Armorer's Report: Range Report Mosin Nagant M38 carbine

I recently acquired my very first World War Two firearm, a 1944 Izhevsk factory Mosin-Nagant M38 carbine firing the venerable 7.62X54R cartridge. I picked this one up at a local gun show for $100 out the door. I am really starting to get into these WW2 firearms both for their historical value/importance as well as their no frills simplicity/reliability. They just don't make guns the way they used to. As soon as I picked up this carbine I knew I had to have it. The condition was wonderful, the handling exceptional and the sights felt familiar, plus I knew it would pack a punch. The carbine weighs in at 7.6 lbs and holds a total of five rounds which can be fed into the rifle via stripper clips. Ballistically, the 7.62X54R (rimmed) cartridge falls right in between .308 and 30-06, propelling a 150 grain bullet to 2,600 fps out of a 20 inch barrel. The ammo is easy to find in military surplus 440 round spam cans coming from a variety of countries including Russia, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary and China. A lot of this milsurp ammo is also steel core and will have no problems punching holes through 1/2 inch thick steel at 100 yards. Coming in at around 20 cents per round, it is still very reasonably priced, considering its size. Just remember that ALL MILITARY SURPLUS IN 7.62X54R SHOULD BE CONSIDERED CORROSIVE AND AS SUCH, PROPER MEASURES NEED TO BE TAKEN WHEN CLEANING YOUR FIREARM. 7.62X54R is also available in commercial, boxer primed, non-corrosive load-outs including soft point and hollow point bullets ranging in weight from as little as 150 grains to 200+.

I first took my new carbine out with some Czechoslovakian steel core to get a feel for how she shot. The first shot I took was from the hip, because even though the bolt and receiver serial numbers matched, I didn't check the headspace before going out. No problems there so the next shot was taken from the shoulder at a target at 25 yards. BOOM, right on the money. Kick wasn't as bad as I expected, not even on par with a 12 gauge. I moved out to 100 yards and the rifle shot 4-5 inch groups, perfectly acceptable with iron sights and old military surplus ammo. The trigger on this beast is surprisingly likable with a good amount of take up before a clean break. I have actually learned to manipulate it quite well.

I wanted to get a feel for how this carbine shot beyond 100 yards so a few days later The Red Son and I headed out to our local sandpit and set up a human silhouette at around 220 yards. I loaded up 5 shots of Bulgarian steel core and shooting offhand, cold bore, was able to land four out of five on the silhouette, proving more than acceptable battlefield accuracy.
Needless to say I was quite ecstatic. The Red Son also brought along some pumpkins which we set up beyond a sandy ridge that we could run up and shoot over, which was fun. Overall I am very satisfied with my purchase and now lust for more WW2 era firearms. Got my eye on a few German K98s, but I would prefer a non-Russian capture without the forced matching parts. Happy shooting!-Saheim out.

Just Desserts: Tea Party Provocateur Fascists Attack Socialists, Get Owned

There has been a notable and deeply disconcerting rise in fascist vigilantes and mob-mentality driven protests and other political actions. The former sprung up on the US/Mexican border intent on intercepting "illegals" crossing the border. The best known of these groups is the Minute Men, who even are known to operate in northern Vermont along the border with Canada. Following the election of Barack HUSSEIN Obama, an "astroturf" movement made up of "Tea Party" activists, aks Tea Baggers in opposition of his presidency began to hold large rally and disrupt town hall meetings by shouting people down. With the help of the Neo-Con media, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly, the movement has grown popularity and continues to hold demonstration on a variety of issues, despite any semblance of ideological cohesiveness , other than their shared hatred of Obama and "socialism." Both manifestations of reactionary xenophobia and classism have been met with some opposition but by and large go unopposed. The "blogosphere" is abuzz about a November 14th confrontation between Tea Party activists who were holding an anti-immigrant rally and leftist-coalition counter protesters. Chegitz Guevara of Revleft was involved and gave this account:

Fascist tea baggers physically attacked supporters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation this afternoon in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

The Party of Socialism and Liberation called for a counter-demonstration against the fascist tea bag movement, which has been holding weekly rallies. Today was supposed to be a special day of protest nationwide for the tea baggers and their anti-immigrant message.

