Divemedic

Choosing a New Caliber

It’s Just Boris asks: “What, no M&P 5.7?”

I have handguns in .22LR, .38 Special, .380 ACP, 9mm, .40S&W, .357 Magnum, .357 Sig, and .45 ACP. Rifles are chambered in 5.56mm and 7.62mm. Adding a new caliber to the stable doesn’t just mean adding a firearm, it means adding magazines and ammo as well. It complicates the supply and storage situation here, and for that reason, adding another caliber means that it has to be a proven performer AND it has to fill another (at least to me) niche that must be filled.

The 5.7mm just doesn’t do that for me. What you are looking at with the 5.7mm is a bullet that is .224 inches in diameter. In a handgun, if I were to add it, the most likely candidate would be the M&P5.7, with its 5 inch barrel. There are no compact or carry sized 5.7mm pistols in Smith and Wesson’s lineup. Now that would mean that I have 22 round magazines, but magazines filled with what? The only real advantages that the 5.7 has, is in muzzle velocity and magazine capacity. Let’s say that I was interested in carrying lots of fast bullets.

  • The Speer Gold Dot 40grain hollow point has a stated muzzle velocity of 1750 feet per second from a 5 inch barrel. For reference, a .22LR is about 1100 feet per second.
  • Now compare that to the 9mm +P loadings from Speer (1220 fps), or Corbon and Black Hills (both 1250 fps), but a much heavier 115 or 124 grain bullet.
  • Similarly, using it to replace 5.56mm is a non starter. It’s essentially the same round, with the 62 grain green tip hitting 3000 feet per second from an AR carbine length barrel.

So I get 4 extra rounds with the 5.7mm over the 9mm, and I am defending myself with what is essentially a .22 pistol. So I am not interested in the 5.7mm.

But if I were going to add a new cartridge to the stable, I would choose one of three:

By Divemedic, ago

Good Questions

Some good questions to my security post of this morning, so let’s take a look:

  • I’m curious as to what you use as a training load equivalent?

I don’t for the higher powered 45 loads. How I address this, is nearly every pistol (as opposed to revolver) that I have is a S&W M&P: I have M&P40s, M&P9s, M&P45s, a Shield 380EZ, several Shield pluses, as well as Shields in 9mm, .380, .40S&W, and .45ACP. I also have a few Glock 19s and 19 clones, but I rarely shoot them and can’t remember ever carrying one.

Having the same models as carry pieces simplifies the manual of arms, makes repairs easy as they all look the same on the inside, and makes switching firearms and calibers smoother and easier. I know that full power loads don’t shoot the same, but it’s close enough for what I am doing here. I can still do A-zone shots quickly and effectively out to 15 or 20 yards with little effort, and that is all I am concerned with.

  • IDK if I’d go to a full size .45 tho, a single stack 9mm is very svelte, easy to carry, and similar capacity. A subcompact .40 a bit thicker, but smaller than the .45 and similar power/effect.
  • Open carry is legal in Florida on your own property. But wear a light cover garment anyway; they don’t need to know until it’s time for them to know, and you’re still “legal” if you step into the street.
  • It wouldn’t hurt to have a Glock 19-26 ish type pistol concealed appendix ish.

All handguns are a tradeoff. They have low power, not as much firepower as a long gun like an AR-10 or an AR-15, and not as much punch as say, a shotgun. We carry handguns because we aren’t sure whether or not we will need one, but it is useful to have one just in case. When I am at home, I have more freedom to carry a large handgun, hence the double stack .45.

One firearm on me at a time is all I need, especially when at home. All I need is something to bridge the gap that exists between me and a long gun. Remember, you carry a handgun in case you might be in a gun fight. If you KNOW you will be in a gun fight, endeavor to not be there. If that is impossible, bring a long gun, and bring a friend with a long gun, if possible.

When working on my property but outside, I just wear a baggy t-shirt and pull it over my OWB holster (a DeSantis Speed Scabbard that I used to use back when I was an IDPA competitor. A funny story about that below the divider)

When I am away from home, I avoid areas where I am likely to need a firearm, but just in case, I carry a pistol or revolver that is easy to carry and easy to conceal. Think a Smith and Wesson Shield, Shield plus, or J frame revolver. My EDC is usually a Shield plus (they hold 13 rounds of 9mm), or a J frame .38 loaded with wadcutters.

  • Have you made realistic plans for the “temporary” removal of your firearms after a “Good Shoot”?

I have caches of firearms. I have guns in safes. I’m not opening or revealing either to the cops.

I have a Tshirt that says “DeSantis, Concealment Perfected” on it that I bought some years ago. One of my wife’s coworkers saw me while I was wearing it out with her and some coworkers at an event. She told me that seeing DeSantis’ name on a shirt was a trigger for her because he was an evil fascist. I told her not to worry, that the shirt had absolutely nothing to do with the Governor, it was a brand of holsters that I liked carrying my pistols in, “and in fact I am carrying a handgun in one of their holsters now.”

