Joshua Stevens- why not as revered as John Browning?

Yesterday I went out to the desert with my buddies, Jim & Kenny for an afternoon of shooting fun. It was my first shooting trip in almost 2 years due to the scarcity of dollars to pay for ammo and fuel to get to our favorite shooting spot.

But go out shooting we did and we had a great time. The weather was beautiful and the ground was dry so it was a perfect day to be outside. Kenny had a new AK rifle to try out and Jim brought along his usual selection including his AR. I took my SKS as I hadn't shot it since replacing the hammer spring with the stock one some time ago. And we shot a bunch of centerfire flavors of rifle and handgun calibers but eventually the centerfire guns were put away and we broke out our favorite 22 rimfire caliber guns.

And we had a blast. We shot 22LR ammo until we were tired. I had my Beretta Neos pistol and my Taurus semi-auto rifle, (a JMB design, for the record) and there were several other guns in both guy's range bags that fed the diminutive and plentiful 22LR cartridges. When the shooting was all over and we were picking up the trash, I wondered why the guy, whoever he was, that designed the 22 Long Rifle cartridge wasn't as famous or as revered as John Moses Browning is for the plethora of gun designs still in active use 100+ years after he created them.

Turns out, it was Joshua Stevens, creator of Stevens Arms, who is credited with the creation of the 22 Long Rifle cartridge. Can you think of another inventor that has been more responsible for introducing people of all ages to the joys of shooting than J. Stevens? How many people around the world got their first opportunity to learn to shoot behind a rifle or pistol designed to shoot this cartridge? This familiar and beloved round was created in 1887, long before JMB created his iconic pistol. How many of us that own and enjoy centerfire guns of any caliber still love plinking with the humble 22? How many of us have a favorite 22 gun that love or money couldn't make us part with? I'm betting we all have one, (or more) favorite 22 gun that has a permanenent place in our safe and enough ammo to keep it fed for a long time tucked away on our ammo shelves.

So let's give credit where it is due, to Mr. J Stevens of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. I'm going to research his birthdate and make it a point to buy (another) brick of 22LR when it rolls around. Maybe we all could celebrate Josh's birthday with a new brick or two of his most famous creation. And when famous gun designers are being discussed around the interweb, maybe we can remember to give Josh his credit for a great invention- the 22 Long Rifle cartridge.

UPDATE: Mr. Stevens was born on September 10, 1814 so next September I'm stocking up!

Ooh, sharp AND shiny!

Anybody that's been around me for any length of time knows that I love knives. I have way too many already and a trip to the gun show- I'm missing one tomorrow, causes me to check out the knife peddler's wares with enthusiasm. My buddy Jim says I'm always checking out the sharp, shiny things.

It's true. Tonight I found a really interesting Gentlemen's Hidden Folder that is just slick as a whistle. I'd probably set aside my daily carry Kershaw folder to carry this one.

Isn't this slick?

That's my Chevy-

Well, yes, actually it is.

You really have to kick this video up to full screen and sit back and watch a very neat story of 2 brother's diligent search and successful purchase of Dad's 65 Chevy Impala SS. It's a great tale and video.

Hat tip to Jalopnik for bringing this to light.

This is cool and I can't wait to try it-

My new job requires me to use a keyboard and mouse 9 hours every day and the equipment I've been using are standard issue HP pieces of kit. But they are pretty horrible for all-day use.

So I ordered this Logitech wireless, solar powered keyboard which arrived from Amazon today. This thing is slick! It's just 1/3" thin, never requires batteries and has slick, fast keys like a good laptop computer. I'll be putting it to work on Monday and I'm anxious to give it a shakedown.

I'm also going to be pairing it with a Logitech wireless mouse that I can program to do the actions I take all day with the programmable buttons but I will have to wait until payday to order to order that neat tool. But I expect that my work will improve with some new quality tools.

Thoughts on the Occupy movement...

Tonight at dinner, the BSU tried to take the side of all the hippie, whiner, crybabies that have made so many headlines lately. She was in support of them expressing their civil disobedience by putting up tent cities anywhere they wanted on public ground since they had as much right to be in the public space as anyone else. She suggested that large gatherings had the right to disregard the laws governing use of public spaces to make their points be heard and to get their wrongs righted.

