Hi-Tech for WWII Plinker

I am enjoying a tall glass of Red Rose tea, flavored with a magnificent Persian lime I grew myself. Don’t let anybody tell you store limes are as good as yard limes. Store limes are dry, and they’re not ripe.

I just checked Drudge. Apparently, the Obamas are starting a workout plan. Even though The Bums Won (to contradict the big Lebowski), they need to remember something. George Bush is a fitness nut who could mash pencil-necked B. Hussein like a pimple. Our President can beat up your President-Elect. I say that with all warmth and graciousfulness. And of course, hope.

This day is beginning well. For one thing, it was 53 degrees this morning. It’s funny how your attitude toward cool weather changes when you start working with tools and taking care of your yard. Sweat and the sun become your enemies. Perhaps the good Lord is preparing me emotionally for a move north, which I hope to make eventually. Yes, I will need help, adjusting to those frigid below-75 days I’ll have to endure in May, halfway up the state.

I think I’m going to go through with my M1 carbine plan. It’s an interesting experiment, and it may turn out to be a good home defense strategy, and it’s just plain fun. I’ll tell everyone how it works out. I’m also looking at M96 Mausers and M39 Finnish Mosins. Not sure why every gun name begins with “M.” I’d like to find an unissued Mosin, but I’m not sure where they come from or what the deal is. Are they really pre-WWII guns that somehow ended up in boxes, unopened, or are they just old guns with new stocks? I guess every M39 is old, in a way, because they’re remanufactured. But you know what I mean.

I’m going to slap a front grip on the M1, with a laser and light, just to see if it’s any good. I wonder how much the accuracy will suffer. I don’t think it will matter, because I plan to learn to shoot this thing without the sights.

A lot of people think you have to use sights to shoot, but that isn’t true. Sure, if you want pinpoint accuracy, sights matter. But when I was a kid, I used to shoot BB guns and air guns all the time without sights, and I had no problem hitting what I aimed at. And my grandfather once shot a rifled slug from the hip and took out a grouse in a distant tree; my dad saw it, and he still talks about it.

There is a famous video of a police officer being gunned down by a drunk veteran with an M1 carbine. If you watch it, you’ll notice the drunk did not use the sights. Yet he had no problem putting round after round exactly where he wanted. His shot placement was flawless. If he had used the sights, the officer might have had the time to kill him. To belabor the point, choosing not to use the sights made him more lethal, not less.

Navy SEALS practice shooting without sights. I don’t know what better recommendation you could want. Read Richard Marcinko’s book.

Besides…laser.

I don’t know anything about laser sights. I’m reading up. Evidently, you can get a very powerful green laser now for $43. I don’t understand much of the technical stuff, which is sad, because I took a semester of advanced optics in college, and I built temperature and current controllers for C02 lasers. I remember terms like “beam waist,” but that’s about it.