She practically ran out of the venue and hasn’t spoken to my wife since. My wife says that she didn’t like the woman anyhow, but that saying what I said was hunting over bait, even if it was funny.

By Divemedic, ago

Security

A group of young men were seen in my neighborhood on at least three days last week. They were walking up to houses and knocking on the front doors. On the first day, if the homeowners answered, they would ask them a series of (in my opinion) intrusive questions, like how many people lived there, how much they made, how much they paid for the house, those sorts of thing. The second time they were seen, they were acting like they were selling solar systems, and when they came by yesterday, the same guys were selling home improvement supplies. Each time, the cops were called, but twice the guys were gone when the cops got here, and once the cops talked to them but they left- only to return the next day.

I was at work for the third day, and I told my wife not to open the door, and to tell them through the video doorbell that they were trespassing. She knows how to shoot, and I told her to then call the cops, and if the person tried to enter the house, to defend herself.

This is sketchy as hell. A bunch of us talk, and we have pictures of the three men involved, pictures of the two vehicles they were seen driving, and pictures of license plates. I will be keeping an eye out for those guys. Our neighbor’s husband works during weekdays, so I will keep watch over the house and wife while he is off at work.

I also pulled an outside the pants holster and mag holder out of the closet and will be wearing a larger firearm than my usual EDC whilst I am home. I will be open carrying an M&P 45, loaded with a 10 round mag filled with Speer Gold Dot G2 230grain +P hollow points while I am home (I got a great deal on a case of the GDHP last year from Lucky Gunner). Add a couple of spare mags to my belt, and I have 30 rounds of “you aren’t robbing MY fucking house without sustaining a sucking chest wound, asshole.”

Also available are shotguns, rifles, and other assorted mayhem should they give me a couple of seconds to get all of my shit in one sock.

I will keep an increased security lookout for the next few days.

Side note: The Speer G2 is a good looking load. 230 grains moving at 950 feet per second gives you 461 foot pounds of energy at close range. Expansion looks good. Check it out.

By Divemedic, ago

This is how Liberty Dies

I usually comb the Internet and social media in search of blog fodder. That is hard to come by today, because the Internet and the news cycle is dominated by the left cheering that the sitting President was able to toss his main political opponent in prison. This makes it difficult to find anything to write about that isn’t simply TDS porn.

Trump understood something that Biden does not: Throwing your political rivals in prison may make your supporters cheer with glee, but at the cost of destroying the very rule of law that always made this nation the shining beacon on the hill. That is no more…

We have officially joined the long list of nations where votes don’t matter, and dictators have their political opponents jailed or killed.

By Divemedic, ago

Loads Update

Here we are, in the summer. Time to revisit our calculations on power consumption for our planned solar installation. Here is the usage data, combined with temperatures for the month.

  • January: Average use was 27kwh per day. Average Temp 60 degF, High 82 degF, Low 35 degF
  • February: Average use 27kwh per day. Average Temp 61 degF, High 87 degF, Low 37 degF
  • March: Average use 22 kwh per day. Average Temp 69 degF, High 89 degF, Low 43 degF
  • April: Average use 20 kwh per day. Average Temp 71 degF, High 92 degF, Low 48 degF
  • May: Average use 36 kwh per day. Average Temp 79 degF, High 98 degF, Low 63 degF

You can see that electric use varies with the temperature. The hot months of summer are going to be more costly in terms of electrical use, but that is somewhat offset by more daylight hours. I will continue using the estimated figure of 48 kwh per day. If we assume an average of 6 hours of peak daylight per day, then we need to be generating about 8 kw per hour of daylight. Since I am pricing out 9.6-10 kw of capacity, I think that I am right where I need to be.

Now I need to figure out how much battery capacity I need.

By Divemedic, ago

Nothing is Changed

The verdict in the Trump case isn’t a surprise. For four years (since before the 2020 election), I have said that they will do whatever it takes to keep Trump out of office. That opinion hasn’t changed.

There are those who think that the left WANTS Trump to be there in the White House to serve as a fall guy when things go tits up. I don’t think so. These guys think that they are the smartest ones in the room. After all, they get away with their crimes every. single. day.

  • They are blatantly and openly accepting bribes.
  • They are blatantly and openly molesting children.
  • They are openly engaged in insider trading and rigging the stock market.
  • and more. I’m sure you can think of some.

Yet their side still supports them, and no one on the “other” side even mentions trying to stop them, because the Republicans are just as corrupt and invested in the system as they are. They will keep on stealing, lying, cheating, and sucking off of the public teat until there is no more treasure to be had.

It’s been obvious that this nation will fail for decades now. Anyone who has the ability to run a calculator could see it. All we can do at this point is be prepared for what is coming. The left is still openly following the CIA insurgency manual- the CIA literally wrote the book on how to overthrow a government, and that is exactly what is happening here.

A word of advice- the show trials phase of the insurrection is here.

