summer patriot, winter soldier

cannibals eat you alive ... fight them ...

friends:
 
an excellent post at the top of a.shrugs main page, re: the release of a notorious al queda cleric on bail pending the outcome of his deportation proceedings, which apparently will stretch on until the end of civilization or the second coming of christ, or of the genuine jewish messiah, which ever comes first.
 
a wonderful post, full of the hostess's usual flair.
 
i urge you to read it.  the article is "brits release bin laden's 'right hand' at 'center of al queda's activities in the uk'", and the link is: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/06/brits-release-b.html

i posted this "comment," probably a little longer than a comment, but it is about a phenomena which has always intrigued me.  the victims of revolution cannot bring themselves to punish their transgressors and murders: they have so lost any conviction, that they do not even possess the intellectual moral authority to either stop of punish those who are eating them while they live.  cannibalism cannot be wrong, can it?
(my friends, those 25-40 hardy souls a day who read my blog, chide me for my punctuation, and say not a thing about the downfall of civilization.  now, i find that odd.  laughing.)
jjay
 
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friends:
a student's fascination with 20th century revolution and totalitarianism led to a lifetime's interest, and i have ever been fascinated with a very strange thing about those goings on.
those regimes about to topple do not have the wherewithal to punish their attackers, though they know they are on the threshold of oblivion.  and, they know who is going to deliver them to it.
for instance.--czarist russia sent many of the marxists & socialist who would destroy them into years of exile, for capital offenses including bombers and assassinations.  they did not send them to the gallows, i suppose to prove they were not barbaric?
among those exiled, lenin who was shipped back into russian in a german military box car in order to foster further disorder after the czar was toppled, and trotsky, who wrote a sports column for a new york newspaper prior to the fall of the czar, though was his murderous ways had to do with sports is quite beyond me.
by way of further example.--adolph hitler received mere months in prison, during which he wrote mein kampf, sort of as a vacation lark, after he instigated, led and participated in a riot in which several policemen and brownshirt henchmen died in an exchange of gunfire.
it is not so much that "revolutionaries" depose regimes, it is just that the regimes get tired, and lie down to get out of the way, and someone rushes in to fill the power vacuum.  nature and politics abhor vacuums.
as noted the other day, england just stopped being populated by englishmen and women, and nobody really knows when it happened.
john jay
milton freewater, oregon  usa

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sweet mother of jesus

my dear friends, it is becoming increasingly evident that iran knows how to build an atomic bomb, and knows how to deliver it in an integrated missile system, all technologies at hand.

as usual, atlasshrugs is at the forefront of reporting these things.  apparently the knowledge of this has been floating around intelligence and black-market weapons circles for some time, but leave it to the good proprietress at a.shrugs to report the matter and give it wider dissemination: and in her inimitable style. 

look at & follow the links.  as is her wont, pamela puts a lot of the story into the links in her posts, and usually includes links which contain paths to further knowledge and a more sophisticated understanding of the issue.  her post related to this, “why wasn’t a.q. khan assassinated?” is typical in this respect, the links revealing a further wealth of information.

the link to the article follows:

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/06/why-wasnt-aq-kh.html

and i sincerely hope you read it.  and, read the rest of her blog, which is fascinating, provocative and informing.  i read it every day, often turning to it several times over the course of the day to stay up, because she prints a prodigious amount of posts each day.

this post at atlasshrugs simply confirms why we must aggressively destroy iran’s nuclear plant and weapons production facilities right now.

right now.

john jay @ 06.17.2008

perambulations on perambulating

perambulations

i walk to live, quite literally.

my usual course is to walk the river banks or the county roads, which offer wonderful vistas of the hills surrounding my little valley and quiet solitude.  this day, however, i chose a different path through my small little town, and it took me to petits noirs, chocolates, 622 main, milton freewater, oregon.  as i chatted with the proprietress i consumed sample chocolates, including a marvelous truffle with a very subtle and delicious rose scent and flower flavor, delectable as it melted upon and over the tongue.  as it turned out, she lives in rural eastern oregon by way of growing up in new york city, and we chatted of that.

i bought a small box of truffles, flavored with dried apricots and lavender buds, one of the many commercial uses to which lavender is being put by an industry in the northwest rapidly moving from the cottage status to major venture.  they will, oddly enough make their way back to new york city for a friend.  this on the box:

wine suggestions.  dried apricot, lavender.  this sweeter milk chocolate mendicant makes a divine pairing with a wide spectrum of whites, in particular the muscat varietal ..  dry or sweet.  wines with dry or fresh fruit notes, or those with subtle or strong floral overtones will be complimented by this chocolate.  a heavily oaked, buttery chardonnay can also benefit from this chocolate.

