My In Laws are strongly hinting about taking me hunting. The only thing I have that looks like a hunting Rifle is the 1964 Winchester Model 70 National Match Rifle I bought some years ago. It comes with match sights and with my eyesight, I simply can’t shoot that thing comfortably. Rather than invest in modifications that would change the rifle or invest on expensive stuff to make it comfortable to shoot, I decided to sell it and get me some modern bolt action which hopefully will also be lighter that this bastard.

Now, this is what I have “learned” reading articles and blogs out there: I should go for something in the 30 caliber region because you can take most US game with it.  Something bigger is overkill and something smaller may not take game humanely. Then we have the issue of ammo availability for hunting rifles which seems to be somewhat disappeared or very frigging expensive. And lastly but most importantly, get a reliable rifle from a good company.

Till yesterday, I was still debating between .30-06 and .308 mostly because the latter ammo seems to be crawling back into shelves. But then I bumped into this video:

First the question I had of ammo availability: No issue there. Y’all remember my first rifle was a WASR-10 and I bought it when Cheaper Than Dirt was not yet ScumbagDotCom and their price for 7.62 Russian was in the $100/1K range. Basically I have plenty of ammo to hunt (game) for decades.  Then the caliber itself being in the metric side of the 30 caliber should be good enough to take your average deer, but I would like shooter among the readers to confirm/deny/advice on it.

And then it is Ruger and I have not heard bad things about their American Rifle series, but then again I do not keep my ear grounded on this particular type of weapons.

And the last thing: There are a couple of these rifles in stores not-so-nearby and at a decent price ($500+/-) so it would be just to show up with the cash and I go home with it rather than hunt and wait for one to show up somewhere or pay exaggerated prices in Gunbroker.

The Winchester will be put up for sale later today or tomorrow. So while I wait for the transaction to occur, I figured I ask you for your opinions and advice on the Rusky Ruger before committing the coin to it.

Thank you @GavinNewsom for singing my bill to ban the sale of gas powered leaf blowers & other small engine equipment beginning in 2024! This equipment is dangerous to the workers who use it, disruptive to communities, & terribly damaging to our climate ? https://t.co/MpyOnuXfwm

— Marc Berman (@AsmMarcBerman) October 10, 2021

From the article in the Tweet:

California will outlaw the sale of new gas-powered lawn mowers, leaf blowers and chain saws as early as 2024 under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday.

The law requires all newly sold small-motor equipment primarily used for landscaping to be zero-emission — essentially to be battery operated or plug-in — by that target date or as soon as the California Air Resources Board determined it is feasible. New portable gas-powered generators also must be zero-emissions by 2028, which also could be delayed at the discretion of the state agency.

Machinery with so-called small off-road engines also includes chain saws, weed trimmers and golf carts, all of which create as much smog-causing pollution in California as light-duty passenger cars, and reducing those emissions is pivotal to improving air quality and combating climate change, proponents of the law said.

Quick side question: I’m just a simple engineer so how does one make a zero emissions gas powered generator?

I have a whole bunch of Dewalt Li-ion tools.  They are great.  But they are expensive.  It takes a couple of 5 amp hour batteries to string trim my yard.  Those things take a while to charge and they are not cheap.

I want want of the 60v Flexvolt chainsaws.  They are nice but also not cheap, and the batteries will set you back a pretty penny.  They are $150 per battery.

So imagine a lawn service person with a chainsaw, string trimmer, leaf blowers, etc that are all twice as expensive as the equivalent gas model and running a few thousand in batteries that have to be repeatedly charged in between jobs on a zero emissions generator.

Andrew Bray, vice president of government relations for the National Assn. of Landscape Professionals said the zero-emission commercial grade equipment landscapers use is also prohibitively expensive and less efficient than the existing gas-powered lawn mowers, leaf blowers and other small machinery. For example, a gas-powered commercial riding lawn mower costs between $7,000 and $11,000, while its zero-emissions equivalent costs more than twice that amount, he said.

Another major expense will be batteries. Bray said a three-person landscaping crew will need to carry 30 to 40 fully charged batteries to power its equipment during a full day’s work.

“These companies are going to have to completely retrofit their entire workshops to be able to handle this massive change in voltage so they’re going to be charged every day,” Bray said.

Costs will go up.

Just for good measure, let’s throw in HOA rules that require yard maintenance.

The home owner will now pay double or more for the same yard service to be done zero emissions.

Will home owners respond by cutting back on service?  Bi-weekly instead of weekly?

How many jobs will this cost?

Why not harm an entire industry with this law?  California has ruined just about everything else, ruin yard men too.

