Have you ever imagined yourself a winged creature, able to soar above the mass of humanity going about its day oblivious to the heights to which you’ve so gloriously and remarkably climbed?
Because I have. And it always ends with my taking a cluster of birdshot to an area just below the ribcage, then falling stupidly into some field, where a dog fetches my carcass in its dumb mouth before later, some plump weathered dude in a camo hat and extra large cargo pants lays me out naked on a plate next to a bowl of cream corn and some really dense biscuits.
— Though to be fair, that probably says more about me than him.
Am I the only alarmed at the lack of green vegetables in the fat guy’s diet? Just asking.
the bitter clinger could have at least covered you in gravy.
And maybe one of those rice pilafs that come in a box.
Just be glad he didn’t slice you into cold cuts and slather you with mayonnaise.
i *heart* PW’s whimsical roots. :)
It’s all Eeyore, all the time. I feel right at home.
And after reading that Ann Barnhardt stuff, I’m thinking that I totally called it. The Apocalypse, that is. Next summer. I’ve got a garden to plant and I was shopping for guns, but then I thought maybe for right now a stun gun would do. Not sure how much to invest.
Naked huh?… heh heh heh.
We are rapidly approaching the phase where you should only invest in assable diamonds.
My flying dreams always end when I hit the blade of one of those fugly wind turbines.
The dog is the worst part.
Stupid lapdog to the man.
I’m not too keen about cross my ass with diamonds, motionview. I’ve opted for long-term storage food, semi-precious metals (brass, copper, lead), and seeds.
…next to a bowl of cream corn and…
the belles of St. Mary’s.
Great line.
Don’t count your seeds before they sprout, my friend. I grow a huge kitchen garden every year and last year was so hot that it cooked all my vegetables on the vine. I had tomato plants that were six feet tall (I water them twice a day) and put on plenty of fruit that shriveled in the oven-like air before they could ripen. Ditto corn, peppers, a salad garden.
Can’t eat diamonds or gold or silver. Can’t warm your hands with it or use it to cook food.
Copper is easy to sell, as evidenced by the frequent theft of common household wiring.
Toilet paper will be as precious as water, methinks.
Also, what’s a good firearm for a woman with little physical strength but who might have reasonably good aim?
You get yourself a 12 guage shotgun, dicentra. It blows great big holes in things and doesn’t require a skilful aim or the use of one’s eyeglasses in the dead of night. Also, it can be tucked under your bed for safe keeping unless you have chirrun in the house.
I second your argument about gold or jewels. I can’t eat them and don’t like the idea of potential thieves knowing they are in the house. If they are in the bank, how do I get them in an emergency and who will turn them into useless dollars?
Di, I suggest you find a gun range that offers instruction. They will be able to better guide your needs, and you can try out different weapons to help you decide.
A 12 gauge probably isn’t the best gun for someone with little physical strength…
Maybe something like this.
My petite wife likes it anyway…
Oops…this.
Fortunately, Utah is lousy with gun rights, so I won’t have much trouble finding something appropriate.
That’s a big neener neener to those who live in Disarm The Populace states.
Di, folks will point you to .45s and .357 mags and such, but stay with the 9mm. Largest bore for a gal’s hands and with a dozen or so rounds in the clip, you’ll get the job done anyway. The ubiquitous Glocks have a softish recoil and are about as proven as any frame. My CZ 9, for example, is much livelier in the hand and therefore harder to keep on target.
I second the brass, copper, lead, and storable food. Also useful skilz, like fixing stuff, which I’m working on. Had the ceremonial first firing of the forge today, heated the handles on an old pair of blacksmith’s tongs I scrounged up in about 1 minute flat (that baby gets HOT) and straightened them over my baby anvil. It was very entertaining.
Di, you can’t go too far wrong with a good .38 Special. It takes very little hand strength as there’s no slide to rack or magazines to load, and very little recoil to control. There’s no safety to fool with, none of the knobs, dials, and buzzers they put on autoloaders, just aim, pull the trigger, and repeat as necessary. Don’t let them con you into buying one of those “lady guns” with a 2″ barrel, a 4″ will be much easier to hit with, and load it with Glaser Safety Slugs. They’re a “frangible” bullet that won’t penetrate a sheetrock wall — hence the “safety” — but they’re absolutely deadly. They’re very expensive, so you’ll also need some practice ammo, which is dirt cheap, or as cheap as any center fire ammo can be.
