It was Africa hot this weekend. Too hot to do much, but I still got some stuff done.
Saturday morning I jumped up on the roof for some maintenance. The pitch of the roof over the Garage and In-Law apartment is real low, so the oak tree’s branches, leaves, etc. get stuck up there. So every year I go up there and sweep all that crud off of the asphalt shingles. While i was up there, I noticed a few of the branches were lower than I’d like – low enough to hit the roof with snow load so I trimmed them with the chainsaw and pruner. This will allow air to circulate better, which should keep the house a little cooler in this blasted heat.
After getting back from work at a client site, I spent some time on the inventory spreadsheet I started a long time ago. I made some nice progress, including a dashboard that adds up all the calories you have in each location, and figures the # of days you have depending on what you decide your family or groups caloric needs are. I also have a 2000/day(per person) formula built in, as a sanity check and also as a quick reference if your family or group is hunkered down without much activity. Like if you were sheltering in place from nuclear fallout, or riding out a pandemic where you couldn’t go outside.
Mum got her new pistol, and she loves it. I might not have mentioned her problems shooting before, so I’ll go into some detail now. I think this is going to be a common problem with female shooters, I just hope they do not have as expensive tastes as Mum does. Her pistol’s going for over $1400 on gun broker.
So the distance between her trigger finger and the heel of her palm is shorter than most peoples. This isn’t just having small hands, it’s different for every shooter, but it can happen in men as well. (This is how we learned of it.) Now, when she shot her 9mm, or any centerfire pistol, the knuckle of her thumb, the one closest to the hand, rode right against the heel of the pistol, where the bevertail is on a 1911 pistol. The recoil was painful, and she could not shoot a lot before it really bothered her.
The solution is any 1911-style pistol. Turns out one of the design elements is the distance from trigger to the beavertail is the shortest of any pistol design. This allows her to hold the pistol properly, and not twist her hand counterclockwise (if viewed from above) to compensate for her short finger. This allowed the pistol to ride where it should, and not right on that thumb knuckle.
She loves it. Now I just need to get her to watch where the damn muzzle is pointing and adjust the sights. Out of the box, it’s pulling to the left ~4″ at 25 yards for me, and ~8″ for her. I don’t think she is flinching. Mum is short enough i can look over the top of her head at the pistol while she shoots.
I tried talking her into getting a .45ACP 1911, but she wouldn’t hear it. Even though she has shot my Sig, she really wanted the 9mm. Like I said, she has expensive tastes. I could have loaded lighter rounds for her to reduce the recoil, but she had her heart set on that pistol. Nevermind a solid .45 1911 is about $500 cheaper!
The S&W 1911 9mm Pro series is a shooter. Very accurate with heavier bullets. I had some 147 grain LFP (lead flat point) loaded with Longshot powder and I was surprised I shot a 4″ group. That’s a lot better than my Sig. Mum never shoots at 25 yards, but kept all her rounds on the paper, which is about the same size as a silhouette. Not one issue with misfeeds, everything loaded smooth as silk. We did have an issue with one factory round didn’t fire, but I tried it again and it fired the second try. So if you want to spend a lot of money on a 9mm, this is the perfect Pistol for it.
I’ll be posting the spreadsheet soon under the non-commercial, keep credit for the authors and modify as you want Creative commons license. Normally, I wouldn’t care, but someone already snarfed “TEOTWAWKIAIFF” for a booklet that’s out there…
In the spirit of why I’m doing this blog, I’ll also be publishing how-to’s up on Smashwords for free. Each one will be focused on one subject, and will have everything I know about the subject. The idea is if someone likes reading disaster fiction they can grab these for free and be more prepared. The other idea it’s a simple series of documents people can print out and add to their survival binders, and keep on their kindles and such. Maybe I’ll include sample chapters to drive up marketing, but I don’t want that to print if they just download a .pdf version and hit print. We will see.
The debt stuff is heating up, and Greece was downgraded to Ca, which is one step above default. Economic news should be fast and furious all week. I’ll try to boil it down for everyone as time allows.
interesting point about the shorter reach, as you my know, that is the exact place I had issues with on my 38…but it’s such a small gin, I didn’t think that was the problem.
We missed you this weekend, but at least you got stuff done. Ask Mom to come next time, we’re doing a ladies gun shoot and will also be field stripping and cleaning what we use.
If she likes the 1911 platform, but wants a 9mm, Star used to manufacture a decent quality model that might be just right. The BK or BKM models are what I am referring to. One of my favorite ‘high milers’ is a Star PD, a lightweight 6 shot .45acp semi-automatic design. Looks like a chopped 1911, sort of. Fully adjustable sights that were designed to stay low profile – perfect for sighting in different ammo preferences.
I think its awesome your Mom likes to shoot, I wish I could talk my Mother into trying that. Too much loud noises scare her though.
Too bad this state limits what we have access to. If the handgun is not on the DA’s approved list, it’s a felony to buy sell or possess it if your a CCW holder in this craptastic state. Unless the pistol was registered in mass before the rules went into effect, then you’re grandfathered in. I hate this state.