Comrades of the PSL and other supporting socialists, including a member of the Socialist Party, counter-protested on the far side of the street, when one hot-headed fascist decided to start a confrontation, physically getting in the face of one of the leaders of PSL. Things seemed to be averted for a moment, as he and he fellows returned to their side of the street, only for him to return a few moments later.

This comrade did not see how things started, but turned around to see a one fascist knocking down a support of the PSL in the middle of the street (at a very busy intersection). One fascist with a camera began swinging it like a club and was chased across the street before hitting the comrade in the head with it. Fortunately, the comrade had a thick, bushy mane of hair, and was not injured.

This happened in the space of seconds. When I saw the camera begin used as a weapon, I ran to intervene, jumping on top of the fascist with the camera, though not before breaking a stick upside his head after he hit me in the head with his camera (ow). After that, I put him in a choke hold until he calmed down (though he kept pinching my arm).

At this point, another comrade from the Socialist Party arrived with his very apropo sign, "Fight The Rich, Not Each Other!"

To avoid further confrontation, we moved down the street, still within sight of the fascist rally. Later, one of them, as she was leaving, swerved her truck at my wife and our SP comrade, before pulling off at the last second.

Several immigrants personally thanked us for being there, and a number of workers in the area told us they no longer used that corner to catch the bus on Saturdays, because of the fascists. People who tried to walk through the fascist rally told us that they would not move to allow people to walk on the sidewalk.

Some of the fascist signs included slogans like, "All Mexicans Should Be Neutered" and "Immigration = 67% unemployment 4 Black Young" [sic] although there were no Black people among the tea baggers.

A video of the confrontation was posted on youtube. This video seems very suspicious, that the teabaggers happened to set up a stable camera to film what happened when they crossed the street and started trouble with the counter protesters. Then they edit the video to show what they want to show, that they were the victims.



ANSWER, who participated in the action provided good analysis of the event and its aftermath on their website.

On Nov. 14, several white supremacist organizations, including the Minutemen and Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee (ALIPAC), initiated Anti-Amnesty Tea Parties across the country. The rally in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, included people holding racist signs like "Spay and Neuter Your Mexican" and chants such as “white power.”

The ANSWER Coalition, which has been on the front lines of the immigrant rights struggle for years, initiated a counter-demonstration in Fort Lauderdale.

ALIPAC has created a video that has been circulated widely depicting a confrontation between the two sides. This video is a propaganda piece meant to distort the realities of what took place.

ANSWER Florida organized the demonstration to show political opposition to the message of racism put forward by these organizations. The demonstration gathered on the opposite street corner from the “Anti-Amnesty” rally. At no point did the ANSWER demonstrators cross over to the location of the other rally.

The one-and-a-half minute ALIPAC video leaves out the violent assault by the Tea Party organizer that took place several minutes before the video begins.

In the first attack, a right-wing videographer came into the pro-immigrant rights demonstration area. He physically assaulted an immigrant rights demonstrator. He also carried out property damage by kicking the signs and literature. This was not in the video. Although they could have physically acted in self-defense in response to this provocation and assault, the immigrant rights demonstrators did not. Rather, at this point, the ANSWER organizers chanted for the man to return to his side.

The second time the right-wing videographer came into the pro-immigrant rights demonstration area, he was accompanied by David Caulkett, vice president of the racist, anti-immigrant Floridians for Immigration Enforcement. Both men began to assault demonstrators. The videographer began to swing his tripod in a violent manner, threatening the crowd. This was also not in the video.

All of these incidents are left out of the video that has been circulated, depriving viewers of important facts.

The intimidation tactics of the Tea Party forces is alarming to many people from various communities. In August, they felt emboldened to bring arms to Town Hall meetings and engaged in other mob-type tactics designed to intimidate any progressive opponent. Fascist-type organizing during the summer months used health care reform as a pretext. But these far-right ideologues are organizing on many fronts.