The show trials that I began predicting on July 6, 2020, with the two posts titled “Roots of an insurgency, part 3,” and “Tying it all together.” From the “Roots” post:

Once the last phase begins, totalitarian elites let loose their inclination to brutally eliminate their perceived enemies. Once this phase begins, things happen very quickly. The entire country will collapse in a matter of weeks.

Violence is considered a means to achieving the goal of centralized power. There is not even a pretense of due process or respect for free speech.

Then there is the Tying it all together:

This is also the stage where purges begin, books are burned or rewritten, and the history of the old regime is destroyed. This prevents any sort of “counter revolution” from gaining any traction.

Things are going to get worse as we approach the election. It isn’t just Trump.

Develop your own lists. Have a list of canaries- people who are outspoken and influencing others. When they start to disappear, run. Have a list of people in your neighborhood or families who may be subversives or informants for the left. Know what to say to them and not say that will get you informed upon.

Things will begin to unravel with nearly blinding speed.

By Divemedic, ago

Bad Legal Takes

An apartment complex calls the police because they have a problem with people who don’t live there using the pool, because a group of the usual suspects Amish Canadians “teens” and their feral parents were using the pool for a Memorial Day pool party, even though they didn’t live there. The cops arrive and ask one of the people in the pool where he lives. He can’t tell them. They ask for ID, which he doesn’t or can’t provide. Then they ask him to leave, he refuses. Now he is trespassing after warning, so they attempt to take him into custody. The ‘teen’ then punched one of the cops in the face. This is the result:

Now I am arguing with some retard who is claiming that you can’t be asked to leave the pool if you live there because you have a lease, you can’t be asked to provide ID because no one carries ID at the pool, and the cops aren’t the owner of the property, so they can’t ask you to leave anyway.

This “child” weighed in at 375 pounds.

The attorney for the lawbreaking kid has a request that isn’t legal:

Malcolm said they want the charges dropped, the officers to be suspended without pay during an investigation, and transparency and truthfulness from Lakeland PD.

It is a violation of a cop’s Constitutional rights to suspend them without pay until an investigation and hearing has taken place, showing that the cop was in the wrong. It was decided by the US Supreme court that public employees have a right to due process, just like anyone else who is accused of wrongdoing by the government. The case was Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, a 1985 case that was decided by the US Supreme Court. The underlying question for the case was:

“Can the government remove a civil servant’s property rights to employment before providing an opportunity for that employee to respond to the charges offered for his termination?”

The court said that the Constitution prevents the government from depriving anyone of their property without also providing that employee a chance to defend themselves. Calling witnesses, having counsel, a hearing, and all of the other due process rights that any other person would have before the government can take something from them.

In this case, the lawyer for the family surely knows this. He is merely playing to the court of public opinion, because he knows that this is where this case will be won or lost.

Pastor Clayton Cowart with the “Poor Minority Justice Association” is claiming that this is police brutality and child abuse. You punch a cop, you (rightfully, in most cases) have an ass whipping coming to you. This isn’t police brutality. Just because you are 16 doesn’t mean that you get a free pass on lawbreaking.

I call it like I see it- sometimes the cops are right, sometimes they are wrong. In this case, I don’t see where the cops did anything wrong.

The pastor isn’t new to demanding that blacks receive special treatment. In February, he was protesting the arrest of a 78 year old woman and her 44 year old daughter for pulling a “dine and dash.“

The fact that Willie “Mother” Lewis and her daughter Ruthena Lewis, 44, ate at A&G and left without paying is undisputed.

So they admit to the crime, but don’t feel like they should have been arrested.

This is nothing more than entitled blacks insisting that the law should not apply to them. This is why blacks as a race can’t live in civilized society.

By Divemedic, ago

Useless Degrees

Many colleges have what they call a liberal studies degree. What this means is that you earn a degree by taking whatever classes appeal to you. You take the basics like math, writing, etc., but then you take so many ‘upper level’ courses to get a degree.

What happens if you take that concept and build an entire college around it? The result is NYU Gallatin. A school where students take classes in some random subjects for a period of years and then receive a degree that is, let’s say, a bit eclectic.

So how do the graduates of this school do in the working world?

  • 69% of them are women, 28% men, 2% are other
  • 77% employed, 17% still in school, 6% unemployed
  • Of those who are employed, most are employed by NYU and make an average of $59k per year.

$59k per year. In Manhattan, where there is a fast food joint right across the street serving $20 cheeseburgers. Keep in mind that a nursing associates degree in Florida, where the taxes and cost of living are much lower, sees a new nurse starting at $65k.

Waste of money, and Biden is forgiving their student loans.

By Divemedic, ago

Libertarian Candidate

The Libertarians have selected Chase Oliver as their Presidential candidate: a left-leaning, Liberal member of the LGTBQ+ club.

To boot, he supports the Biden policy of bringing people from Gaza to the US.

No thanks. This entire campaign is a way to let Dems who want to own guns and gay left leaning Republicans someone to vote for.

While I have frequently had problems with the Libertarian party, I agreed (or used to) with many of their ideas and principles. Now that I am seeing footage from their national convention, I just can’t anymore.

By Divemedic, ago