Close Up Photos Of Enfield Rifles
I decided to take some detailed photos of my Enfields; here are the results, along with some comments about the rifles.
Ishapore 2A in 7.62x51 on the left, No4 Mk1 in .303 on the right. These bolt action rifles differ from most rifles of the type produced today in that they "cock on close," as the bolt is being pushed forward, rather than as the bolt is unlocked and pulled to the rear. They are smoother and faster to operate than the vast majority of modern, off-the-shelf bolt action rifles.
Left side of No4 Mk1 action. The barrel of this rifle is essentially shot out and I will be replacing it with something interesting, perhaps a .375 of some sort.
Right side of No4 Mk1 action. I really like Enfields; I grew up shooting my dad's sporterized No1, which his mother/my grandmother purchased many years ago for $8.95. It is accurate, light, and reliable. My dad killed a bear with it at point blank range.
Business end of the No4. It's a good thing that I have the bayonet, since the barrel is shot out. I never know when I might need to impale something.
Right side of the Ishapore 2A action. This is a fine rifle which fires a widely available cartridge from a detachable magazine with a decent capacity (12 rounds, although 10 round mags are also available).
I have used the Ishapore in several 600 yard matches. Using .308 Win Federal Gold Medal Match 168gr BTHP, I have fired higher scores with this rifle than a Weatherby Mark V Ultra Lightweight and an LWRC REPR using the same ammunition. The sights are adjustable to 2000 meters, but I have only used it out to 600 yards. I wouldn't be very confident with a .308 at 2000 meters...
I am interested in the way things used to be made versus the way they are made today. While the processes which brought this rifle to "life" are antiquated, the result is no less effective than a modern, rack-grade bolt action 7.62x51mm/.308 Win rifle, and in some ways the Ishapore is superior. One possible exception would be optic mounting, but that is more of a design than a manufacturing issue.
I need a bayonet for my Ishapore. Correction, I don't have a bayonet for my Ishapore.
Everyone's like, "OMG ZOMBIES!" and I'm all, "Vampires are the real threat."
Thanks for reading. As mentioned previously, I wish that new production Enfield pattern rifles in various calibers were available.
Brief Thoughts On Hydration And Oral IV
I woke up this morning and saw a few links to this article about Oral IV. I found it interesting to read because a) SCIENCE!, and b) it mirrored my own experiences with Oral IV.
Last year, during the 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge, I used a packet, or four tubes, of Oral IV. I also consumed at least twenty liters of water, most of which was infused with Squinchers electrolyte powder. I felt no immediate boost when I used the Oral IV tubes (which I did not mix with water but instead drank as a discrete unit), which I used rather randomly throughout the event. I did notice that I felt weaker at the end of the event, several hours after I had run out of Squinchers powder and was using water alone. This may also be partially due to the fact that I had just hiked 30+ miles without sleep over what was essentially mountainous terrain. Oh, and it was uphill both ways, although there was no snow.
The author hydrating near the beginning of the event.
Thus concludes my experiences with Oral IV.
When dealing with heat casualties as a Corpsman, I always preferred to have conscious patients who could keep fluids down drink water and/or Gatorade. I found that this was at least as effective in returning someone to near-full-health as spending the time to drop an IV in them - and the one time I had upwards of a dozen people badly needing fluid replacement out of twenty-six guys, I could only take the time to put a liter of LR (lactated ringers) in the most serious casualties.
In other words, my entirely anecdotal experiences have led me to believe that drinking water and keeping electrolytes in your system - giving your body the materials to replenish itself the way your genetic makeup intended - is the best way to keep yourself from being taken out of the fight or competition via dehydration. Other sciency-type articles have been written about this. Oral IV does not appear to aid this process in any material fashion.
Beirut, A City Of Contrast
I grew up hearing tales of Beirut from my parents, who worked there in the '70s; it became an imperative that I visit the city as well. I had no memories for comparison, but I could tell that it was an incredible example of the way cultures can come together in one small area. What follows are photographs I took of Beirut, mostly at night as I walked around the city. I will also include some brief comments.
Overall, it was a study in contrast.
This dilapidated building was across the street (literally) from a world-class medical clinic, just down the road from the American University of Beirut, and in front of that modern apartment building under construction.
Farther east, a very cosmopolitan street that would have been at home in the trendy part of any Western European city, lined with shops and crawling with stylish people, lay not very far from a huge - and beautiful - mosque.
This, the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque, was probably one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen in my life. It reminded me of the "Blue Mosque" in Fallujah, except this one didn't have bullet holes.
In the shadow of the giant mosque lay a tiny church. I would've investigated further, but this area was fenced off - this is as close as I could approach.
The mosque was rather close to several construction projects which looked positively third world in quality and design. Within a short walk was the Four Seasons (no, I wasn't staying there).
I was on my way to a concert at a church, and encountered this shopping area as I reached my destination. It offered top fashion brands and was several hundred yards past a very seedy and mostly abandoned part of town in which dirty, smelly men gave me the evil eye.
Inside the church - at which I arrived late because I was photographing stray cats - hundreds of people had packed themselves in to see the famous composer Abdel Rahman El Bacha perform.
I had to sit on the floor behind a pillar for most of the concert, but that was just fine; the acoustics were wonderful and I spent most of my time listening to his music with my eyes closed.
