CCCP My Ass!

Seen on the road recently. 

WTF? 

What's next?  ISIS Trucking?  NAZI Motor Freight Lines?

I hailed the driver on the CB to get an explanation, but got no response.

This Bolshevik didn't even have a CB antenna...

I'm OK with Russians. In fact, I admire the silly rough-neck bastards. It's the whole Soviet Union/CCCP/Gulag commie thing I have a problem with. I wanted to ask him, "If the Soviet Union was so great, why are you here in the evil capitalist USA? Oh...that's right. The Soviet Union collapsed and doesn't EXIST any more!"

I think most Americans see the hammer and sickle as some sort of cool design they've seen college pukes waving or wearing on Che Guevara shirts, and have no idea what has been done in its name. To me, it's no different than a Nazi swastika.

Nope

Rich Logistics fAle

A little background:

I recorded this last night coming south from Fort Wayne, Indiana on I-69.  

A severe thunderstorm was going through the area with 30mph sustained cross-winds, and frequent gusts up to 60mph, heavy rain, and some hail.  I thought I was driving in a tornado, and I was fighting to keep it on the road.  It was probably the worst cross-wind I had ever experienced.

I'm in a loaner tractor, which is not set up to install a CB radio (no antenna), so I have no idea what's going on in front of me beyond my field of vision, and I have no way of communicating with other drivers other than lights/horns.

At the time of the video, the rain had subsided a bit, but the winds remained.  

I had slowed to about 45mph.  My emergency flashers are on.  Visibility was poor, and I came up on this Rich Logistics truck that had come to a complete stop and was blocking the right lane of the Interstate.  I saw the situation in plenty of time, but I had no where to go as the left lane was full of traffic.

Once I came to a complete stop, I kept my eyes glued to my rear-view mirrors.  Being the Negative Nancy that I am, I was sure I was going to be blasted in the rear end by another inattentive driver.  It was a nightmare situation.

For the life of me, I can't figure out what Rich Logistics was doing.  Why was he not pulled completely off to the shoulder and off the travel lanes?  Nobody was in front of him or blocking him in any way that I could see.  If he was having mechanical problems, I cannot foresee a scenario where he wouldn't be able to at least get his rig completely off the roadway.  As you can see in the video, the Rich Logistics truck IS moveable...so why was he stopped and blocking the Interstate?

I think he panicked because of the weather conditions, and decided to come to a screeching halt exactly where he was...a horrible decision.

I think the lessons here are:

-scan far enough ahead and drive the conditions.
-make wise decisions which won't make matters worse.
-if one decides conditions are impossible, get COMPLETELY off the road as soon as possible.

-the side skirts on our trailers are EXTREMELY bad news in last night's conditions. I believe that if I had been empty, I wouldn't have been able to keep it on the road.

BTW...I removed the audio for the video because I figured you didn't want to hear the screaming and cussing!

Your Public Service Announcement For Today

The first and last photos were taken in a construction zone where trucks are required to use the left lane only.

If you can't see my grille or both of my headlights in your mirrors, you probably shouldn't change lanes and come over on me.

Turn signals are nice, but they don't grant you the right-of-way...especially when you signal late and I am going faster than you.

That gap I'm maintaining between my rig and the vehicle in front of me is there for a reason, and that reason has nothing to do with you changing lanes at the last second.

I prefer not to kill you.  OK?  Thanks.

Slay Ride Blues

Making New Bushmaster GI AR 15 Magazines Not Suck So much

I recently purchased ten new Bushmaster 30-round GI-style metal AR-15 magazines.

I found one of them to feel sorta "crunchy" and to have a feeding problem in that the follower would hang up about halfway through the magazine.

I popped the mag apart and found that a sloppy/oversized spot weld inside the magazine was catching on the follower and stopping its upward progress.

Out-fucking-standing!  This meant...being finicky and anal about this kinda thing...I would have to completely disassemble all ten mags and inspect them.

I found five out of ten of the mags to have this spot weld problem. 

These are the spot welds and their locations inside the mag.  The welds pictured are not the problem welds.  The problem welds were much larger and more pronounced.

So, I took a long narrow file and knocked down all the spot weld burrs I could find...and reach.

Then, I took a look at all the plastic followers.  I found some minor mold flashing on all of them, and smoothed them down with a hand file.

My last step was to lightly oil the mag springs and the inside walls of the mags themselves.

I slapped all ten mags back together, and worked all of them up and down vigorously until I was tired and satisfied and needed a smoke.

The mags seem smoother now and not crunchy at all.

It's a damn shame Bushmaster couldn't be assed to do this kinda thing before they put these mags on the market. 

Unless I find a metric shit ton of them for almost free, I won't be buying any more Bushmaster mags. 

I guess I'll stick to Magpul.  I haven't had any issues with their shit.

Yet.

More For The Snowflakes

Snowflake campaign ribbon with crossed Teddy Bear safety pins device and snowflake cluster.

Hat tip to Western Rifle Shooters, Mason Dixon Tactical and his buddy who came up with the original concept which I ashamedly stole and made more better!

Maybe...

I am sorry.

Evil Misogynistic Male Privileged Patriarchy Rears Its Ugly Head Again!

All men are pigs. 

-link

For The Snowflakes

I'm sorry.

Your AR15 Carbine Optics Recommendations?

Not that I would ever own something ridiculous and non-nonsensical like this, but a friend does. 

He says other than the Magpul handguard, Hogue pistol grip, Harris bipod, and GI web sling, it's a bone stock S&W MP15 Sport 2.

He's looking towards maybe getting some kind of optic because he's getting old and can't see for shit anymore.

What optic would you hard-chargin' peeps recommend?

Keep in mind that he is a cheap, poor, dumb, broke bastard and is not looking to spend a fortune but is willing to spend some birthday card money and get something that works and will last.

He says he's (obviously) not trying to shoot out to extreme ranges with his rig, but that iron sights aren't working for him like they did back in olden times.

He says he wants to keep the MBUS iron sights and A2 front sight post, and refuses to relinquish the GI web sling because he is old and set in his ways on those things.

He wants something that works with what he currently has, and doesn't want to make huge changes to the platform.

Thanks. 

He went with the Vortex Strikefire 2.

He likes guns.

And kitties...