Been a while...

Well, It's been a while since I sat down and did any writing. I did manage to get an article done for Liberty For All--something I've been meaning to do for more than a year now. Guess I'm lucky writing doesn't pay my bills--because if it did, it wouldn't. I don't care if you don't find that amusing--I do.

I'll have to compile the list of words that set off my rants--if I do sit down to do it, it'll set me off. Reckon I fill up this blog then.

My damn car broke down week before last. I swear Alabama is a jinx on vehicles for me. I've gone thru three vehicles in the past year. Now I've got to look for another one. My damn timing belt broke on my 1992 Honda Accord, and the garage wants $3500 to fix it. And the damn car was doing so well until it broke--I put 12000 miles on it since October when I got it. Well, gotta be on the look out for another--two more, actually. I need a spare if one breaks down. Something in the $1,000 range. If I spend more than that, the damn thing will break on me anyway, but I'll just get screwed on the deal.

Well, even though I'm supposed to be looking for a vehicle, I made an impulse buy yesterday. I picked up a Swiss K31 Rifle. I'm in love. It looks unusual--it has a straight pull bolt, rather than the turned bolt I usually prefer. I picked up 30 rounds for this baby and took it to the range--it's an unusual caliber, 7.5mm Swiss. It's a little fatter case than 8mm Mauser, and seems to have a little more recoil. Might be my imagination, but that's how it seemed to me. I haven't looked up the ballistics info on the round yet--gotta do that. I did find the manuals for the rifle online, and that ammo is a little hard to come by. Guess I'll have to find some reloading equipment & components for this caliber too.

I did pick up a load kit from Lee Precision for my 7.62X54R, even though ammo is still fairly cheap for that caliber. .303 British is getting a little harder to find, and more expensive, so I've been loading that caliber myself now. I'm out of powder though, so even though I have sized, polished, and primed more brass, I'll have to get a vehicle soon so I can get to the guns store and buy powder so I can do some more shooting.

I have been doing pretty well at reaching my goal of an average of 100 rounds per week at the range--although I should really be doing that in both my .45 and at least one of my battle rifles. If I can get a good source of ammo for my K31, and depending on the ballistics, it may replace my beloved Enfield as my primary battle rifle--even though the magazine for the K31 only holds 6 rounds as compared to the Enfield's 10.

Of course, I ought to convert to the standard Liberty Battle Rifle Cartridge--.308, but I haven't been particularly impressed with any .308 rifles. A G-3 of some sort may be ok--something like the CETME, but I'm troubled by the reports I've heard of extraction problems, and I did see one at the range that was mangling the brass pretty badly.

I reckon I'll be ok as long as I cache plenty of ammo in my preferred calibers, and components and such, and perhaps a few extra reloading kits--Lee's classic set is small (about the size of a paperback book) and cheap ($20 plus shipping) as well as very reliable and well made.