A while back I made a brief tutorial on how to disassemble and maintain Ruger 10/22 magazines. It’s been pretty well received, with nearly 60,000 visitors since its inception.
That said, I’ve been looking at creating some other tutorials. Anyone have any suggestions? Should I make a tutorial about the AR-15? M1 Garand? Ruger MkIII? 10/22 (the rifle itself, not just the mags)? XD?
If anyone in the Tucson area happens to have a chronograph lying around, would it be possible for me to borrow it for a range session or two? I want to get some data for my reloads, but I lack a chrony.
It doesn’t need to be fancy, and I’d be willing to provide some sort of reasonable collateral against my accidentally shooting it.
If so, please contact me by email. Thanks!
Nine days ago, I made a post where I cursed my foolishness when I ended up washing (and thus destroying) a Bookmans credit slip, thus being out $45. All that was left were a few small scrappy pieces of orange paper.
Of course, this was completely my fault, and I completely understand when one of the staff at the local store said “Well, without the amount actually printed on the small bits of papercredit slip, we can’t replace it.” If I were in their position, I’d probably do the same — I’d be concerned about frauds and liars.
Imagine my surprise when a few days later, the self-described Web Monkey at Bookmans posts a comment asking for my address, and saying she has something to send me. After doing some basic checking to ensure she was, in fact, a Bookmans employee, I provided my address. Today, I received her envelope: it contained a $50 (!) credit slip (with a handwritten note on it saying “Warning: not laundry proof!”) and a few bumper stickers.
Now, over the years, I’ve dealt with good and bad customer service. Some have offered what I would consider to be excellent customer service, while others have offered customer “service” in much the same way that a bull “services” a cow. Bookmans just blew them all out of the water. Not only did they proactively seek out my issue (when I called to ask, I had done so without giving my name or number, the only record of the question was here on the blog), but they took my word on the amount I had accidentally destroyed, and even gave me $5 more. They did all this even though I was completely to blame, and I didn’t expect even the slightest bit of reimbursement for my own foolishness.
Never have I seen customer service quite so incredible. Truly, my hat is off to them.
They even have a highly competent Web Monkey, who evidently regularly reviews her server logs. Always a good thing. (Hey Heather, if you’re reading this, there’s a new version of Google Analytics code that you should replace the existing urchin.js with. Just FYI.)
If I wasn’t already a loyal Bookmans customer (both for their excellent prices, selection, locations, and people, but also for their unwavering support and defense of the First Amendment), I would certainly have been converted as of today.
At the risk of sounding like some sort of commercial shill (which I most certainly am not), if you’re in an area with a nearby Bookmans, I strongly encourage you to check them out.
I recently discovered the fantastic program called Autostitch that will “stitch” together pictures into a panorama. Obviously, the pictures need to be taken from the same position and at differing angles, but Autostitch does all the hard work.
Here’s one of my better ones from today:
(click to enlarge)
There’s some obvious blurring and visual artifacts due to several factors: people/vehicles moving around between each frame, the photos were taken through glass at different (occasionally shallow) angles, and I moved the camera between two positions about 5 feet apart (different panes of glass, with different angles). Even so, it turned out reasonably well.
For those who are curious, the large, white-roofed building in the center is the Physics & Atmospheric Sciences building at the University of Arizona, which is where I spend most of my waking hours. The red-roofed, horseshoe-shaped building across the street from it is the Yavapai dormitory. In the lower-right-hand corner, there are four tall palm trees; barely visible between the heads of those trees is a weather research station. In the distance, slightly to the right of center is the university’s football stadium. The picture was taken from the 10th floor of the Gould-Simpson building on campus.
I should really see about getting more panoramic photos of various interesting places, like the local range. Taking pictures on campus is a pain, as there’s always people moving about.
On a similar note, is anyone aware of a flash or Java-based viewer for panoramic images? Displaying them in 2D creates a lot of distortions.
As spring is rapidly approaching here in Tucson (it’s alternating between rainy and sunny and getting into the low 70s), I’ve been looking at options for concealed carry in the warmer (read: freakishly hot) seasons. My main concern is not immediate access (e.g. on my person), but rather total concealment (e.g. no chance of “flashing”, dropping the gun, etc.).
Since I’m often found with a backpack (how else can one carry stuff whilst on a two-wheeled vehicle without saddlebags), and mine is getting a bit long in the tooth (it’s my old army “assault pack” backpack, which has all sorts of straps and buckles), I’ve been looking at getting a new backpack or messenger bag with a concealment compartment — one of my friends has a purse from Galco with a concealment compartment, and she’s been extremely satisfied, so I figured a backpack would work well for me.
Ideally, the bag would also have a padded spot for a laptop (mine has a 15.4″ screen).
Galco seems to have women’s handbags, but nothing that I can find seems appropriate for a mid-20s male student-type.
Any ideas?
I’ve been too lazy and too busy to clean my Glock 19 in several months. During this time period, it’s probably fired about 600 rounds of Miwall 9mm reloads without fail.
Anyone want to make a wager to see how long I can go without cleaning it?
The university has a post office (contract unit) in the student union. In addition to being able to buy stamps and ship parcels, one can also rent post office boxes[1].
Now, it’s perfectly legal to ship firearms in the mail (handguns must be shipped by an FFL through the mail, mere mortals can only ship long guns) so long as certain rules are obeyed. Parcels, including firearms, which are too large to fit into a box are held for the box holder to collect over the counter.
Now, it’s legal to mail firearms, and it’s legal to receive firearms (say, being returned from the manufacturer for service, or from a gunsmith). It’s legal to possess firearms just about anywhere in Tucson, but it is against the law to possess firearms on the university campus without the express permission of the university police department (good luck getting such permission).
Assuming one were to have a PO box at the on-campus post office, and one was to receive a firearm…would it be legal to transport that firearm (unloaded, cased, locked, etc.) from the on-campus post office to an off-campus location by the most immediate means available (e.g. walking off-campus, to a waiting car, etc.)? It seems like there’s some sort of “island of legality” within the confines of the post office, but one cannot actually transport the firearm from the post office to an off-campus location without crossing through the no-guns-allowed region of the campus itself.
Any thoughts or pointers? I could call the university police department, but I figured I’d ask here first.
[1] Which reminds me of a cool label I saw affixed to a liquid nitrogen dewar (like a big thermos) today: it was made by some nuclear division of the Union Carbide Company, and had “Post Office Box X” in some city. How cool is that? “Box X” sounds very mysterious indeed, particularly when relating to nuclear stuff.