milton freewater lies where the walla walla river spills from the confines of its river canyons, and spreads to the valley floor.  as i look out my windows, i see the foothills upon which lie the wheat and pea fields sustaining the town for years, the peas and the pea canneries brought here in the need to feed the armies of the united states during wwii, the people enticed here to work by government adds extolling the weather, the climate, the region and the available work.  needless to say, it was not a town built upon sophistication and the pampering of the palate, with chocolate and wine.

now walla walla, washington, hard across the near border between washington and oregon sports a new and burgeoning wine industry, thick with boutique vintners, vineyards and wineries, and allied indulgences of spirit and appetite.  it is a different place.

i talk to live, it is what i enjoy.

so, prior to the chocolates, i walked by a house by the high school, a lovely house of many years, and a man spraying something around the trees and sprinkler heads, probably a herbicide of some origin, probably gotten from a farmer friend as it is likely some degrees of strength beyond the weak kneed stuff you buy in hardware stores: i say that because of the applicator he was using, a farmer looking thing.

i told the man i had never seen the house before, though i must have looked upon it a thousand times, it lying adjacent to the playing fields of the high school, where i competed for four years in track and football: as a matter of fact, it is also near the grade school lots where i competed in football, and played daily.

i had just never seen it, or, more precisely, it had just never registered.  odd, that, because it is a big and handsome house: apparently not relevant to me for all those years i looked at it.  the same thing occurred to me with a mountain range, once.  my dad homesteaded ground between winnemucca and mcdermott nevada/oregon (it straddles the border), and for my summer “fun” i lived and worked upon that half section of ground, clearing sage brush with a tractor drawn tool bar and rake,  and changing sprinkler pipe, growing the beginning crops of wheat and hay on bare sand, yet devoid of any humus.  after hours, when there was such an occasion, my brother and i would go into oravada, neveda, to a bar, where he would drink beer and have a hamburger, and i drank pop and ate peanuts, and then went home to eat his cooking, consisting of chili and rice and canned fruit cocktail.  every day, and every meal.  and, every day, it was up early to change the pipe, consisting of lateral lines of 45 pipes, half of which were 4 inches in diameter, and half of which were 3 inches in diameter.  the water would be shut off, and we would slog out into the mud in our rubber boots, sinking into the sandy soil above our ankles with each step, lifting the pipes to drain the water, and carrying it to the next set, each ¼ mile line consisting of about 30 to 35 40-foot lengths.  back and forth through the mud, lifting and slogging.  it took between 8 or 9 hours to do this twice a day, and between morning and evening sessions we drove tractor and cleared more brush.

we lived in a small cabin with a gas refrigerator and stove, and gas lights, and no hot water, and no bathroom.  we had a small privy out back, and a 55 gallon drum on a stand which emptied into a tin can with holes punched in the bottom, and showered at night after the sun had warmed the water during the day.

oddly enough, i did not notice a branch of the sierra nevada’s running by, just out the back door, literally, as the land we homesteaded was a high mountain basin, nearly dead flat as it was dry lake bed, with a huge water table lying beneath the surface at some depth.  bare, majestic and sere, the mountains form an incredibly striking backdrop to the little valley dotted with farms and sage brush.  it is picturesque, and only a dullard or a kid working his ass off all day could not see it.

i never saw them.  i just wasn’t looking.

at any rate, i thought of this as i talked with the man, who looked familiar, and it turned out to be a lawyer 15 years my senior who had worked in my little town for years.  we chatted about family, and about his korean war experience flying navigation and instruments in a navy pbm, which he did 1951-1955, in and around korea, china and russia, up to and around Vladivostok.  interesting work.  interesting stories surrounding that work. he will attend a reunion of his unit this summer.

where the conversation ought to be interesting.

because, he intends to vote for barrack obama this fall.

at precisely this point the conversation, which had been cordial, became quite testy.  my fault, probably, because i could not refrain from the “did you know this” line of conversation regarding obama.  it got a little testier, when he said, i don’t know about this rumor mongering bullshit, it reminds me of the swift boat stuff with john kerry in the last campaign, and i hated it, he said.  he went on to say that he knew a swift boat veteran who had been wounded, “shot up” in viet nam, and who said kerry was alright: the man had resented being contacted by swifties, and had refused all attempts to join in with the attacks on kerry.

my friend, the old lawyer, went on to say that all of these things were unsubstantiated.  i told him they were verified, and mainly by kenyan journalists manning the last vestiges of colonial journalism in the main line papers in nairobi, and other cities.

i told him of obama’s links to o’dinga, and the links going back years between the families and how they were centered around membership in and participation in communist party organizational efforts in kenya.

and, how obama and dick morris had consulted with o’dinga on how his campaign should be run, and how o’dinga had fostered the violence in kenya after his electoral defeat, and how obama had exploited that situation and had been written up in a puff piece by joel klein, extolling obama’s diplomatic “skills” until the facts started to come out about obama’s partisan support, consultation and campaign efforts along with dick morris.

unsubstantiated bullshit, said he, to these facts.  and, the implication was clear from his demeanor, that he viewed such allegations as plainly unsubstantiable.