California took another step toward its goal of ridding the state of all gas-powered engines thanks to a new bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday.
The new law will ban the sale of all off-road, gas-powered engines, including generators, lawn equipment, pressure washers, chainsaws, weed trimmers, and even golf carts. Under the new law, these machines must be zero-emissions, meaning they will have to be either battery-powered or plug-in, according to the Los Angeles Times.

California law bans small off-road gas engines, including lawnmowers and chainsaws (msn.com)

After more than two decades in a Hurricane zone, I still can’t shake the idea of living without a generator. In fact, it was one of the first things that went inside the container while we were packing.  And here is the thing: I moved from a location with a pretty stable power supply to another with also a stable power supply. Regions of California has been suffering blackouts for years and years now without any real investment on eliminating them and a bunch of political mandates to depend on unreliable sources of power.

The new law is expected to affect nearly 50,000 small businesses. California’s budget includes $30 million to help professional landscapers and gardeners quit using gas-powered equipment, but even then, the budget is still not capable of bearing the full financial burden.

That comes to $600 per small business using gas powered small engines. Truthfully not enough to buy a good gas-powered lawnmower and trimmer combo and probably insufficient down payment for the Glorious Greta Approved EcoBullshit products

The Green Dumb giants in California are actually pushing for something like this which curiously appeared in my YouTube feed for some strange reason.

It intrigued me, so I watched it and realized something funny: It is not a generator, Sparky. It is a frigging rechargeable battery!

Generator by definition makes its own electricity but the contraption above needs to be connected to a source of electricity to obtain the power it will be used later. And the cost?

A brand name generator running on gas and providing the same amount of power are running less than half the price and have the enormous advantage of just needed to add gas when they stop and then get back to generate electricity. What the flock are you gonna do with an “Eco generator” once the battery is spent and there are no other sources to recharge it?

In a few years we will see California mandating that all candles be made from natural sources and not paraffin.  That way no hydrocarbon-based light pollutes the shithole the state and thus reducing the only other choice they had to have some illumination when it gets dark and after the mandatory 2 hour use of eco-lightbulbs per night is over.

Dark ages indeed.

https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1446583046929625090

Do the white kids feel “safe and affirmed in who they are” when the next line talks about dismantling whiteness?

Do these people honestly believe society will be better off alienating white kids?

All I see down this path is Balkanization

If you haven’t studied the history of the Balkan Wars, the death toll was in the hundreds of thousands.

Ethno-conflicts are long and bloody.

I can’t imagine that’s what these people want but it sure is what they are going to get.

https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1446294161464909827

The mom is clearly hell bent for leather on transitioning her son.

I wonder what the over/under chances are that the poor child “unalives” himself because of a social contagion transition or permanent damage from puberty blockers vs. committing suicide due to actual gender dysphoria?

I believe every trans child should be taken from their parents and put in the home of a conservative, church going family without social media and attend a parochial school for a year before being allowed to do any transitioning at all.  Just to rule out the influence of the parents attempting to sexually mutilate their child for social media likes.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Metro Nashville Police Department officers said one man is dead Sunday morning after a road rage shooting this weekend.

Officers responded at 9:50 a.m. Saturday and found Emilio Lopez-Lajuj, unresponsive and sitting in the driver’s seat of his Toyota Camry with a gunshot wound to his upper left leg in the 900 block of Richards Road. His car was running and still in drive, police said. Lopez-Lajuj died at the scene.

MNPD homicide unit detectives reviewed surveillance video, which showed that Lopez-Lajuj was slowly driving west on Richards Road when a newer model black Dodge Charger with tinted windows and black wheels drove around the Camry.

Police said Lopez-Lajuj then pulled his car up to the Dodge Charger and bumped the Charger’s driver’s side rear quarter panel. Lopez-Lajuj and the other driver got out of their vehicles and appeared to briefly argue prior to the shooting. The suspect drove off toward Interstate 24 and Haywood Lane.

One dead after road rage shooting in Nashville (newschannel5.com)

I have the feeling that Mr. Lopez felt slighted the driver of the Dodge passed him and decided to play bumper cars earning him first place in the Stupid Games competition.

We are in “special” times. Tempers are flaring easily and Gun Control has failed miserably (as we figured long ago) from keeping guns in the hands of the criminal and/or crazy element. Ego is the one thing we cannot afford to flaunt, specially our kind that does the 24/7 Carry Culture. Bruised feelings heal quick, rape in prison takes weeks unless you catch some transmittable disease and death is forever.

This just popped in my FB feed.

The magnificent title track.

And the equally superb companion:

When I croak and you suckers are still alive and want to render me a memorial that does not involve cuss words, play Epitaph while sipping a shot (or two) of Gentleman Jack.