but to defend himself against the teens.

An altogether fitting and proper end to this scenario, the codger won't be facing charges, one goblin is in the ground and the other is facing a long prison term.

I'm going outside to do my happy dance. Hopefully, I won't scare the neighbors.

Weather

We're under a helluva storm, it's been lightning and raining and thundering since dark. The dog, of course, is freaked out.

We need the rain, and I love a good thunderstorm.

Why We Win!

Did y'all see this? It seems that a US Special Operations team has rescued an American citizen and an associate who had been kidnapped in Somalia.

U.S. special operations forces have rescued a kidnapped American aid worker and her Danish colleague in Somalia, the White House and officials with the aid organization said Wednesday. During the raid, all nine of their captors were killed.

All nine of the captors was killed. I bet that sends a message to the lowlife scum who threaten American citizens.

Way to go, SpecOps guys.

USA! USA!

Silliness

A friend sent me this clip, and I'm in the mood for some silliness. This is a clip from a nursing home talent show, and I was thinking about my sister who administers a nursing home.



I bet that fellow is a hoot around the bingo table.

This one's for you, Patty!

TSA Equality

I notice that Senator Rand Paul had a problem yesterday trying to get on an airplane to attend a session of Congress. TSA defends itself, saying that they treated the Senator just like everyone else. Good for them. The government should treat Senators like everyone else.

My problem is that they treat everyone like that, a stunning over-reach of government authority and a huge pain in the wazoo to traveling Americans. I'm one that believes that the government has no business in the airline security business. Let the airlines take care of their own security and the travelers will reward the airline that does the best job.

Jindal's Education Plan

I see that Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, has come out against Governor Jindal's education plan.

This is still a conversation we need to have, but if the LFT is against it, then I take that as a ringing endorsement of the plan. Monaghan says, "We need to have a debate over the value of experience." No, Steve, we don't. What we need to have a debate about is the value of teachers unions.

Vouchers again

The issue of school vouchers came up on Chad Rogers site. Our governor is pushing an education reform agenda and I believe that it's a conversation that we need to have. One part of that agenda is vouchers for students attending failing schools to use the voucher to attend a public school. As in all grand schemes, the devil is in the details.

Opponents of vouchers remain wary. They say a voucher plan would send government money to schools that can "cherry pick" students and don't have the same obligations to educate the disabled or those with special needs. While students attending private schools with public money would have to take the same standardized tests as public school students, the schools themselves would not be subject to the same accountability standards, which include the assignment of rankings and letter grades to individual schools.

Those special needs and disabled children often drive the school's score down. While federal law requires that the schools provide services to such children, the simple fact of the matter is that few of them graduate and are listed as dropouts on the school performance score. That's not fair to the school.

We need to have this conversation, and we need to level the playing field. I'm not proposing that we cast those kids aside, but I am proposing that the school accountability score not take those kids performance into account. It's certainly not a teacher's fault if a child can only progress to a limited education, but at age 22 those kids have received all the services that they're entitled to receive and they end their public school experience. They're then listed as dropouts simply because they didn't graduate. Let's serve the kids, and lets do what makes sense.

Herrett's Grips

When I bought that Bodyguard yesterday, it came with a set of ugly grips. Ugly is in the eye of the beholder and the more I handled the revolver, the more I liked the way it felt in my hands. As I inspected the grips more closely, some interesting things came into focus.

They're made by Herrett's Stocks, Inc and Herrett has been making gun grips for a long time.

These are wooden grips and I'd suspect walnut, but I'm not ready to bet on that. They're finely checkered but the points aren't sharp. The effect gives the grips a pleasing roughness without feeling "pointy".

The frontstrp is open and these stocks don't have a filler behind the trigger guard. Also, there's an additional 3/8ths inch of wood below the grip frame, which mean all three fingers of my hand can grip the stock.

The backstrap is covered in wood, which is something we don't see a lot of these days. The effect of the open frontstap and closed backstrap tends to move the grip back away from the revolver, just a quarter-inch or so. It seems to make the gun longer, increasing the length of pull, which is a measurement we don't often take with pocket revolvers.

I had seen Herrett's stocks before, but I've never owned any. From looking at Herrett's website, it looks like they make stocks the old-fashioned way, one stock at a time. You also order stocks the old-fashioned way, by printing an order form and sending it to them, either by fax or mail. They want a tracing of your hand, which tells me that they understand how the human hand interacts with a revolver.

I went to their website originally to try to see what type grips I had on this revolver. I have to admit that I still don't know what model I have, but they fit and feel good, so I'll keep them on the pistol. They may be custom grips and if so, that only deepens the mystery of this little revolver.

Sunday Morning Dawg

Milady's mother came over to spend the weekend and the dog hangs out under her feet. When Meemaw sits at the kitchen counter, the dog is right there, figuring that food might be involved and hoping that something will hit the floor.

Even as hope wears thin, he lays by her feet. He's a shameless mutt. Shameless, I tell you.

I don't know where he got the idea that he could beg for table food.