he declined any help on my part to help him access these facts and issues.

he did harrumph, on passing as we parted, that he most certainly would not keep his head in the sand about such things, if they were presented to him and proven.  he would not, in other words, refuse the oats and water, but they would have to be brought to him in pails, and the feed bag placed over his ears and nose, before he would partake of such seeming fabrications.

he does not see, and he will not see, unless his nose is put right up to it.  i had never seen his house before, had not seen the sierra neveda’s before, because i was either not interested or was hostile to viewing what lay before me.  he will not look at obama, he will not see mr. obama and his past, unless it is shoved right up to his nose, and placed right under his glasses, and someone makes him apprehend.

do you understand the task that is before us?

but, the task before us is not impossible.

folks, i was brought upon on hard fried eggs and potatoes fried in crisco.  i looked forward to hash, made from left over roast beef and refried home fries, and though it delectable with salt and pepper.  there was a time i would have fought you for a stuffed bell pepper, and i know that for a fact, because i was involved in a few scuffles with brothers for precisely that.  my brothers and i bent a few noses at times, and i was in more than a couple of dust ups for things more trifling than that.

now i find humor and meaning in reading about dried apricots lending enjoyment to buttery chardonnay.

my friend will not seek out the truth about obama.  he will not welcome it.  do you understand what i just said.  he does not want to know this stuff about obama.  he is not in the least bit curious about it, and he thinks anybody trying to convince him otherwise is a fucking right wing crack pot.

but, it is just like confronting your own naked body in the mirror after you have bathed and before you put on your clothing, and there you lie before yourself, unadorned, the truth revealed about your body.  you look, and you understand, and you accept.  so, to thoroughly mangle all of this, when the feedbag is slipped over his ears and mouth, he will partake of the truth, and if it is palatable, he will eat it and accept the sustenance.

but, it is going to have to melt on his tongue as did the rose truffle filling on mine, and the hard chocolate shell is going to have to taste good, and it is going to have to be presented to him as he stands naked before the mirror after his bath, e.g., precisely with that window of time an opportunity when he has to regard the naked truth, when he cannot keep his view from his body by the protective veneer and protection and clothing of his already formed preconceptions.

it will not do to have it come on the t.v. after dinner while he reads the paper.

it will have to come on the radio early in the morning, on the radio, in the bathroom, while he is naked just after toweling off and just before the bathrobe comes on, to hide himself from his own regard.

it is a small window.

if we can find it, we and john mccain will win and we will live, and we have four more years in which to protect and perpetuate europe and western civilization in this hemisphere.  if we cannot find my friend naked just out of his bath, and stripped of his preconceptions, we will lose the election, and we will be faced with hard decisions just how far we will go to protect our way of life, our religions, our heritages, and our continued vitality in participating in the politics of this great country, before being swept away under the ravages of leftist ideology and consolidation of powers.

for, if obama and his ilk win, they will complete the institutionalization and perpetuation of this leftist pap.  and, as silly as the preceding sentence sounds so will the actual fact of the assertion prove unpleasant, and destructive of your freedoms.  the leftists will silence talk radio, they will destroy the blogs, they will remove conservative thought completely from the schools, and it will cease to be part of the public discourse.

the globalization of the united states will continue, the united nations will remove the monarchy from england, and the godless alliance between the radical left and islam will continue apace.

so, our task is precisely delineated.  we have to put the feed bag of truth on as many naked people as we can get a hold of, and whose attention we can capture at they stare at their protruding bellies and saggy parts.  it is that simple.

oh, yes, i write to live.  quite literally, as a matter of fact.

john jay @ 06.13.2008

drafting a field manual to defeat islam in america

how to combat the conquest of america by islam: as allied w/ the radical left

now begins the project for which this blog was conceived.

i have no interest in duplicating the work of others who have demonstrated that islam is inimically incompatible with the values of democracy, and that its evils are inextricably linked to the core doctrine of the religion as set down in the koran.  i am satisfied to a moral certainty that prior exegesis is correct, and i am also satisfied to a moral and intellectual certainty that our democratic values are superior to the intellectual and religious tyranny that is islam, and that it must be combated.

i am also certain that these issues will inevitably come to a head as islamic immigration into this country continues, and view the same as a purposeful invasion designed to work the eventual forcible conquest of america. i am convinced that violent conflict will occur as islam attempts this conquest and as we resist it, and i am equally convinced that unless such a resistance is undertaken with certain goals and strategies in mind, it will prove futile.

the remaining articles in this blog will be devoted to developing a doctrine of that defense.

the u.s. military has been fighting and winning wars for just over 2 ½ centuries, and in that time has amassed a vast doctrinal manual on how to fight war.  curiously enough, no manuals have emerged on how to conduct civil war, and how to prosecute defensive and offensive campaigns against a  multiple military and political threat comprised of domestic and foreign elements, and which threat contains elements which are at once intellectual, religious, doctrinal, and socio-economic, political and class based in nature.

previous articles have discussed identifying and recognizing these threats.

the articles to follow will discuss how to attack and defeat them socially and militarily, with the military element being paramount.

heavy emphasis will be placed upon armed conflict with clearly identified opponents, and armed and clandestine conflict against opponents who are more subtle in nature.

i will advocate things which may seem repugnant to the values which are sought to be protected.  this raises certain obvious tensions, and to the extent that i can, i will try to resolve them.

but, from this point on, the emphasis will be on the how to.

