Open Carry - Oooops

We're relatively laid back about firearms in western Iowa, but we're not immune to the "OMG, he has a gun" mindset. 


The Clay County Sheriff's Office says it received a report shortly after 6:00 p.m. Friday of a man carrying a handgun in his pocket at the Quick Spot in Everly. Several witnesses reported seeing the gun.

There's much unreported about the man and the circumstances,  but it's a good reminder that  letting your thing stick out is going to result in phone calls and perhaps flashing blue lights and a ride to jail..

Iowa law is somewhat unclear on open carry, but it seems to be perfectly legal outside  incorporated towns and  almost universally illegal in them.  Open carry by  CCW holders in towns  is especially iffy. We are may-issue until January 1, and at least one sheriff has said that -- under the current law, anyway -- he would jerk the permit of any holder openly carrying inside city limits.

EDIT: Carrying in cars on the road is pretty clear. If you have a CCW, okay. If not the handgun must be unloaded and cased.  (Usual disclaimer that I'm no lawyer and the  information is for general information only.)

This fellow shows up clean in  the courts database except for two traffic violations, one in 2000, again in 2009. Both are for driving with no license.  Possibly no license issued, possibly just didn't have it with him.
.

I don't pass along much from other forums, but I liked one from  "Overheard in the News Room" well enough to make an exception.

Editor 1:  "What did we do before Google?"

Editor 2:  "Journalism."

Reloading note -- .45ACP cast bullets

An experiment with as-cast and unlubricated .45 ACP bullets did not work well.  We fired just over  50 mild --c. 725 fps -- rounds  last week. Accuracy was acceptable, given that the shooting was pretty casual, and there were no malfunctions.  But the leading was very bad. A stiff brush and Hoppes 9 removed only part of it, and I'm facing the need to use the hydrogen peroxide and vinegar trick.

These were cast from mill-run wheel weights with no additves, and that may be the problem. I read that wheel weights use far less tin and antimony than they did a few years ago.

To avoid the mess of lubing, I'm going to try a new batch made from the harder alloy I mixed last month. If those lead, I'll try pan-lubing and pray that's a solution. I really hate the idea of gettiing into the dedicated luber/sizer mess.

For what it's worth, I've been counting on the Lee  taper crimp die to do the final sizing, assuming it squeezes the bullet into dimension as it full-length sizes the entire finished round.

EDIT: Oh dang. I meant "boolits," of course, not bullets.

Just grumpy, I guess

Maybe it's just the backache, but I am a hostile man this morning, and the thing that's cocking my hammer is the concept of zoning laws. Why the Hell should should a  blob of politicians and their hired hands assume full authority over  everything a home owner wants to do around the place?

Answer: Because the local political blob listens to unfulfilled little old people with nothing  better to do than vote and bitch about  the way other people live.

I propose a better way.  End all zoning codes now. Create one single replacement sanctioning  Prolonged Gross and Insufferable Prickishness in Violation of Contemporary Community Standards.  The penalty for petty  complaints  would be high enough to discourage Aunt Tilly from calling the mayor in a fit of pique about the neighbors' yard-mowing habits.


The new law might also stifle these expensive and endless squabbles about whether your new storage shed will be six inches too close to the property line. What sentient life-form really gives a sweet rat's ass?

(No, nothing personal going on here, though if I decide to publicly explain the back ache I may have a bit to say about a strange disease wherein the mention of docks sends politicians into paroxysms  of applied  idiocy.)