So I asked her if it would be ok for the organizer of the the major gun shows that come to this area to take over a local park to hold a huge gun show instead of them having to pay rental space at the expo center. She of course thought this was a terrible idea and suggested that there were gun laws in effect that would prohibit doing something like that. But I asked if wouldn't it be ok if the organizer and the participants thought that those rules were wrong and needed to be changed? Maybe as a protest to the rules, gun sellers and buyers gathered in a public space to transact business and act peaceably and responsibly while intentionally breaking the law.

She assured me this was an "apples and oranges" comparison So I asked if the Farmer's Market gang, thse folks that sell produce and jewelry and other similar stuff could take over a park and keep it open to their shops and wares for indefinite periods of time instead of the few hours a week that they presently are allowed to use the parks. Did they have to comply with the rules issued by the affected city or could they just skip the rules and stay open as long and as often as they chose? Could one of the local taco vendor carts put up a tent and live and stay in the park because he disagreed with the local ordinances that govern his business?

The BSU got rather testy with me and told me I was just talking to hear myself talk and she wouldn't continue with the conversation. I thought I was just using her examples of the Occupy Movement and applying it to a couple other scenarios for her to consider but apparently breaking the rules only applies to some people, not everyone.

I kinda think open air gun shows in a public park seem like a good idea. Maybe not this time of year but during warm weather it might work. And I bet I can guarantee you that if something like that ever occurred, that there wouldn't be trash and garbage and violence against anyone like these smelly, hippy freaks of the current Occupy movement.

Yeah Dad!

In response to yesterday's post about a scaredy-cat columnist in Wisconsin being afraid to walk the streets due to the citizen's newly approved right to acquire concealed carry permits for their firearms, my dad went directly to the source and wrote an email to the columnist. I've copied it here for you to enjoy.

Congratulations to Wisconsin for allowing legal concealed carry. It is unfortunate that they are burdened with mis-guided critics such as yourself to spread fears about concealed carry.

I live in a county in south Florida that consistently, week in and week out, (or daily,) records shootings on the street, or homes. As unfortunate as it is,I have yet, in over 34 years in this area, to see or hear a news account in which the shooter is a legal gun carrier. Never is there a statement about the person
involved having the LEGAL right to carry, but does the fact that it is illegal stop them? NO More often is turns out that the person is a convicted felon, who never would be given a CWP.

To establish the right to carry, a thorough background check is required, a clean record, a willingness to have photos, fingerprints, and character examined before the permit is issued. By the way, I have held CWPs in several states over a period of 55 years, as well as having been raised with a Grandfather who was both a Deputy Sheriff and a gunsmith, and I have yet to be in a situation where I needed to display a weapon.

But I have had occasion to avoid a thorough beating,because of speaking out to stop a domestic-violence incident, which turned the boy-friend on me. He was large enough, and angry enough, to have done serious damage to me, but stopped in his tracks, as he came nose-to-nose, (literally,) with me---simply because he knew I possessed both the capability of carrying, and the attitude to do whatever was needed to stop any physical damage to myself. I was NOT carrying at that moment,just the possibility was enough to stop his attack. This is the very essence of the carry-law, the uncertainty of the perpetrator as to the possible self-defense of the victim, if needed.

Best you do more research before you spread more propaganda among the public via the print media.

What a pissant-

Read this column and ask yourself why a supposedly educated, professional journalist isn't smart enough to look around at the other 40-something states in these United states to see that none of his stated fears have occurred where the citizen's right of concealed carry has been in place for years.

What a pissant coward.

So I've upgraded the car in my driveway...

The elderly Lincoln Mark VIII has departed the drivewayafter 2 1/2 years of residency, bound for where ever the National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho can dispose of it. It was worn out and neither the BSU or I cared enough about it to sink any more money into it, so it left today- on a wrecker. We'll get a tax break and some recycle yard someplace will get some still usable parts to sell.

And- I've found a replacement for the Lincoln, thanks to the KSL classifieds and some fortunate timing. I bought a 2003 Cadillac CTS just like the one at the link. (That's not my car at the link.) And lest you think I've gotten stupid and overspent, this car cost me no more than a similarly aged Hyundai, Nissan or Toyota. This car just happens to appeal to my "car guy" more than all the others I looked at.

It's nice. It came from a private owner so I didn't pay stupid dealer fees or commissions. I happened upon the advertisement last Friday evening, called the seller Saturday morning, and he called me back first over several other callers. I asked and the credit union said yes, so now I have a nice looking, and hopefully reliable car for the next several years.
It has a 5-speed manual transmission so I can't be lazy. It has more buttons than I can figure out right now. And it is my first Cadillac. Does that mean I'm old?

I wish it were red.