--john jay @ 06.07.2008

reloading the .300 whisper

“reloading the .300 whisper”

if you are conservative, and i assume you are because you are reading this, and you have as yet to join the n.r.a. you are an idiot and a damned fool.  no other organization does as much to protect your rights, liberties and privileges as the national rifle association, and if you don’t know that you are an idiot twice over.

JOIN THE N.R.A.!!  NOW!!

good.  we have that squared away between us, and we can get on with things.

in the may 2008 issue of the american rifleman, author aaron carter discusses handloading a most interesting cartridge, which has a broad range of uses from hunting small game, being a very useful clandestine/dirty ops/sniper weapon capable of operating under full automatic fire while having decent noise suppression, to being a big game weapon of the .30-30 winchester class and useful for hunting deer.  all one caliber/cartridge, and all in one rifle platform, and capable of all the functions described above.  in addition, if you feel like it, it is also capable of being a “plinker.”

the cartridge was developed by j.d. jones , proprietor and guiding spirit at ssk industries, who has the audacity to think that in our capitalistic system he should benefit from his labors and inventiveness.  the following passage is taken from the article:

as for ar-15’s, ssk offers complete packages (gun included), custom-built upper assemblies and rebarreling of existing uppers in .300 whisper.  … .

when considering the purchase of .300 whisper products, know that outside of ssk industries, only thompson/center arms is licensed to produce .300 whisper contender and encore barrels, and rcbs and hornady make the only licensed dies for the cartridge.  some companies have worked around this restriction by slightly changing the cartridge’s name.  … .  let the buyer beware.  may 2008 american rifleman, page 50, author: aaron carter.

this is not an entirely unknown situation in the firearms business, and others before j.d. jones have tried to patent or trademark such cartridge innovation, usually to no avail: it is very easy to change a dimension or specification here, or there, and call something something else.

but,  jones did something beside simply neck up an existing cartridge and put a different bullet in it.  he conceptualized a different use for the cartridge by going against the historical grain of development for the last 150 years, which has been to lighten projectile and increase energy delivery by increasing the velocity of the projectile.  the byproduct of this has been noise, recoil, muzzle flash produced at the point of firing a modern cartridge, and by adding a sonic boom that travels along with a bullet just as a sonic boom follows a supersonic jet, thereby adding one other factors which help someone being shot at, should he survive the experience, or his fellows, ferret out the location of the shooter.  if you are a shooter that doesn’t want to be ferreted out, a sniper say, this is highly undesirable.

jones went the opposite way.

he took a very small cartridges, expanded the cases necks to accept larger caliber bullets, and stuffed very long and very heavy projectiles (compared to the original projectiles) into the cartridge case, and kept the overall length of the bullet about the same, so that the new cartridge would function in rifles that would handle the original cartridge case.  to do that, he had to stuff most of the bullet into most of the cartridge case formally occupied by lots of power (remember the velocity & energy thing, produced by lots of power relative to the capacity of the rifle’s bore), thereby greatly reducing the amount of powder capable of being placed in the cartridge.

the result, a heavy bullet traveling at speed’s below the speed of sound, producing no sonic boom.  the origin of the shot cannot be identified by the sonic boom of the bullet.

the further result, one not entirely anticipated by most people as the thinking has been toward ever increasing amounts of powder relative to the bore capacity to eke out further marginal units of velocity, e.g., increase powder capacity 10%, get a 2% raise in velocity, was that it turned out that very little powder was needed to propel the heavy projectiles (relatively speaking) to speeds below the speed of sound.

another further and very desirable effect for that fellow not wanting to be ferreted out, is that the less powder used to power a projectile, the smaller volume of propellant gas produced for a given bore capacity means, … , well, less gas; gas that cools faster in a bore, and, less pressure associated with less gas cooling more rapidly, as all of this decreases the volume of the propellant gas, and, finally, if the gas is pushing the bullet out the barrel slower, it is also going slower.  finally, a large component of the bang of a rifle is unconsumed incandescent propellant hitting an oxygen rich environment as it leaves the barrel of a gun, and exploding, in a sense, adding more gases to the propellant column as it leaves the barrel, and greatly increasing the velocity of the propellant gases.

the whisper tames this vicious cycle, turns it the other way, producing less recoil and blast effect.

