ULD Decision Time

After weighing all the options, I purchased the ULD Boomershoot gear as follows:

  • Caliber:  .300 Win Mag.

This was the easiest choice, given my own experiences at Boomershoot and hunting in Scotland with Mr. Free Market and the gang.  In adverse conditions (rain, sleet, snow, strong winds) the .300 Win Mag beats all other chamberings by a day’s march.  As I’d made the caliber choice early on, I went ahead and ordered some boxes of “test” ammo, which I’ll be comparing to each other over the next couple weeks.  I got Spendy, Medium-Spendy and Budget (the latter, actually, is Sellier & Bellot because despite its lowly price, I’ve found this Czech ammo to be amazingly consistent in other chamberings.  I’m kinda hoping it does well, because I have a line on an amazing deal — less than $1 per round).

Whichever  gets the best grouping, however, will be purchased in Boomershoot-type quantities, and what doesn’t get used up in Idaho will be shipped to the lucky winner of the draw (because I don’t own a .300 Win Mag rifle, so I won’t be tempted to hold some back as “tax”).

So much for the cartridge.  Next, the boomstick:

  • Rifle:  Ruger M77 Hawkeye Long Range Target.

The choice was between this rifle and the Savage 110FCP, and to be honest, I couldn’t make up my mind.  Ultimately, I let availability drive the decision — and while the Savage was on back order / out-of-stock everywhere I looked, the Hawkeye was actually in stock at one of my local gun pushers FFLs nearby.  Hello, Mr. Gun Pusher.  Of course, I always have Buyer’s Dread after dropping over a grand on an untested (by me) rifle… but then I read this review of the Hawkeye, and I didn’t feel too badly about the decision.  I hate the Technik durch Plastik  appearance of the stock (I know, it’s painted laminate, which makes me feel better, but it’s still pig-ugly).  As long as it shoots better than I can shoot it… which brings me to the glass.

  • Scope:   Zeiss 6-24x50mm Conquest V4 30mm with illuminated reticle #65 and ballistic stop turret

(the crosshair is actually finer than pictured — I just enhanced it to make it clearer)

The combination of Zeiss glass plus the illuminated reticle might make all the difference to an average rifle shooter like me at distance, in crappy weather.  It’s a serious long-distance reticle (as opposed to a “pure” hunting one), and I can’t wait to get it up to speed.

Finally, the thing what holds it all together:

  • Rings:  Warne Skyline 30mm

Because the Hawkeye has an attached Picatinny rail, it makes the choice of rings quite easy.  Unfortunately, most scope mounts designed for this configuration are, to my mind, not geared towards handling hard recoil — let’s face it, 90% of the time, they’ll be holding onto a semi-auto gas action AR-15 firing the poodleshooter cartridge.  But a bolt-action rifle sending off a blitzenthumpenboomer  .300 Win Mag bullet?  It’s gotta have beeeg mahsells [/Arnie].  So I’ll be going with the trusted Warne scope mount because of its multiple-screw locking setup — and this does not look like it’s going to be jarred loose anytime soon:

I know, I know:  “But-but-but Kim, what does it look like when it’s all assembled?”

So there it is, complete with a post-boresighting gin:  now it’s time to get this show on the road.  Range report to follow, as soon as Doc Russia can find some spare time.  (He too has a new .300 Win Mag rifle to shake down.)

Longevity

The old joke goes:

Q: “Why do men die sooner than women?”
A:  Because they want to.

I think the same is true of this study:

A DAILY tipple nearly doubles a man’s hope of hitting 90, a study says.
Those on half a pint of beer a day are 81 per cent more likely than teetotallers to reach a tenth decade.

That’s because we drinkers are kept alive by thinking things like “Only five more days till Friday night pub time!” — whereas non-drinkers have fuck-all to look forward to and their bodies simply shut down out of either hopelessness or boredom.

For precisely the same two reasons, this may be why meat-eaters live longer than vegans.

Anyway, whatever it all means, I know that right at this moment it’s Pub Time at the King’s Arms in All Cannings, Wilts, so I’m going to join The Englishman and others of that ilk by opening a life-extending pint (and I know it’s not Wadworth 6X, but London Pride is all I can get Over Here — a rant for another time).

Cheers, y’all.

Right Up To, And Then

I saw this meme somewhere, and realized that while true, it’s also incomplete.  See if you can figure out why:

Yeah… all of them were Marxists, in one way or another, and from that one would think, “Yeah, they’re on our side.”

And they are… right up until they come to power.  Then:

The numbers (and a couple of dates) are not quite correct in the above, but the outcomes are.  Once the Commies come to power, it’s civilian disarmament (through regulation or legislation, or both) followed shortly thereafter by massive oppression.

But you all knew that already.

5 Worst Things About The Coronavirus

Ranked in order of foulness:

  • Australian F1 Grand Prix canceled
  • Makes barroom seduction even more difficult than it already is
  • Hasn’t killed off enough Communists yet
  • Just another opportunity for the media to create panic
  • Chances of ever nailing Monica Bellucci officially now less than zero

Your suggestions for inclusions in Comments.

A Good Pardon

Most presidential pardons rub me up the wrong way (e.g. Bill Clinton’s of Marc Rich) because there always seems to be something sleazy and underhanded about the people involved.

But God-Emperor Trump hasn’t put a foot wrong, and especially so with Michael Milken (who I always thought got a rough deal from the Justice Department).

Indeed, there’s an old saying that “banks only lend to you when you don’t need the money.” Milken understood this truth all too well, having discovered in the 1970s that other than for the bluest of blue-chip businesses, growth financing was exceedingly difficult to come by for the 99% of businesses that weren’t blue chip, or investment grade. Financial institutions operated on the assumption that the present predicted the future. Not so Milken. His research revealed the opposite.
Milken discovered that a corporation’s balance sheet generally measured yesterday, not tomorrow. And so he set about “democratizing” access to capital. Having attended UC Berkeley in the 1960s, Milken had embraced the desire of some within the student body to improve society. He would work tirelessly to change the world for the better too, but as he once put it, “Unlike other crusaders from Berkeley, I have chosen Wall Street as my battleground for improving society because it is here that government institutions and industries are financed.” There are no companies, no jobs, and there is no progress without investment, and Milken would vastly improve the world around him through skillful development of the companies not recognized by traditional banks and investment banks, but that would be greatly enhanced through bespoke finance.

Read the rest of the piece to get the whole story.