Author: Kim du Toit
News Roundup
The usual mix of bullshit, assholiness, stupidity and government tyranny [some overlap].
…thus rendering it unwatchable, and unwatched.
…probably using the same process he used for designing Vista.
…yeah, putting synthetic chemicals into your body was always risk-free. [/sarc]
…which means that we probably need to worry, because China is a bunch of lying asshoes.
…let’s hear it for !SCIENCE! — and incidentally, that makes the score: Climate Predictive Models 0, Reality 10,000. You have a better chance of winning the Powerball than they have of getting the forecast correct.
…using the Left’s previous argument in a different cause: if they’re old enough to die in battle, they’re old enough to vote carry a gun. And speaking of underage:
…so he could pork her without getting arrested? [/Jerry Lee Lewis]
…I should point out that the vibrator was first powered by electricity in 1880 (twenty years before the invention of the electric iron and vacuum cleaner). Here’s kinda what they looked like:
And now for even more INSIGNIFICA:
…as Mr. Free Market said, when I sent him this article: “Ah, summer.”
Which reminds me of this Summer (Monteyes-Fullam), looking all summer-y:
…because that’s just the way my mind works.
Personal Replacement
I’ve spent some time talking about a replacement for the Boomershoot ULD rifle. Now I’m going to talk about what I might consider as a replacement for my stolen 6.5x55mm CZ 550, and let me share my thoughts.
All my 6.5mm Swede ammo was stolen, along with the rifle. (I have more — okay, a lot more — Hirtenberger mil-surp stashed away at a sooper-seekrit location, but all my soft- and hollowtip ammo went bye-bye.) So I’d be starting from scratch, so to speak, and thus I have the option of either exploring a different chambering altogether — either one I don’t have experience with (e.g. 6.5 Creed), or one I know and love (.308 Win) or one of which I have a boatload of ammo stock already (7.62x39mm). To make sure we all know what I’m talking about, I’ll be looking for a bolt-action scoped rifle which will be effective at 100 yards, and can reach out to 200 yards if necessary. (Beyond that, I’m not interested unless with a ULD-type rifle.)
Budget would be about $1,500.
Taking the last one first, the only candidate for a 7.62x39mm boltie is the CZ 527 carbine, with a quality medium-range 9x or 10x scope:
The 527 retails for about $700, and a decent illuminated scope (like this one) about the same.
As for the other options, the options are pretty much endless; but for my “unfamiliar” chambering, I think I would certainly entertain the Tikka T3 Hunter (because wood stock, and because Tikka) in 7mm-08 Rem:
Amazingly, I’ve seen 7mm-08 ammo available in quite a few outlets, and I’ve always had a secret hankering to shoot what is after all an improvement over the venerable 7x57mm (an old favorite). The Hunter is also available in .308 Win, so that covers both “new” and “old” chamberings.
Another lovely rifle I’m familiar with, and which is likewise available in both .308 Win and 7mm-08 is the Sauer 100 Classic:
The Classic retails for about $950.
At this point, the question might be asked: “Well Kim, if you’re such a fan of the CZ 550/557 rifles, why not one of those?” and it’s a fair question, because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the 557 American:
As everyone knows, I have a long and excellent relationship with CZ rifles, from the old Brno 602 back in Africa to its more modern descendants. However, I’m not considering it here because for some reason CZ has discontinued the CZ 557 hunting rifles in both 7mm-08 and .308 Win — so if I were to want to purchase either of those two chamberings, I’d be SOL unless I found a decent secondhand one, or some retailer / distributor had an old “Sporter” model in .308 Win.
Of course, someone’s going to complain that I’m only considering furrin guns and not Murkin ones. Au contraire, mes amis aux fusils : I would indeed consider (at $850) the Savage 110 Classic, in either 7mm-08 or .308 Win:
…the Winchester Model 70 Featherweight (at around $900):
…as well as the Browning X-Bolt Micro-Midas (at just under $800) in the same calibers:
What really gets up my nose is that in Ye Olden Dayes, (or Days Of Yore, if you prefer), a visit to your local Merchant of Death would find at least four or five of these fine rifles already on the shelves, to be handled, fondled and trigger-tested at will. Nowadays, of course, you have to just order the damn thing and trust to luck that the rifle will not turn out to be a total dog (like the Savage Axis rifle I tested earlier this year, which arrived in no fit condition to shoot).
But these are the times we live in, I suppose, and the only factor in my favor is that I know my rifles reasonably well, and can make a more-or-less informed judgement thereof. Pity the first-time buyer…
And you’re probably going to ask me which of the above I’d choose if I had to make a decision right now. Most likely, the CZ 527 in 7.62x39mm because at least I wouldn’t have to sink another $500+ into building up a starter ammo supply. Otherwise, I’d go for the Tikka T3 Hunter.
Don’t ask me which caliber — and I’ll be looking at the caliber choices later next week, because while you can get decent .308 Win brass-cased ammo for under or close to $1 per trigger-pull, 7mm-08 runs over $2. Phew.
Copycats
Sheesh… I do a piece on Romanian gymnast Nadia Comeneci — and now everybody’s got to get in on the act.
To be fair, though: Tom Leonard’s article is more far substantial than mine (which was just an excuse to leer at her grownup tatas).
And it reminds us that Commies are unspeakable bastards.
Caption Competition No. 176
Your applications in Comments.
WOW
I only hope that this is true.
While it sounds like the stuff of science fiction, a cancer treatment in which a patient’s own cells are engineered to hunt down and wipe out their disease — and then linger in the body to stop the cancer returning — is helping to save patients’ lives.
The results of the treatment, known as CAR T-cell therapy, have been astonishing.
Patients who had exhausted all other options and been told they had just months to live have gone into remission. Others have even been cured by the one-off dose.
As someone who has been touched — twice* — by cancer, you have no idea how big this is to me.
Keep it going, guys.
*Imaginary Wife (Connie) died of ovarian cancer, and New Wife is a survivor of endometrial cancer.