Arisaka

When Dad came home from Tokyo in 1946 he brought a few souvenirs with him, an Arisaka 99 being one of them.  When he died, he left it to my nephew, who doesn't care about guns.  So it came to live with me.

The Arisaka rifle was named after Colonel Nariakara Arisaka, who headed a commission during the 1890s that was tasked with developing a new model rifle to replace older ones.  Arisakas were designated with the year of the current emperor's reign.  Thus, the Arisaka Type 38 rifle was designed in the 38th year of the reign of Emperor Meiji (1852 - 1912), and the Type 44 was adopted in the 44th year of his reign.   Under his grandson Hirohito, the rifles were designated by the last one or two digits of the model adoption year:  the Type 99 was adopted in the Japanese calendar year 2599, Western calendar year 1939.

The Arisaka Type 38, which first went into use in 1905, was the rifle of choice for the Japanese army for 30 years.  But during the Sino-Japanese War, which began in 1937, the Chinese 7.9 mm cartridge made the Japanese rethink the 38's 6.5 mm round and work began on a replacement cartridge.  The 7.7 x 58 mm cartridge resulted, and the Type 99 evolved out of the Type 38, chambering the new cartridge.   

As anyone who wants to shoot one of these knows, the 7.7 Arisaka cartridge, although available, is expensive.  But fortunately, Murphy's Law is an expert on making Arisaka ammo out of 30-06 cases and he took time out from his frantic packing before he left and gave me a hands-on demo that resulted in me having about 80 rounds.  And so I finally got the 99 out yesterday.

I don't know anything about the gun except it came back with Dad.  Fortunately, various stamps told me a fair amount.

First, apparently these symbols say that it was an early 1939 version:

They did a good job of grinding off the chrysanthemum that indicated that the gun belonged to the emperor - you really can't see where it was unless the light hits it just right.  It would have looked like this, otherwise:

It was made at the Nagoya Arsenal:

The stamp to the left of the serial number shows that it was from the series 5 run:

Its serial number is actually 75473, but it was number 75474 of the run.  Each series was run in a block of 100000, starting at 0.  Series 5 came off the line in 1943.

Initially, the 99 came with an attached monopod and with flip up anti-aircraft sights.  Mine lacks the monopod and I don't see any sign of an attachment, but the sights are still intact.  I need to be careful of them - I'm betting they snap off way  too easily.

It was also the first mass produced infantry rifle to have a chrome lined bore.  I can't take a pic of that, but I can tell you that it's really bright and shiny in there.  Bright, shiny, and as far as I can see as I wave it at the light, clean and lacking pits.  The cleaning rod is still with it, but it's been bent.  I've fiddled with it just a little to see if it would slide out, but no go and I'm not forcing it.

There are details that show that it was made before exterior quality dropped.  The butt plate is a bolted on piece of steel rather than wood nailed on, and the bolt is much nicer than the rough, slap-dash looking ones turned out later in the war.

The wood is pretty beat up.  I don't know how much of that happened before it left Japan.  It sat in the corner of Grandma's house for about 50 years and "soldier" was our favorite game when growing up.  Grandma's farm might not have looked much like Pacific jungles, but we fought plenty of imaginary battles there and the Arisaka got dragged all over the place.

I took the dust cover off because it was mostly a nuisance.  But the bayonet is left off because I'd probably stab something accidentally with it.

I treated it somewhat more gently than in years past when I took it out to see what it would do when it could actually go BANG.  I set up on the 100 yard line and, assuming it had a default sighting of 300 yards, aimed very low.  The trigger is a really hard pull for me and it has a bit of a kick, but not as much of a thump as a Girand.  I like the heft and feel of the gun.  But five precious rounds later I hadn't even put a shot on the cardboard, let alone the target.  Fa.  Moved over to the 50 yard line.  Ah!  Much better.  I didn't have any support so I was wandering a bit, but I think once I convert the legs of my torn up blue jeans to sand bags things will get better.

Now I need to get dies and a case trimmer and turn out enough ammo to keep this good old gun in action.

Good Friday

There are so many attacks that you lose your ability to be aware of all of them.   The big ones are newsworthy for a while: Paris, Brussels.   A massive Easter bombing targeting Christian women and children  - 65 dead in Lahore, Pakistan, just because they were Christians.

The stats for the week of March 19 through March 25 alone:

Attacks:                21
Killed:                191
Injured:              386
Suicide Blasts:       8
Countries:            10

The toll for a full 30 days prior to March 25:

Attacks:                 147
Killed:                 1169
Injured:                3221
Suicide Blasts:        36
Countries:               25

The smaller ones get lost in the news flow.  Like the attack on a nursing home run by Sisters of Charity in Yemen.

On March 4, ISIS soldiers entered the compound of the nursing home, specifically looking for the nuns.  They first killed a guard and a driver.  Five Ethiopian Christians were killed as they ran to warn the nuns.  Four of the five nuns were located, tied, shot through the head, and had their heads smashed in.  A fifth escaped.

Sixteen, including several of the elderly the nuns cared for, were murdered that day.  And their priest was taken.  Rather than fleeing, Father Tom Uzhunnllil stayed to consume the consecrated hosts rather than leave the Blessed Sacrament to be treated sacrilegiously.  

