American Defense Enterprises

For those of you with too much time on your hands and some disposable cash, you too can assemble an AR-15 to look like your favorite power tool manufacturers latest tack driver.

Article on Defense Review

Last year Desert Tactical Arms released a new bullpup rifle called the Stealth Recon Scout.  This rifle fits a 22″ barrel in a package that is only 31.5″ long for the .308 Win. version.  They even have a .338 Lapua Magnum version of the rifle with a 26″ barrel which is just 6″ longer at 37.5″.  Best part is that you don’t need to get two of these rifles if you want both a .308 Win. and a .338 LM since you can just change out the barrels with a conversion kit.  These rifles are sleek and light for their purpose.  I could do without the quad rail but otherwise it looks like an awesome system.

We were just talking about how we all could use a bigger gun safe for all of our firearm acquisition aspirations.

Well here is the solution …

Bed Bunker

The local news section of The Seattle Times has an article about the Parks and Recreation department of Spokane Washington has been having a bit of a squirrel problem in Finch Arboretum.  To solve the problem they are calling in the Rodenator Pro.  This machine pumps propane gas and oxygen into the holes and ignites the mixture with a spark blowing the squirrels and their living space up.

This is my favorite part of the article”

“The parks department says the Rodenator is a humane way to kill the squirrels. But it warns area residents that the explosions sound like gun shots, and to not be alarmed by them all week.”

Now for the video of humane squirrel killin’

Hmmmm … ?

Eureka Alert!

The world is a small place these days.  Our computers and cell phones keep getting smaller, more powerful and more functional.  If you take just a couple of the many functions that these devices can do you can put them in a tiny package called Motes.  Tel Aviv University Professor Prof. Yoram Shapira is trying to market these devices as high tech security systems.  So how do motes they work?  Due to their small size and extremely low cost (25 cents per sensor) many of these small sensors of various types (sounds, vibration, light, humidity, magnetic, temperature, etc.) could be placed around a large facility to relay information to a central system via an ad hoc network that the sensors facilitate.  Since they are so small and can be place almost anywhere they can avoid easy detection and it is unlikely that all the sensors could be located in a reasonable matter of time.

This is not new technology, but rather an interesting new application.  DARPA has been investigating the utility of motes for a while.  On a modern battlefield an array of motes can be placed by personel or dropped from an airplane.  Magnetic and vibration sensors would allow information about troop and armor units to be relayed back to a central computer to be analyzed for action or follow up analysis.

If you train with ADE, then you are obviously a man (or woman) of wealth and taste. At the next suit-worthy event, be sure to consider these modified Winchester shell cufflinks… guaranteed to boost the power in your power suit and let others know you are not to be trifled with. 

San has a birthday coming up…  Available HERE

Being a gun enthusiast I often find myself reading about or handling firearms (thank you Martin B. Retting) that I would like to shoot.

Well today I want to shoot the Barrett 98B.  It was on the cover of this months American Rifleman.  Join the NRA.  Its big, black, scary to hoplophobes and uses big scary bullets.  Since we in California do not have access to the the uber scary 50 cal. BMG rifles the .338 cal. Lapua Magnum is really the next best thing.  This is not a rifle for shooting 100 yard bullseyes at the local range.  I am sure it can do that with no problem, but you could do that with your 22 cal. rifle and $20 scope.  If you want to shoot things that are so far away they are small even in your really expensive 20X scope then this is the way to go.  The maximum effective range is about 1750 meters compared with the 50 BMG’s 2430 meters (longest confirmed kill).  Very respectable when you consider it fires a bullet that is one third the weight of the 50 cal.  The 98B also weighs about one third the weight of the 30 lb. Barrett 50 BMG 82A1. I doubt that too many of us would ever have to hump this anywhere on foot except from our cars to the shooting bench, but for those that may have to lug a large rifle around the reduced weight of this rifle is likely much appreciated.

I would say more, but this guy pretty much sums it all up.

I was reading this ok story on a history of rifle caliber when I came across this comment that I felt was pretty interesting:

1. AfgDesertCaton 09 Jan 2009 at 5:54 am

   My $0.02

   I served as a Squad Designated Marksman (M14-ERB) on my first tour and a Team Leader (M4) on my second. Both rifles have niche roles. I think that is due in part to the rifle design. However, I think this is primarily because of their respective ammunition’s characteristics. I can’t talk about terminal ballistics vs. external ballistics or muzzle energy or anything like that. What I can tell you is this:

   People shot with a M14 drop with noticably greater frequency then those shot with a M4.

   I don’t care what anyone says 762s are more predictable at greater distances than 556. Learn how to account for bullet drop and get over it.

   Most soldiers can become proficient with an M4 rather quickly. (I think that is why it is so popular with wannabees.)

   Most soldiers (even experienced ones,) have trouble with a M14.

   SAWs (556) are great for surpressive fire. 240-Bravo (762) not so much.

   240-Bravo will bust up a mudhouse. SAW not so much.

   556 rounds don’t penetrate car windshields very well. 762 rounds do.

   M14s will wear your ass out (shoot em and carrying em).

   Hope it helps. But then again, what the hell do I know.

Here is a review of ballistics software for the iPhone/iTouch.  One of them is even active, you can mount it to your rifle and it will automatically make corrections based on angle of elevation…

For those of you that like writing software, the author of the iPhone ballistics package released his C library for doing the calculations for free.  There is also a text based linux (Ballistic) piece of software as well as some free windows tools (such as PointBlank).

Realize, for all these tools, they are to help you model YOUR rifle and YOUR lot of ammunition under certain conditions.  From there, you are supposed to be able to extrapolate the behavior to other conditions — perhaps with a custom ranging card.  Any dumbass that wants to drag electronic gear into a field for applied work deserves the failures they get.