I’m sticking with assable diamonds because it sounds funniest.
Swen, the .38 Special is good; I might recommend a .357 simply because it will shoot .38 special in addition to .357 magnum, which ups your ammunition supply.
I’ll second that. But if you’re gonna get a shotgun, get.a.shotgun.
I’ve got a lot of food–the emergency Glenn beck kind–a new Mossberg, gold, cash in several currencies, plenty of water and first aid, tools, some seeds and a small library of do-it-yourself stuff that covers everything from house repair to surgery. Oh, and for what its worth, I’ve been Crossfitting my ass off, interspersed with distance running, so physically, I’m prepared for what may come.
Yup. I’m ready.
That anything that collapses the grid for 50 days is likely to keep it collapsed for a lot, lot longer is besides the point.
I’m ready.
I’m pretty much ready too Roddy, though I need to improve my first aid supplies.
I have a whole different strategy on the physical thing though. I’ve built a large store of energy under the ol’ belly button, instead of running it off now. I’m pretty sure I could last a month before I gotta break out the canned goods, and all the latrine digging/firewood chopping/water packing/critter hunting will get me in shape when the time comes.
I got a gun when I was in Texas and I’m waiting for kippers to go on sale
Do you have a picture? I showed one of mine earlier(#20).
Whoa. That almost sounded Weinerish…
I wont argue with you LB–It may well work. I’m not sure, if we ever get to it though, there’ll be anymore PW’s and such. Societies reconstructing themelves after things like that usually don’t have a lot of time to build whatever it is Jeff has done here.
Here’s mine: http://www.mossberg.com/products/default.asp?id=32
Yeah Roddy, that looks like it will discourage any unwanted pests.
When the electricity stops, things will get medieval. It’ll take time to get back to chivalry, much less PW.
no picture it’s just a little .22 mag pistol of some sort of german ancestry, unless I change the spinny thing then it’s just a regular .22
Mr. Boyd I think there’s so much low-hanging fruit in this relentlessly ass-raped little economy that we’ll get a nice bounce once president gigglefart is evicted… relatively minor tweaks in our fascist energy policies and regulations and a simple return of basic certainties should go a long way for a short time, however doomed our sad little country ultimately may be
Just be glad he didn’t slice you into cold cuts and slather you with mayonnaise.
That would be an abomination.
In a pinch a week after TEOTWAWKI I suppose that’s true, but I generally warn against magnums for self defense. The muzzle blast from a full-power .357 will peel paint. Touch one off in an enclosed area without plugs and muffs, and you’re likely to wind up on the floor clutching your ears and screaming “Ow! OW! OoWW!”. Add to that the muzzle flash which can blind you in low-light conditions. I suspect that’s a big part of the reason why the .45 acp is so popular. It’s not the most power you can bring to the fight, but with that big slow bullet it’s the most power you can use without taking a chance on taking yourself out of the fight.
Another reason I recommended the .38 Special is because it’s not sexy. Handguns are in high demand, and autoloaders and magnums command a premium price. But nobody wants a lowly .38. It doesn’t make the Walter Mitty’s all sweaty, it won’t fire 22 rounds as fast as you can jerk the trigger, and it won’t win any “my gun is bigger than your gun” contests. So they can be had relatively cheaply, especially if you buy one used. And there’s no reason not to buy one used. So long as it’s not been abused it’s near impossible to wear out a good Colt or Smith & Wesson .38. I’ve seen .357’s and .44 mags shot loose from a steady diet of high pressure loads, and I’ve seen quite a few 1911’s with cracked frames from the battering they take even with standard pressure loads. I’ve handled a lot of .38’s that were older than I am (That’s Old) but I’ve never seen a worn-out Colt or S&W .38 Special. They can be abused to death, but not used to death.
Also I tend to recommend (and use) revolvers because they’re reliable with the super premium frangible bullets like Glasers and MagSafes. Use those premium bullets and you’re not giving up a thing to the magnums and big bore autos. Read up on the Strausburg Goat Tests and you’ll see what I mean. I also recommend revolvers because of their super-simple manual of arms — ‘aim, pull trigger, repeat’. If the gun goes “click” just pull the trigger again. Unless you’ve been under life-threatening stress it’s hard to even imagine just how fumble-fingered you get. Manual safeties can trip you up. Tap & rack drills confound serious competitors during competitions. This is one place where the KISS principle absolutely rules in my not so humble opinion and there’s nothing so simple as a good double-action revolver.