the final result, is that this reduced column of gases is easier, much easier to “silence” and “hide,” in short, the blast effect can be attenuated in terms of sound levels, decibels, and in terms of muzzle flash.  if you have ever seen a high powered rifle fired at night, the effect is spectacular, with a muzzle blast and flash of extending as much as several feet past the end of the barrel, and in high velocity weapons, the noise is horrendous, enough to cause permanent ear damage upon only several exposures, in really bad weapons.

the whisper cartridges are capable of producing no more noise or muzzle signature than an ordinary air rifle, or pellet rifle, when properly suppressed.

i do not know if jones expected this entirely when he started, but it can be said with some degree of assuredness, that no one the hell else did.

his work was novel.

so, if i buy any whisper products, such as a suppressed upper for my ar-15 rifle in a .300 whisper, you can be sure that it will be from ssk industries, and the loading dies from rcbs.

the article at hand in the american rifleman details the bullets that can be loaded in the .300 whisper, and all made to function reliably through an ar-15 style of rifle.

the loads range from a 125 grain (1/4 ounce plus) at 2,100 feet per second from a 24 inch barrel, making a load comparable in power to a .30-30 winchester, to a bullet weighing 240 grains (1/2 ounce plus) traveling at 1040 feet per second at the muzzle, which is below the speed of sound.  here is where it starts to get interesting: the 125 grain bullet requires about 15 grains of powder to achieve its velocity, while the 240 grain bullet requires a miniscule 9.5 grains of powder, a charge weight comparable to some pistol cartridges, and many, many grains less than some large pistol cartridges.

it simply is amazing that such small charge weights of powder can kick a 240 grain projectile to that velocity.  by way of ridiculous comparison, a .300 winchester magnum loaded with a 165 grain projectile to 3200 feet per second, about 3 times the speed of the whisper, requires as much as 80 grains of powder to achieve that velocity at the muzzle of the weapon, approximately 9 times the amount of powder in the whisper cartridge with the heavy bullet.  (this data from the speer reloading manual, edition the 13^th.)

the difference.

a 165 grain projectile fired at an object 3,000 feet away, is going to take something over a second to get there, but in the process it is going to make a muzzle flash observable even in daylight from the proper vantage, and looking like a roman candle at dawn or dusk, and like a 4^th of july fireworks display in total darkness, and is going to leave a noise signature in the form of a sonic boom along its entire path, and even the most bovine of humans is going to be able to instinctively follow it back to its origins, in a twinkling: the persons head will be looking in the right direction before the person knows what he is doing.

anyone struck in a remotely vital area is going to be d.r.t., e.g., dead right there.

by contrast, a 240 grain projectile fired at an object 3,000 feet away is going to take over 3 seconds to get there, and the bullet is going to arrive at a far greater angle of incidence, but, it is going to get there, later, not sooner, but it will get there.  (i used to shoot a replica remington rolling block rifle in .45-70 caliber at metal gongs 24 inches in diameter at over 600 yards, using a 400 grain bullet at a muzzle velocity of about 1200 per second.  in good sunlight, using a spotting scope, the observer/spotter could see the bullet falling to the target at a very steep angle: a professional ballistician could tell you exactly, but we always estimated that it would be about 35 degrees plus.  at that range, it took about a second and a half for the bullet to reach the metal target, and about a second and a half for the “gong” to get back to the shooting station, enough time to load and fire again if one were in a great hurry.)

anyone struck in a remotely vital area by that big old lumbering bullet is going to be equally d.r.t., e.g., dead right there.

but, in this case, the .300 whisper having a sound suppressor on it is not going to make any noise discernable to the object/person/entity being shot at, nor is there going to be produced by the shot any muzzle flash, even at dark.  now, if our shooter is so unlucky as to fire a shot when being directly observed by a light sensitive or heat sensitive instrument just as he shoots, he may very well be detected, but not, most probably, by the naked eye.  nor is the projectile going to leave a signature noise track across the sky, its travel being almost totally undetectable.  as an added bonus, should our shooter have chosen a hide behind a screen of leaves or other vegetation, those materials are not going to be agitated or moved or flutter in the muzzle blast, because it is so greatly reduced.

If our shooter is shooting in an urban situation, and has chosen to shoot from behind a layer or two layers of ordinary gauze hung in front of a window, or in front of his hide, or in his hide but behind other natural objects, his shooting position is going to be almost undetectable, at least from the aspect of any kind of signature caused by the effects of the shot going off.

the whisper is a very versatile and useful cartridge.

its uses, in light of the previous discussion, in terms of counter insurgency work or in terms of conflict between social or religious or political rivals, should be readily apparent.

and, speaking of suppression, articles like the american rifleman article recommended for your reading, are not yet suppressed.  you should acquire, read and become familiar with this information while you can.

the article has a chart and accompanying discussion of many useful loads, and loading techniques.  i have been reloading for 35 years or so, and considered it most informative, and educational.  take that for what it is worth.