After the concert, I went to a strange bar atop a strange restaurant, inside which I was clearly not very welcome, and had a subpar grasshopper. I can't blame them, it may very well have been the first grasshopper ordered in the country since the Lebanese Civil War.
Passing by the big mosque again, I encountered Roman ruins near the aforementioned cosmopolitan street.
Remarkably well preserved baths. I sent one photo to an archaeologist friend and she identified where I was within minutes. I guess there aren't many of these around any more.
The next morning, I awoke before sunrise and wandered off to find things to take photographs of and eat, not necessarily in that order.
This fisherman seemed to be relatively content to have me photograph him for a few minutes.
I then fed my pita addiction while enjoying a spectacular view of those huge rocks, the sea, and aircraft landing at the international airport.
Another long walk was the Beirut National Museum, which had been essentially destroyed during the civil war. It showcased a breathtaking (to me) assortment of artifacts spanning thousands of years of human history. I had the entire place to myself. In the gift shop, I bought postcards and sent them to a few people who requested a postcard from Lebanon on the blog's Facebook page. It took over a month for them to arrive.
Not far from my hotel, this (used?) car dealer had some pretty fancy rides sitting on a street that had seen better days. Along with the latest fashions, large portions of Beirut seemed obsessed with showing off how well-to-do they were... as they stepped through trash and muddy water and sometimes animal fecal matter which littered much of the city's streets.
One thing not shown in these photos is the extremely heavy security presence; comparable to that of Tunisia during the Arab Spring revolt. Several months before my visit, the Lebanese intelligence minister had been killed in a massive car bomb attack. Some of the soldiers and police were polite and conversational with me; others were condescending or even openly hostile towards my presence. Many military posts consisted of bombed-out, bullet-riddled buildings in the middle of otherwise rather nice areas of town.
After spending a considerable amount of time in the city, I could see why Beirut was the stuff of legends. But I found the Lebanese countryside to be far more welcoming and attractive. See my photos of Lebanon's historical sites for more on that topic.
Credibility In The Gun World
You will notice that this blog often goes several days or weeks without updates. This is most often because I don't have anything to say which is worth a blog post. When I do have minor thoughts, I post them on Facebook or occasionally Twitter, where such content belongs. I don't have any advertising on this blog and it doesn't matter to me how many people visit it on a daily basis.
This is not the model followed by many other firearm-related blogs. I have no disdain whatsoever for those who post more than I do, but I do take issue with people who blow hot air when they should be listening and learning.
Yes, I venture into dangerous territory here, but there are some websites which focus on producing a massive volume of content at the risk of sacrificing quality, basic journalistic principles, and even common sense. I've written about guns.com before, and after reading a few things over the last few days, I have some comments about "TTAG" (The Truth About Guns) as well.
In response to a short article - part of a series - by Tim Lau on Modern Service Weapons about the Colt M45 CQBP handgun, TTAG lifted a few paragraphs from the article and commented sarcastically about both Mr. Lau's comments on 1911 reliability and 10-8's decision to not publish their function test protocol for the 1911. On the surface, the latter point seems to have merit - why wouldn't they publish the protocol? But they explain it in a way that makes sense to me - the test outside of its proper context is meaningless.
I understood immediately. It is important to step back and understand all factors relating to the performance of a firearm. Years of experience with the observation of a certain firearm are not easily compressed into a 500 or 1000 word blog post. Mr. Lau and Mr. Hilton choose to observe their test protocol firsthand, and I fully believe that they are in the right when they do so.
Of course, if one does not know the background of Tim Lau and Hilton Yam, it sounds suspicious. This is where that "journalistic integrity" thing comes in: if TTAG had bothered to mention that MSW is run by a pair of guys who teach courses specific to the 1911, their readers might have seen the comments about 1911 reliability in a different light. Similarly, their expertise regarding the 1911 platform explains their development of a test protocol specifically related to that firearm, and their decision not to release that protocol would have been, at the very least, better understood, if not fully accepted by all.
But that wouldn't have gotten very much traffic, so instead, TTAG chose to stir up their reader base by publishing a few paragraphs from an article, accompanied by cryptic and snide remarks about the source. Naturally, the people who choose to read TTAG attacked Mr. Lau on a variety of fronts (Ironically, one of the commenters pointed to some of my previous work as an example of how things should be done).
TTAG then doubled down on their retardation by publishing a comment which could have easily been written in 1992 - a further attack on Mr. Lau and that one paragraph about the 1911 - as a separate blog post. It, naturally, received lots of admiration from the TTAG faithful, who again ignored the fact that Mr. Lau is a subject matter expert on the 1911. I don't always agree with what Mr. Lau or Mr. Hilton say or do, but I do respect their experience and opinions.
Keep in mind that TTAG is the same website which published an article about why people shouldn't use ARs for self defense - written by someone with literally zero background in the offensive or defensive use of any type of firearm... which brings me back to my opening thoughts.
There are firearm-related blogs which yearn for mass appeal and end up being purveyors of garbage. I've written about this before, and I am sure that I will do so again. I don't expect this article to have any major impact. I don't expect my work to have the mass appeal of TTAG or Guns.com. Frankly, I don't want that. But if I've educated a few people about how dangerous it is to confuse enthusiasm for expertise, I will have succeeded.