PETN - Plastic & Nuclear Explosives & Heart Medicine:

PETN is Pentaerythritol tetranitrate  aka PENTA or Penthrite - and is used in harpoon grenades to more quickly terminate the giant whales.

It is a very stable explosive not much affected by water that is also used to produce a type of "plastic explosive". - Like nitroglycerin it is also used as a heart medication that expands blood vessels by releasing nitric oxide into the body.

"Zut alors" - here's another fine instance of a 'thing' (PENTA) functioning as both naughty or nice .. explosive or life-saving medication. 

Early whaling Harpoon cannons were black powder - later nitro - the earliest harpoon iterations were of course hand thrown.

(I don't consider whale hunting for food to be morally any different to other forms of hunting ... however industrial scale commercial slaughter of endangered species is plain stupid. - Of course there are plenty of greedy plain-stupid people around.)

Sealing & Whaling was what brought early Europeans down to New Zealand and our stormy antarctic cold 'Roaring Forties' oceans.

Early Greener Bow-Swivel Harpoon Gun.

Radio NZ has recently serialized 'THOR'S TALE' by Janice Marriott about whaling on South Georgia Island and Shackleton's 1914-17  ill fated 'Endurance' expedition to Antarctica.

 - Ernest Shackleton died of a heart attack on South Georgia in January 1922 when attempting a further Antarctic journey .. he is buried there.

________________

Penta based explosives are difficult to detect with dogs because it doesn't readily vaporize into the air much at all. It was first patented in Germany in 1894 and served them well through both world Wars. It is classed as a High Brisance Secondary Explosive

PETN is the explosive of choice used in EBW Exploding Bridgewire Detonators .. used to initiate plutonium core  NUCLEAR WEAPON WARHEADS.

 It keeps exotic company, as the bridgewire is usually made of gold, platinum - or gold/platinum alloys can also be used. The wires vaporise under high voltage producing the high temperature shock wave that starts the PETN explosive that starts the nuclear fusion or fission.

18 kilometer (11 mile) high Nagasaki Mushroom Cloud.

Marty K.

2018 Doomsday Clock has Moved To 2 Minutes To Midnight Under Donnie Trump.

 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board

NEVADA's Forgotten M 1873 Winchester :

We up here in The HURUNUI just 'enjoyed' a wake-up jolt - 4.2 strength earthquake one minute before 8 in the evening ... Just enough to remind us that it's still the "Shakey Isle" outside 😏. 

In November 2014 archaeologists working in GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK in Nevada's Snake Mountains spotted a very unexpected item leaning against a juniper tree "in the middle of nowhere". The Model 1873 Winchester was in a very "weathered" condition with it's butt plate sunken into the ground litter.

 Despite thorough research very little has been found of the rifles's history - other than it being sold out of the Winchester warehouse in 1882.

 This model 1873 is in 44-40 caliber and was taken to the Cody Firearms Museum for examination. When x-rayed at a nearby hospital - the magazine was found to be unloaded - but a single cartridge was shown in the stock..

 "The images quickly assured the Center’s employees that the gun was not loaded, but did have a cartridge in the trap of the butt stock.

The door to the butt stock was loosened with a drop of penetrating oil, and the object was removed and identified as a Union Metallic Cartridge Company .44 WCF cartridge, dated 1887 – 1911. To stop further flaking of the wood, Perkins used an adhesive (2% Klucel G hydroxypropylcellulose) mixed in distilled water and ethanol."

 Union Metallic Cartridge Company .44 WCF cartridge, dated 1887 – 1911. 

The relic rifle has been displayed in the Cody Firearms Museum and now has been returned as an exhibit at the Great Basin National Park Headquarters.

More than 720,000 of this lever-action rifle were built .. and Hollywood likes to call them "The Gun That Won The West" (- But the Sharps Model 1874 might argue that historic point.)

Eva Jensen - Who Found The Rifle.

How a Model Winchester 1873 Should Look.

I was reminded of this forest find with an unknown history while reading a motorbike trail riding adventure called 'Alone Across America' by Nate Bercopec.

Marty K.

Spring Loaded Revolver Grip & Taurus Spectrum:

What's happened with LYMAN'S GUARDIAN extending grip PINKIE SUPPORT for small pocket carry revolvers?

I was desperately 'Googling' "NEW GUNS" and finding nothing new when I spotted a review of a $50 after-market grip that morphs from a two-finger size to a decent three-finger grip when you grab and squeeze it. Too small of a grip can cause control issues for anyone with largish hands eh.