mentioned in the article, and most useful are:

the hornady handbook of cartridge reloading, sixth edition, and

the sierra 50^th anniversary handgun reloading manual.

if you are new to reloading, i heartily recommend the speer reloading manual, the last edition i purchased being the 13^th edition, and i am sure there is a newer edition.  i also own the manual published by nosler bullets, and consider the nosler and speer books the absolute most useful in terms of good, safe and reliable loads.

all of these manuals discuss reloading in clear, simple and useful terms, and are loaded with wonderful illustrations, …. , well, …. , illustrating how reloading she is done.

in sum, the article in the american rifleman is a wonderful resource, and introduces you to many people and concepts in shooting and reloading.  if, for instance, you google j.d. jones, or ssk industries, you will be rewarded with tons of useful information.

try it, you may like it.  and, if you do, please reward mr. jones and his enterprise, by buying a genuine ssk industries .300 whisper product.  he and thompson/center have long been known in the firearms industry for enterprise, innovation, and products that work and are backed by wonderful warranties and service.  that is how they got to where they are today, as the saying goes.

--john jay @ 06.07.2008

reliability and functioning issues with the ar-style rifle

“they don’t always go bang”

if you intend to acquire a firearm as a personal defense weapon, you should be aware that just as any other machine a firearm may fail to function as intended, and even finely made firearms don’t always “go bang” if you haven’t taken steps to assure proper function.

in this regard the ar-15 series of rifles is no exception.  and, even though the rifle has benefited from some 40 years of development and refinement dedicated towards making it dependable, it does possess several design weaknesses centered on the function and reliability of the bolt.  these weaknesses are not so serious as to compromise the integrity of the weapon, and to this day, further semi-automatic combat rifle development still copies the basic design features discussed below, so the system must have continuing attractiveness and viability to weapons’ designers.  still in all, the prudent owner of a weapon will keep certain function issues in mind, learn how to deal with the mechanical and physical steps to deal with them, and take the proper precautions in terms of maintenance and parts kept on hand for repair.

the heart of an ar-15 is a rotating and reciprocating bolt, whose movements are imparted to it by a bolt carrier which moves it back and forth, and which rotates the bolt into battery, or locks it, by means steel rod cut through a helical cam in the shaft of the bolt.  it all sounds very complicated, but a visual inspection of the bolt and carrier upon disassembly of the rifle reveals the logic of the system in a glance.

when the rifle is fired, propellant gases from the barrel are siphoned off and travel in a tube back to the bolt carrier and bolt, and push the bolt carrier rearward.  as it travels rearward, the steel rod in the bolt carrier operates on the angled surface of the cam, causes the bolt to rotate.  when the bolt rotates, the lugs projecting from its surface move away from contacting corresponding projections in the barrel extension, and into line with slots in the barrel extension, and past them to the rear as they are carried away by the bolt carriers rearward movement.  the spent case is held against the face of the bolt by a lipped piece of metal mortised into the bolt face, the lip on the extractor holding onto the rim of the case as the lip projects into a recess in the milled into the case ahead of the rim.  as the tip of the spent case clears the confines of the receiver past a hole milled in its side, the case is ejected from the firearm by the pressure of a small plunger milled into the bolt face, the cartridge pivoted outward around the point where the extractor has held onto it from the chamber.  the ejector and extractor work in tandem to achieve the ejection of the case as described.  the bolt is pulled back until it is behind the magazine which holds the next round to be fired at its top.   the bolt moves forward, a lower lug passing through a slot cut into the back of the magazine where it contact the rear portion of the next round, and shoves that round forward and into the chamber of the rifle, but not until the extractor has a chance to pivot on a hinge, allowing the round to come fully into contact with the bolt face as the lip of the extractor slips into the grove cut into the shell casing.

this happens at great speed, and the whole process is subject to great mechanical stresses.  the gun powder, a controlled burn rate propellant, generates nearly 60,000 pounds of pressure very quickly as it turns into hot incandescent gas, expelling a bullet from the ar-15 in .223 caliber at anywhere from 3200 feet per second to 3400 feet per second, depending upon the weight of the bullet in the round.  this force pushes against the bolt face while the bolt is held in battery, and though it is largely dissipated by the time the bolt cycles, you can imagine the heat and the battering to which the rifle mechanism is subjected to each time a round is fired.

enter the first design flaw.

one of the locking lugs is not quite as strong as some of the others, given its placement upon the bolt in an area where because of cuts in the bolt not as much metal exists to support that lug as the other lugs.  this lug is subjected to a predictable rate of failure, usually in the form of cracking, deformation or even chipping or breakage.  this has become so well understood, that some manufacturers have simply fallen upon the manufacturing expedient of omitting that lug from the bolt: the bolt is sufficiently strong as built that it is not weakened structurally by the omission, and the bolts ability to withstand and contain the pressures of the powders ignition is not compromised in the slightest.