ISIS declared that Father Tom would be tortured and crucified on Good Friday.   A Dubai-based prayer group with ties to the Missionary of Charity group in Yemen says that they carried out that threat.  May Father Tom rest in peace.

And may the very foolish who think they are safe from death at the hands of islam wake up soon. About half of muslims living in the US want sharia law.  About half of those who want sharia believe that the violence is an acceptable way to bring that about. Taqiyya could well mean, however, that the numbers are greater than that - lying to a poll would be quite acceptable.  And it is quite public now that there are muslim terrorist cells in every state in the US.

No atrocities are being committed in the name of Judaism.  Or of Lutheranism.  Of Mormonism, or Buddhism.  It wasn't a Presbyterian who stabbed another muslim to death in Scotland for wishing Christians "Happy Easter."  The smug left needs to stop asking "Why do they hate us?" and looking for welfare state and "let's be nice to them" solutions.  They hate us because we are not them.  Period. And given the opportunity they will brutalize us and our children for that reason and that reason alone.

"A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."

Today

A Breath of Reality

Which, of course, will cause a great deal of puckered butts, fluttering stomachs, noses in the air, and screeching.

The American College of Pediatricians has issued a report to educators and legislators that states that “a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex” is dangerous for children.  Among the things that they point out that are obvious but not so clear to the biology-challenged:

"Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of health – not genetic markers of a disorder. The norm for human design is to be conceived either male or female. Human sexuality is binary by design with the obvious purpose being the reproduction and flourishing of our species. This principle is self-evident. The exceedingly rare disorders of sex development (DSDs), including but not limited to testicular feminization and congenital adrenal hyperplasia, are all medically identifiable deviations from the sexual binary norm, and are rightly recognized as disorders of human design. Individuals with DSDs do not constitute a third sex."

 ...

"A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such. These children suffer from gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria (GD), formerly listed as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a recognized mental disorder in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V).5 The psycho-dynamic and social learning theories of GD/GID have never been disproved."

...

"Rates of suicide are twenty times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery, even in Sweden which is among the most LGBQT – affirming countries.11 What compassionate and reasonable person would condemn young children to this fate knowing that after puberty as many as 88% of girls and 98% of boys will eventually accept reality and achieve a state of mental and physical health?" 

... 

"Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse."

But this is the era of feelings and this will hurt feelings.  The authors had best be prepared for vicious attacks. They had better be ready for legal action from the Obama administration.  The media has already made heroes of people who have demanded that their 9 year old boy or girl be allowed to live as the opposite sex forever and ever amen.  In reality those parents should have been called out as the disgraceful self-serving media whores that they are.  And their children should have been removed from their homes and placed in the care of real adults who understand the basics of xx and xy chromosomes, penises, and vaginas.

The same people who are content to bludgeon people with "the science is settled" while using a 97% number that is derived from a 4% response to a single survey will also totally ignore the reality of chromosomes and biology.  And, unable to respond with reality, they will seek to destroy.  I hope the authors of this report have a backup career ready and that they understand that they will now need to watch their backs.

h/t Breitbart and Creative Minority Report

I Also Wonder...

... if those who say that pausing immigration is racist would feel the same if the screams of children that can be heard on the Brussels videos were those of their own children or grandchildren.

And, by the way, it IS quite possible to wage war against a religion.  The liberals, the Democrat Party led by Obama, have been doing it for years.  Which is how thousands of exemptions to Obamacare have been issued but the admin has refused to give the same exemptions to groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor.   And why Dems are just fine with that.

I Wonder...

If James Taylor is on his way to Belgium to sing them another warm and fuzzy song?

Yes, I Did Finish My Talk

And gave it.  Murphy's Law and Rebecca even came to give me moral support.  ML only smirked once, and that was at a point I knew he'd appreciate so I was watching him out of the corner of my eye when I got to it.

I'm not going to copy it into the blog because it's 19 double-spaced pages.  Also because I'd be cut-and-pasting out of Word and I bet that would put weird codes into Blogger and drive me crazy trying to edit the html.  So here's a link to it instead:  The Sacraments of Initiation Plus One.

The problem, as I mentioned before, was not in lack of material but in distilling an abundance of it down to a half hour.  Scripture, Patristic Literature, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (which is itself based on and cross-referenced to thousands of years of thought), just scratching the surface of the books we have available in our church library - I went through dozens of those colored, sticky page markers.

It was written to be spoken, so there's spots in it that could have been neatened up if I was really publishing it but I didn't bother.

And if you read it, you may also catch a Philips, Craig, and Dean reference:

Harumph!

Obviously no one was listening when I said "No!"

Good Bye

...to one of the best friends a person could have.  And his doggies.

March In The Mid-Atlantic Region

Consumed

My life is.  By my presentation.  You'd think I was back in college working on a final paper.  Any time that doesn't have to be spent doing something else is being used to research or scribble.  And erase. And then scribble some more.  My books are full of little colored page markers as I sift through it all. 15 double spaced pages, and I'm projecting at least 3 more. Then I have to test the timing.  My brain is melting.

Just Thinkin'...

... that it's safe to assume that all those involved with the sturm and drang over Trump's supposed acceptance of racist endorsements have also been campaigning to get Bobby Byrd's name stripped off buildings, highways, etc. over here in WV.

Buehler? Hello?