- WOW at last something innovative from the gun industry to show you. Touted on their web-site for both the S&W J-Frames and for the Ruger LCR (.. grip unavailable).

I could be wrong (again) but the Lyman/Pachmayr design seems maybe to have sunk without trace since introduction back in 2017. It certainly isn't being promoted for other revolver brands.

What's Inside.

Made from hard polymer - my feeling is that such a hard plastic grip might be better presented and better liked if it had an applied "soft-touch elastomer" - a 'rubberized' coating - maybe in a color highlight ..

.. like the Taurus SPECTRUM has.

The Taurus SPECTRUM comes in a full spectrum of color choices with it's over-molded elastomer pads - this gun seems to have been brilliantly styled & designed as a smooth contoured user-friendly - light-recoiling locked breech .380" ACP

.. BUT .. The US market will want this piece for EDC & as a back-up gun - it must go BANG when needed - every time. - It is priced well at around US $300.

It might be important to note that Taurus themselves may have doubts .. as they have reduced their 'for ever' guarantee to only one year for this model.

... Just more stuff that our authorities won't want us to have due to a short "inside leg" measurement (2.8 inch barrel),

Marty K.

Arming The British Home Guard 1940-1944:

More than 1,600,000 men & women served unpaid in Britain's World War II Home Guard.

The Home Guard officially disbanded 31 December 1945 but had "stood down" in late 1944  .. however back in 1940 there were only two things able to stop a German airborne invasion of Britain - Fighter Command and the  Local Defence Volunteers / HOME GUARD on the ground.

Messerschmitt  Me-321 Transport Carrier of WWII.

This link takes you to a site where you can down-load a 335 page thesis by D M Clark called ARMING THE BRITISH HOME GUARD 1940-1945.

https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/6164

1,206 members of The Home Guard died while on duty - often through deadly bombing raids.

Cosmoline Stored - Home Guard M 1917  30-06  '.300" Rifle'. From US.

 - Although Often Disliked - The 30-06 Ballistics Were Superior to The .303"

The .455" Caliber Webley Was The Most Common of Home Guard Handguns

- but .45"s, .38"s , .380"s and .32"s plus .32" "Automatics" were Plentiful Too.

Home Guard 30-06 Caliber M1918 BARs (They Had More Than 23,000)

Thompson sub-machine guns, STENS, Vickers, Browning BMGs & BARs, - plus improvised weapons all came into their hands - from shotguns and satchel-charges ... to the No.74 ST Sticky Bomb - ready for invasion.

Petrol Warfare weapons ranged from Molotov Cocktails (glass bottles filled with jellied Petrol mixtures) through to large flame-throwers - 'Nuttall Flamethrowers' - the Harvey flamethrower, - and anti-tank FOUGASSES,

The FOUGASSE Anti-Tank Mine was Built From Four 50 Gallon Drums of a 40-60 Petrol-Oil Mix - Ignited & Thrown Forward By Detonator Charges.

The Home Guard was in some instances - where located in the path of the expected invasion - better armed than some regular army groups - and the author rightly points-out that the excellent TV comedy series 'DAD'S ARMY' does discredit the essential nature of these part-time fighters ...in the same way that 'Allo-Allo' takes the 'Night'awk' out of the French Resistance movement.

- No "sticky" glue 'birdlime' applied yet to the woolen sock in this image.

"Tank Hunters" 
I've seen the No.74 ST Sticky Grenade named on an American website as the "stupidest weapon" - that guy should look in a mirror - as the sticky-bomb was an extremely CLEVER 'squash-head' (shaped-charge) anti-tank weapon - effective on up to 1 inch thick steel armor - and more than 2 1/2 million of them were made. Link to an interesting tale of "needs must":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_bomb

Chapter 9 concerns the Auxiliary Units and their issued 'specialist' weapons such as 'silenced' .22" Rifles (The DeLisles were developed rather later) for assassinating sentries and traitors .. three types of fighting knives*, garrottes, and rubber coshes .. plus a variety of handguns including, later, the Welrod pistol and silenced STEN Guns.

The WELROD Bolt-Action Silenced Pistol was Built (Mk.II) in .32" ACP With an 8 shot Magazine & in 9x19 mm - 6 Round Mag.(Mk.I)

Designed by Major Hugh Reeves of Station IX in Welwyn .. 

- who also Designed The similar single shot 'Sleeve Gun'.