City residents told pro-immigrant rights demonstrators that they are being negatively impacted by these anti-immigrant, racist hate groups who have been gathering at the same location on a weekly basis for almost a year. At another point on Nov. 14, one right-wing rally participant sped up his large truck and aimed it toward an African American pro-immigrant rights protester who was standing on the sidewalk. Bus riders and shoppers reported being scared and intimidated. One woman said she walked to a different bus stop to avoid them as they blocked the sidewalks. These racist demonstrators reported on the radio that local police officers where giving them “thumbs up” as they were terrorizing the residents and shoppers in the community.

The initiators of the right-wing, racist “Anti-Amnesty” demonstrations across the country are either supporters or members of armed vigilante groups whose sole purpose is to violently confront workers whose only crime is coming to this country to try to feed their families. The comments that have been written on conservative blogs have largely been calling on these right-wing protesters to come to future demonstrations armed and to shoot counter-demonstrators that show up to offer political opposition to their message. The spinning of the events in Fort Lauderdale by groups like ALIPAC to make the Tea Party demonstrators the victims only further conceals their true violent intentions and political motivations.

It is imperative that unions, civil rights groups, and organizations representing women’s rights, immigrant rights and the LGBT community recognize their common interests, stand together and mobilize together to defeat the anti-people and bigoted program of the far right.

The ultra right will only become more emboldened unless there is a concerted effort to organize opposition by those who are struggling to win democratic rights for all working people, regardless of immigration status. We will not be intimidated. We will continue to defend ourselves and our communities.

This should be a call to action for all devoted leftists and anti-fascists in the U.S. In the comment section of these videos and conservative blogs, people are calling for tea baggers shoot any political opponents who counter protest. The radical left must not be intimidated by these threats and continue to oppose these fascists wherever and whenever they rear their ugly heads. We must not allow ourselves to be provoked into lashing out in anger, which only plays into the fascists' plan and benefits their cause, not ours. That said I am a big proponent of self-defense and if you, your comrades or anyone else is physically attacked, you must defend yourselves. Remember the legacy of Robert Williams, Malcom X and the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Remember what happened at Greensboro.

Junior Sez: Black Talons are the Best Bullet Ever Made!!!

The other day I was in my friendly neighborhood gun store, Welch's, home of the infamous Junior. Junior is so wise and very, very "knowledgeable" about guns that the golden nuggets of info that he blesses us with have become a regular feature on this blog. On this most recent visit, Junior was assisted by Junior Jr., a wee chap no older that six years old. I noticed they had some .40 caliber hollow points which Junior told me were Black Talons. When I asked what Black Talons were, Junior practically yelled "Black Talons are only the best bullet ever made!!!" Junior Jr. went on to inform me of its expansion profile and adding that "they called 'em cop-killers in the nineties," a decade in which he was clearly not born yet. The best part is that they were actually Winchester Ranger SXT, a different bullet developed from Black Talons but which has inferior expansion in ballistic gel. Junior also sez that he doesn't carry reloads, a point which he yelled at me four times in a row just because I asked if a box of ammo was reloads. I didn't know that all reloads were of such poor quality that they wouldn't be stocked at a respectable establishment like Welch's.
Junior is getting kookier by the day and the dynamic of a 80+ year old wheelchair bound deaf man yelling at a six year old behind the ammo counter is just way, way to classic.

1,600 People Are Suggested Daily for FBI Terrorist Watch List

Via The Washington Post

I guess that I have may have been being too paranoid if there is any such thing. Just because The Revolution Script Fan Club notified the FBI and who knows who else about this blog, I probably got lost in a sea of Josef Islams and Ahmed Mohammeds.

Newly released FBI data offer evidence of the broad scope and complexity of the nation's terrorist watch list, documenting a daily flood of names nominated for inclusion to the controversial list.

During a 12-month period ended in March this year, for example, the U.S. intelligence community suggested on a daily basis that 1,600 people qualified for the list because they presented a "reasonable suspicion," according to data provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee by the FBI in September and made public last week.

FBI officials cautioned that each nomination "does not necessarily represent a new individual, but may instead involve an alias or name variant for a previously watchlisted person."

The ever-churning list is said to contain more than 400,000 unique names and over 1 million entries. The committee was told that over that same period, officials asked each day that 600 names be removed and 4,800 records be modified. Fewer than 5 percent of the people on the list are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. Nine percent of those on the terrorism list, the FBI said, are also on the government's "no fly" list.

Sounds like they have their hands full.