it is therefore quite common, and entirely a proper expedient, for users of ar-15’s which are going to be subjected to heavy use to have on hand, in a parts kit, a spare bolt for field replacement should the bolt fail during combat, or should such failure be discovered during routine maintenance after combat operations if the failure did not lead to the weapon ceasing function.

enter the next design flaw.  to which i was subjected.

i owned an ar-180b, a designed somewhat different from the ar-15, but which has a bolt nearly identical to the ar-15, and absolutely identical in the design feature which “failed.”  this rifle began to fail to eject, and then to operate, after prolonged use.  upon inspection upon disassembly, it was found that the ejector, the little spring powered plunger fitted in a cylindrical hole milled into the face of the bolt, was “frozen” in place, projecting from the face of the bolt.  in such condition, the ejector caused the operational cycle of the weapon to jam, either not allowing a cartridge to present in a straight line to the chamber as it was not flush with the bolt face, or so as to cause an empty case not to eject as the plunger was imparting no motion to pivot it around the extractor.

further disassembly revealed the culprit in the form of thousands of tiny little brass filings that had somehow migrated down the cylindrical milled hole, past the very small mechanical tolerances between the ejector and the bolt, to lodge in the space where the ejector spring was housed, completely preventing the spring from imparting any force to the ejector, as the ejector eventually was prevented from moving into that cavity and compressing the spring. i took the rifle to don manning of shooter’s supply in yakima, washington describing the problem to him and showing him the disassembled bolt and ejector, all the while expressing puzzlement as to how this should have come to pass.

he said not a word, but disappeared into the back of the shop and bringing back a small rod of arkansas whetting stone, the end of which was very close to the diameter of the bolt face of the weapon.  here, he said, polish the face of the bolt with this, using a circular motion, just “twirl” the stone between your fingers, and using lots of machine oil to clear the grit. polish it until you remove irregularities or roughness from the face of the bolt, especially any machining burrs which may be around the edge of the hole in which the ejector is fitted.

ah, i said … .

not the first one of these i have ever seen, he said, nor the first one ever encountered.

that would explain the fact of the diameter of the rod being the same as the diameter of the bolt face, i said.

not too bad for mostly rock, he said laughing, and not referring to the stone that he handed me, with a big smile on his face.

i took the bolt home, and polished the face, and sure enough, in the process removed a tiny burr around the recess cut for the ejector, a burr on the side of the hole that was the “forward face” of the hole turning into the face of the cartridge head as the bolt rotated in the recoil cycle.  keep in mind, that the operational cycle of the bolt does not take place in a leisurely manner as the weapon is fired: i do not know the rotational speed of the bolt, but the bolt face is subjected to many thousands of pounds of pressure by the cartridge brass held against it by the force of the remnant propellant gases, and the bolt face turns very quickly.  the irregularity of the bolt face, plus the hardened steel burr, where cutting the tiny shavings every time a round was fired, and the forces involved where forcing the shavings into the milled recess housing the ejector, and packing them in there so tightly that the bolt ceased to function.

enter the next design flaw.  a design flaw to which i was also quite recently subjected.

about two years ago i purchased an upper receiver assembly for my ar-15 in 6.8 mm remington spc, which is a little larger caliber cartridge than the .223 remington, the 6.8 mm bullet being about .270 caliber.  recently i mounted an eotech 552 night sight capable optic, did some other preparation work, and mated the upper receiver assembly to an ar-15 lower receiver.  on the day that i wanted to take the rifle to the range i decided that i had best test some basic functions of the rifle, such as confirming that it would strip a round from the magazine and chamber it properly.

so, a loaded magazine was placed in the rifle, one round, and the bolt pulled back and released, to see if a round would go in the chamber as designed.  (yes, the rifle was pointed toward several boxes of old magazines against a concrete wall in the basement of my house, and no way was an errant round ever going to leave that basement.)

and the round would not chamber, and the bolt did not go forward sufficiently to allow the bolt to pass through the slots in the receiver/barrel extension: in short, the bolt did not go forward enough even to begin the rotational motion that ends in locking the bolt into battery: in this situation, the rifle is not capable of firing, a blessing really, because an a cartridge unsupported by the rifle’s chamber walls would surely explode.

the rifle came apart, and inspection revealed that it had not been incorrectly assembled, nor any apparent abnormalities.

well, if something won’t work the first time, try again.  so, the rifle was put back together, and the experiment repeated.  with the same result.  time and again the rifle stripped the cartridge clear of the magazine, guided it into the chamber, and then the whole assembly stopped, just short of the cartridge entering the chamber enough to allow the bolt to close.

after repeated failures the rifle came apart again, and this time the cause was revealed, in the form of brass burnishing upon the face of the rim around the bolt, and upon the face of the lip of the extractor.  taking the bolt apart, removing the extractor, and confirming that the bolt face was sufficiently milled to allow the cartridge face to fit within its confines confirmed my suspicions.  the extractor was the culprit.