* 14 variations of the Fairburn Sykes (FS), the 'Smatchet', and the early Wilkinson RBD "bowie" hunting knives

Marty K.

PRIVATE MILITARY & SECURITY CONTRACTORS:

Wikipedia asserts that - like many of the worlds "evils" -  the British (in the form of Sir David Stirling of the SAS) started all this 'Corporate Mercenary' money-making.

 - As a Lieutenant-Colonel  Stirling was founder of the WWII SAS - Being short of equipment, particularly tents and related gear, at the outset when they set up base in Egypt at Kibrit Air Base - their first operation as the new SAS was to relieve a nearby well-equipped New Zealand regiment of tents, bedding, tables, chairs, numerous other supplies, including a piano. After at least four trips, they had a well stocked camp.

- Stirling together with John Woodhouse formed WATCHGUARD INTERNATIONAL as a private military company in the 1960s.

Privatized soldiering has been around 'for ever' .. but it's organisation into legitimate Business Corporations is prospering under "Free Market" politics - and that whole privatization climate supports it's success.

Halliburton, Blackwater USA (Intl,), Vinnell, Military Professional Resources Inc., G4S, DynCorp, Aegis Defense Services, STTEP, Executive Outcomes, International Intelligence Limited, ... are perhaps names you may have heard - but there are hundreds.

Currently - PMSCs 'Private Military & Security Contractors' are operational in about 50 conflict zones spread around all continents (except Antarctica). Their popularity with Right Wing 'Neo-Liberal' politicians is understandable.

The privatization of formerly State controlled organizations of course directly releases large contract profit opportunities into private hands - while when used to replace military it also lets them claim that they "are bringing the boys back home." -  but more importantly for the pollies, it distances their privateering asset grabs from being seen as overt government action. "Who? - Me?"

The denationalizing of Iraqi hydrocarbons - "Black Gold" is as yet incomplete because of the continuing fighting there - ExxonMobil, Shell, BP & Chevron are in place there waiting with Halliburton for the killing and "this threat to national security" in Iraq to end so that they can seal the deal and issue shares.

A 'Blackwater' Team in Afghanistan:

What's the prize in Afghanistan then you ask? ...Afghanistan has rich deposits of minerals such as lithium, used in batteries; uranium; magnesite; and “rare earth elements”, critical metals used in high technology from defense to electronics. - One estimate of the value of mineral deposits in Helmand province alone is 1 trillion dollars.

Let's try The Republic of Congo for it's pay chest ... beneath the Congo's moist & warm soil lay abundant deposits of copper, gold, diamonds, cobalt, uranium, coltan and oil - just some of the minerals that should make it one of the world's richest countries. - Instead the locals continue to die by thousands while some Brits complain of too many refugees heading for Europe " .. they come over here ..."

"Coltan" - source of Niobium (or "Columbium") - and Tantalum

(It's also mined in Colombia, Venezuela, & Brazil.)

(It's inside your smart phone)

How about that nasty wee war in YEMEN & Aden where Kratos Technology & DynCorp have replaced 'Academi'(Blackwater) ? - what's that all about? - well there's plenty of "pay dirt" in this desert nation - oil, natural gas, gold and silver, copper, lead, magnesium, nickel, platinum-group metals (PGM), tin, and zinc - BUT the big deal is Yemen's location on The Gulf of Aden where all that middle-eastern OIL has to flow past on it's way to market.

YEMEN - Looking Good Enough to Fight Over?

"Where's MY Facilitation Payment?"

I've known a couple of (ex NZ SAS) security contractors - decent fit guys - good with handguns - but I'm guessing that they might fail in their ethics tests.

Marty K.

A GUN FACT Fest. (NZ version)

If any reader doesn't like these following FACTS ... please check for yourself eh:

There are calculated to currently be more than ONE BILLION FIREARMS on Earth.
(400 Million in US civilian hands)

The population of America (USA) is less than five percent (5 %) of the worlds population.
- as I write, - the US population is 326.9 Million and rising.

World Population = 7.638 BILLION .. and also rising.

“I have a very strict gun control policy:

 - if there’s a gun around I want to be in control of it.”

Clint Eastwood - who is now 88 years old is actually "middle-of-the-road" regarding firearms law - & supports reasonable regulation.

The Christchurch (South Island New Zealand) Firearms Office is the busiest in our country.
A Police Firearms Licence is REQUIRED here to own any firearm .. Licenses are issued to 'Fit & proper persons' to own & shoot handguns, rifles & shotguns for sporting purposes.