In the Tank

So, ABC news publishes a pictorial about nine historic politicians that have philandered. Interesting in that they seem to omit William Jefferson Clinton, the guy that was impeached over such shenanigans.

How in the tank for the Democrats can ABC news be? I mean, come on, is there any pretense at being objective? They cover things like Gingrich's infidelity 10 years ago, but during Edwards campaign they failed to cover it while it was happening. Everybody knew, but you didn't see it in the news cycle.

And they wonder why nobody watches the evening news anymore? Amazing.

Model 38

The Smith and Wesson Model 38 revolver is an iconic piece, immediately recognizable from it's humpbacked hammer shroud. You either love them or hate them, but it's been a pistol long recognized by firearms enthusiasts. It's a lightweight, aluminum frame revolver chambered for the .38 special cartridge. It's also known as the Bodyguard

Probably the most iconic image of the Bodyguard revolver is that unforgettable image that comes from Vietnam. Graphic in nature, the image shows Vietnamese general Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting a Viet Cong captain named Bay Lop in the head. Historians agree that General Loan had sufficient justification for shooting Captain Lop, but this image is one that is forever tied to the Model 38.

My daughter-in-law wants to get her concealed carry permit, so I've been shuffling around, trying to find a suitable firearm. She told me that she liked a .38 special revolver, and she really likes my Model 60. She prefers a steel frame for the weight, which tends to mitigate recoil. In my browsings, I happened to stumble across a Model 38, and while I've never owned one of those revolvers, I've always wanted one. This morning I went to look at it again, did a Jim March Checkout and found the revolver to be solid. It's pinned, but SW never recessed this revolver. Herrit grips, which seem to fit my hand particularly well. The price was such that I promised the counter guy I'd never discuss it. He treats return customers surprisingly well.

After I got home, Milady happened to see it and wanted to inspect it more thoroughly. She then exclaimed that this is the revolver she wants to use to get her concealed carry permit.

Huh! I guess I'm still looking for a Model 38.

Takes the Fifth?

I see where a DOJ official under subpoena from Congress has advised through counsel that he intends to invoke the 5th Amendment when called to testify to Congress.

The chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona is refusing to testify before Congress regarding Operation Fast and Furious, the federal gun-running scandal that sent U.S. weapons to Mexico.

Patrick J. Cunningham informed the House Oversight Committee late Thursday through his attorney that he will use the Fifth Amendment protection.

Why, pray tell, would he invoke the 5th Amendment. The normal reason is so that he won'[t have to incriminate himself under oath. Think about that for a minute. The head of the US Attorney's Office in Arizona does not want to incriminate himself under oath. I expect that he'll be disbarred and immediately fired from DOJ. If that doesn't happen, then we'll know that Fast and Furious is a criminal conspiracy.

Education

The big question these days, is how do we educate our children; to best prepare them for the future? It's a great question and we have to explore the conversation from time to time. Our governor, Bobby Jindal, has a plan to allow vouchers for some kids at schools earning a C, D, or F on the school performance scores. Jindal also wants to change the way that tenure is earned and make it easier to fire teachers who are not effective.

This is a conversation we need to have. I work in a high school and I see the challenges faced every day by the educators who work in that school. The school where I work is a wonderful high school with a long, storied tradition of academic excellence. Those teachers still produce some of the smartest students I've ever seen, yet the school only earns a "C" in the accountability score, while also showing the highest ACT average in the parish. There is a jarring dissonance in those two facts and that dissonance is mainly a factor of the school system.

First, we have a large population of special-needs children. I revel in the time I get to spend interacting with those children, but the simple fact is that they count against the school. They'll never graduate, so they count as drop-outs when they leave. Those students alone increase our drop-out rate to a point where it's virtually scandalous.

Second, our school's main population zone is low-income, minority students who struggle with traditional education, at a school that stresses academic excellence. It is not uncommon to find a 17-year-old freshman who recently came to the school from the 8th grade. If that student buckles down, gets serious about his education and passes every class, he'll graduate at age 20 or 21. A sizeable percentage of those students drop out as well, simply because they're not prepared to start high school. They've already been programmed to fail. Don't misunderstand, I'm not down on kids that might be at-risk, but when you send a kid to high school at age 17, don't be surprised that he drops out at age 19.

Third, the public schools have to accept nearly any student who walks in the front door. Public schools don't get to pick and choose their students.

So, those three factors mitigate against a very successful high school. Our students win academic competitions, dominate literary rallys, earn scholarships at an astounding rate, but the simple fact of the special needs kids and at-risk students keep the school performance scores low.

If a kid decides to take a voucher, where is he going to attend school? If five hundred of those kids decide to take a voucher, will there be enough desks at the private schools to accept them?

Lets level the playing field here. Adjust the definition of a drop-out to reflect reality. Find out which schools are truly in need of supervision. Accept the fact that one-size-fits-all education isn't going to work for some kids. Then, lets talk about whether we should be in the business of accepting federal tax dollars if those dollars come with onerous pre-conditions. I'd rather see us forgo federal tax money if we could have greater control over the way we educate our students.

This is a conversation we need to have.