the extractor pivots on a pin driven through the bolt's shaft, and the face of it is pivoted downward relative to the face of the bolt, so that the lip fits snugly into the slot milled circumferentially in the cartridge case so that the empty cartridge is pulled from the gun’s chamber to cycle the action again after firing.  well, absent a cartridge case to hold it back, the most forward part of the ejector was projecting too far into the face of the bolt, so far that as the bolt came forward pushing the case before it, the face of the cartridge was resting on a large flat at the front of the ejector, preventing the ejector from pivoting outwards, allowing the rim of the cartridge to slip under it, and move back to the blot face allowing the ejector to snap over the rim and hook it by the rim.  the upshot of all of this was that the forward shoulders of the cartridge contacted the forward most dimension of the chamber, preventing it from going any further forward, resulting in the forward motion of the bolt being arrested.

the solution.  well, if the face of the stone were about the same dimension as the face of the bolt, the outside of the cylindrical stone would be about the same circumference and curvature as the cartridge case, or so it stood to my reason.  so, rummaging around in the parts bins, i found the stone, and proceeded to very gradually and very carefully relieve the flat spot on the fact of the extractor so that it would not prevent the rim of the case from sliding under it and allowing normal cycling of the gun’s actions.

i went very slowly at this, not wanting to weaken the strength of the ejector.  it is a very small part, subject to enormous stresses, and it makes no sense to render the weapon inoperable by breakage by weakening a crucial part.

there are several lessons to be taken from all this.

first, never presume the operational reliability and function of even a well designed weapon, which the ar-15 rifle most assuredly is.  the bolt and bolt carrier system whose weaknesses i have described above serves as the model for an entire generation of weapons systems adopted by the major military forces of the western world, including the germans and the english, no mere sticklers when it comes to weapons reliability.

second, remember the use of the weapon.  it is just that, a weapon, and you have obtained it because of your belief that your life may depend upon its use, and its functioning when you may be forced to deploy it upon short notice and under great stress.  you want it to work when you want it to work, as you life may depend upon it.

third, you may be placed in a situation someday when you have no choice but to rely upon your own devices.  you should learn about the operation and function of your weapon of choice, and you should be capable of taking rudimentary steps at fixing and modifying it as the occasion may demand in order to get and keep the thing up and running.  simple maintenance, such as keeping the machine clean and well oiled should be learned.  disassembly and study to learn and understand the working and operations of the weapon in fact and theory should also be a priority: you cannot figure out how to repair or make something operate if you haven’t the slightest idea in the world how it functions.  and, finally, you should not be averse to performing simple maintenance and repair on the weapon to make it work.

finally, firearms are complicated machines, and like all complicated machines, they have to be made correctly and in conformity with design specs, or they do not work correctly, and, as all machines, they can and do bread and require periodic maintenance and repair.  you can be sure that i will watch the extractor for any signs of cracking while i still use it, and that it will be replaced with a part that does not require alteration to make the machine work.

the things i have described above do not rise to the level of genius, either in comprehension or mechanical skills.  they do reflect, however, more that a superficial knowledge of the functioning of the weapon, and a willingness to learn about to keep them running and robust.

and, more than anything else, the things related reflect a basis understanding and comprehension of the importance of being familiar with the weapon and how it works, and the import tasks the weapon may be asked to undertake.

one wants the gun to function, as it is to function, when it is needed.  there is no time to learn these things, to gain the needed knowledge and familiarity in a situation in which the gun has just refused to go boom, and you are faced by an adversary who has a heightened desire and motivation to kill you.

so, take you gun out, shoot it, and make sure it is reliable and functional, and functioning.  perform maintenance and cleaning functions as though you life depended upon it.

because it does.

--john jay @ 06.05.2008

 

post script. 

the m-4 variant of the m-16 military rifle is apparently susceptible to damage to the gas tube due to extreme heat during prolonged operation under automatic fire, this being caused by the very shortness of the carbine’s barrel, requiring that gas be bled from the hot propellant gases in the barrel very close to the receiver, where such gas is very, very hot, not yet having expanded into the length of the barrel and cooling.

i do not favor carbines in the ar-style rifle, finding a full length heavy barrel much more to my liking, as the heavier barrel is more accurate, and more suited to the style of use i envision in combating domestic terrorism.  remember, i do not favor combat or fighting, the risk of being killed in such an endeavor far too likely to occur to inadequately trained civilians such as ourselves.

the m-4 is a close order combat variant of the ar-16 rifle, suitable for a style of combat any of us would have to be crazy to engage in at such frequency as to excuse recourse to the weapon.  stick to a long barreled gun, as it has greater power, ranging and terminal performance due to increased bullet velocity.  it gives a little more “stand off” capability, which i favor.

if you melt your gas tube, you have stayed far too long, fired far too many rounds of ammunition, and are quite likely about to die anyway given the environs in which the use of an ar-15 rifle might prove necessary.