 There are said to be 230,000 Licensed Firearms users in NZ with an estimated 1.5 million guns.
 - But the number of people applying for gun licences has increased by more than 50 percent in the past year. Police figures show the number of applications has jumped from 21,000 in 2014 to 34,000 this year.

- New Zealand population is 4.7 Million (- 0.6 percent of the world's population.)

There is in New Zealand Law THE RIGHT to own firearms for Self Defense.
(Article 7 - Bill of Rights 1688 - February 13)
& (NZ Imperial Laws Application Act 1988.)
(This RIGHT is currently disputed by some Police Administrators)

- New Zealand's "Traditionally Unarmed Police" (claimed) was established in 1846 as THE ARMED POLICE FORCE (APF) ..becoming The Armed Constabulary in 1867 & they then became known as 'New Zealand Police' in 1958.

Our NZ Police are under multiple stresses with under-resourcing, recruitment issues, & are having difficulties releasing facts regarding firearms crime here. NZ gun crime is at a very low level.

One current issue within NZ Police is as below:

"Statement from Police Commissioner" Monday 23 July 2018

Attribute to Commissioner Mike Bush:

The Government has today announced details of the inquiry into the process that led to the appointment of Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha.

_________

New Zealand is the only country where the introduced TAHR may be legally hunted.

- There is plenty of opportunity & variety in shooting & hunting here in New Zealand. - Red Deer, Fallow & other species like 'Whitetail' - wild boar - Ducks & wild fowl in season - "rough shooting" - pest control for Rabbits, Pig, -  Ring Tail Possums - Wallaby, wild Turkey in areas.

(Good Trout, Salmon - sea & game fishing in season too)

________

BILLIONAIRES: Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon - is now worth $151 Billion - what a synthetic way of life .. what's the point of more - when the world's poor are starving?

________

Our NZ high bush-clad and steep back country is very beautiful - but can be dangerous to the unwary with rapid weather changes and harsh conditions. - New Zealand is well named both "the Shaky Isles" and "the Windy Isles". - River crossing can be hazardous and used to be called "The New Zealand Death".

There certainly is increasingly population pressure and other restrictions being applied to sport shooting here. But there are many active Full Bore & Small Bore Rifle shooting Clubs -Shotgun 'Trap shooting' and ranges - while Target Pistol shooting on approved club ranges is a growing activity under PISTOL NZ control.

UK Population Density   : per sq.kilometer = 255.  per.sq.mile= 660
NZ Population Density: per.sq.kilometer =  16.    per.sq.mile=  41
Australia    "          "        : per sq.kilometer =   3.4. per.sq.mile=    8.8 (Big Red Center Empty)
USA           "          "       : per.sq.kilometer =  33.   per.sq.mile=  85

- That's 16 times as many poms to the square inch as kiwis. - We "Kiwis" are very lucky to be living here and now.

____________

Military Budgets: The US military spend every year - $601 BILLION - is greater than the next nine largest nations COMBINED: Link:

https://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-worlds-20-strongest-militaries-ranked-2015-9/?r=AU&IR=T/#1-united-states-20

External DEBT (US$) per head:
Ireland= $458,278. 
UK= $151,067. 
Australia= $67,647. 
US= $49,961. 
NZ= $18,639.
(- this is some sort of 'indicator') (The Irish got well fecked by the BANKERS & Right-Wing politicians)

Marty K.

More from the bullshit detector ..

Britain's "Ancient seat of democracy" - The Palace of Westminster aka The Houses of Parliament is a replacement actually built between 1840-1876 and is owned by the (unelected) Queen.
- while we're thinking about these icons of tourism - that medieval Gothic stone Tower Bridge is actually a steel built suspension bridge opened in 1894.

Yeup - there are two-plus-two towers.

Ideal Conceal 'CELL PHONE' Pistol:

They're shipping in US ...

Technically it's a two shot "Derringer" with a fold-out grip .. and 'Ideal Conceal' are selling them for $395.  That seems to me to be a decent price as long as they are well built & functional.

Link to TFB video with the gun on the range:

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2018/07/27/tfbtv-the-cell-phone-gun-ideal-conceal-380-derringer-pistol/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheFirearmBlog+%28The+Firearm+Blog%29

- Of course there will be sad sighs from kiwis and poms who have no chance of owning one legally.

.. take a look at the makers web site:

https://www.idealconceal.com/

Marty k.