So.. I’d stay away from anything smaller than a .38 for defense due to lack of power, and for someone with limited hand strength and limited experience I’d stay away from autoloaders of any kind. That pretty much leaves the .38 Special.
…
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But I didn’t do anything! Great. I’m in trouble now, aren’t I? What did I do? Get so long-winded that I used up Jeff’s entire monthly allotment of pixels?
Aha! It was you who kicked the plug, Swen.
Me, I carry a .380 and took a defensive shooting course a few years ago. I would caution anyone who is going to own a gun to learn how to use it. They don’t call it deadly force for nothing.
You guys are a wealth of gun information!
I was on my way to get this comment that was posted here, when I hit the Server Error:
This is excellent advice. Most anyone is going to be more accurate with a rifle than with a handgun. The heavier rifle with its longer barrel also goes a long way toward controlling recoil, although the recoil of a .357/.38 carbine is negligible, and the longer barrel cuts down on muzzle blast considerably.
One thing to beware using these carbines with handgun bullets: An expanding jacketed bullet is designed to function properly within a narrow range of velocities. I’ve learned the hard way that a good quality jacketed softpoint .44 magnum bullet designed to operate at 1200 fps from a revolver will fly apart when you give it another 500-600 fps from an 18″ carbine barrel. That creates a nasty-looking but superficial wound with only an inch or two of penetration. I love my handgun-caliber carbines, but I feed them hard cast flatpoint bullets that will hold together and penetrate at the higher velocities. You can buy factory ammo loaded with such bullets but it can be hard to find.
To compound the problem, at least some of these carbines are designed to use bullets with .350″ cannelure (crimp groove) to nose length, while most revolvers will handle .400″ long noses and quite a lot of handgun ammo has those longer noses. It’s really embarrassing to load your carbine’s tubular magazine and then discover that the bullets are too long to cycle through the action — getting them back out through the loading gate is a pain in the ass too. This is a problem with Winchester Model 92’s and their clones, but I don’t have much experience with handgun-caliber Marlins.
On the other hand, didn’t someone here suggest the other day that everyone should have one gun that will stop a Cadillac at 100 yards? I nominate my .45-70 Marlin Guide Gun! That’ll get the attention of your Sedan DeVille. It’s great for Moose, Elk, Rotarians..
Nothing wrong with the .380 leigh, with modern bullets it does about as well as a .38 Special. Most are “blowback” or recoil-operated though and the stiff recoil spring that requires can make the slide particularly hard to rack for someone with poor hand-strength. I find them stiffer than my 1911.
And I heartily concur with your comment on deadly force. Anyone contemplating using a firearm for self defense absolutely should read Massad Ayoob’s books “In The Gravest Extreme” and “The Truth About Self-Protection”. He tells it like it is, particularly why it’s very wise to go far out of your way to stay out of gunfights. Professional training is also a very good idea, but be sure to get references, there are a lot of high dollar “professionals” who aren’t worth spit. The short course required for a concealed carry permit is generally very worthwhile, but beyond that you’ve got to shop around carefully.
I took an extensive course that was two months long and my trainer was an Army sniper. It was awesome. We shot in the dark, we shot moving targets. He made me drop and roll behind baracades and taught me how to use cancrete pillars and cars as barriers. I had to practice, practice, practice until I could eject a spent magazine and load a second one without taking my eyes off the target. He showed me how to eject and clear a jammed cartridge and still get off a shot. He was also good at telling me how to size up a situation before drawing a weapon and not to draw it unless I was going to use it.
Those books you recommend are excellent. Taking a life is not something to laugh about.
*please excuse my typos*
An Army sniper? Well that explains it! We ex-Army snipers are a brillaint lot!:)
Except when it comes to using the preview to check our spelling…
It appears to have a pistol grip. I therefore conclude that it is an Assault Rifle, designed solely to murder innocent high school students in their classrooms.
That’s ridiculous, Slart. It’s designed to murder innocent kindergarteners.
I sit corrected, Darth.
http://www.nazarian.no/images/wep/370_Super-Shorty20.jpg
Me likey.