I am suffering from a short attention-span. Bear with me.
Mrs ERJ's van puked while Kubota was driving it. We assumed it was a goner. 280k miles. Kubota is not a gentle driver. We assumed the obvious.
We took it to Wilder's Automotive in Eaton Rapids. I was hoping it was "only" coil packs. Jesse could have soaked me.
The bill was about $70. The air intake duct was torn (How did THAT happen!?!?) and the air filter was plugged with mosquitoes and other debris.
There are two very basic strategies for determining the stoichiometric amount of fuel to inject. The most robust method is to use a look-up table where manifold absolute pressure and engine RPM are referenced. The table is updated based on O2 sensor information to incorporate system degradation due to catalytic converter breakdown, clogged filters, changes in the caloric content of the fuel, elevation and so-on.
The other method is a version of hot-wire anemometry. A post covered with a metalized film is positioned in the incoming air stream. Current is passed through the film to heat it. A circuit keeps the post at constant temperature, cleverly using the fact that the the resistance of the film changes as a function of temperature. For whatever reason, this method seems to be the preferred method today.
Mrs ERJ's minivan uses the hot-wire anemometry method. The torn air intake duct was near the sensor/post and the turbulence from the tear caused the software to have a psychotic break with reality.
The good news is that Mrs ERJ's ride is back on the road and it did not cost an arm-and-leg. Thanks Jesse!
Mom
Five hours with Mom at the hospital.
I hate hospitals.
Four hours tomorrow.
Mulberries
I was running water out to the cattle today when I was scanning the tree-line on the west side of the pasture.
One of the trees had two kinds of leaves. The leaves on the lower part of the tree were deeply incised with sinuses. The leaves on the upper part were "entire".
It would appear that some time in the past I had grafted a branch to Illinois Everbearing Mulberry. Note to self: Prune out branches with incised leaves.
Festivus Games
Belladonna is excited about competing in something called the "Festivus Games".
Amos
The prophet Amos in the Old (aka Jewish) Testament was not a dresser of S'Mores, so just sweep visions of paper-doll clothing on graham crackers out of your head.
Jonesing
I am puzzling about "portfolios" of firearms that would be rational in some dystopian future.
Based on long-term, historical norms, large game like whitetail deer and hogs are very, very rare. Hungry people and all that.
If you can let go of the idea that you might need to slay a 200 pound buck or a 600 pound boar, then the next step-down (excepting humans) is a fifty-pound feral-dog or a 35 pound coyote or 20 pound raccoon.
Shotguns, God bless them, are not every economical from a lead consumption standpoint. The standard load for a 20 gauge uses 385 grains of lead and the standard load for a 12 gauge launches 495 grains of lead.
If you blank-out scatter-guns then history tells you that a rifle chambering similar to the .25-20 (85 grains at 1300 fps), .22 Hornet (40 grains at 2700 fps) are useful. Or, if you are a fan of roundballs and muzzleloading, rifles between .32" and .40" (between 50 grain and 95 grain projectiles at 1600 fps).
To the best of my knowledge, this niche is almost unoccupied by modern firearms.
.223 Rem bolt-actions might be close, especially if you are a reloader. There are break-action rifles in .357 Magnum (which can fire .38 Special) that are in-the-zipcode (125 grains anywhere between 800fps and 2000fps). There are specialty projectiles for .410 shotguns that come close and the M1 Carbine (100 grains at 2000fps)
But if you were to look at the mass-market, you would find a wide gap between the Ruger 10/22 and the AR platform or .243 Winchester firearms. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these platforms. It is just that there is a gap between them.
It gives me something to think about.
More food for thought--
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYk8fez2d0w
And don't forget the lowly 22 WMR.
Since I have a Marlin carbine in .357 mag plus a side arm I’d choose that. I could upgrade to 180 gr hard cast and with careful shot placement handle a moose too. The big problem I have found is that the carbine tends to jam with 38 special. I haven’t tried 38 loads with titegroup in .357 brass for small game and of course there is the side arm
ReplyDeleteIf .38 Special brass is easier to find than .357, it is possible to make loads with .357 Over All Cartridge Length with .38 brass. If you use cast bullets made with Lee Tumble Lube configuration, you can even crimp them pretty.
DeleteThe old writer Skeeter Skelton was a big fan of these and had take much game with them as well as much easier to find 38 special brass.
DeleteEnter the lowly 30-30 with a couple of boolit molds from 85-115gr and 150-180gr. Along with a pound of any fast pistol powder and several hundred primers and you are good to go for many years.
ReplyDelete7 grains of Unique behind a Lasercast 170 has been very accurate for me in a Marlin. It recoils like a .22 rimfire.
DeleteThere were good reasons that guns chambered in 25-20, 32-20, and bigger in 38-40 and 44-40 were so popular around the turn of the last century and used by my grandfathers and their generations. Easy to reload with black and numerous smokeless powders and cast bullets made them the ideal farmer/woodsman guns for those times. And maybe for times coming.---ken
ReplyDeleteI reloaded some 38-40 and the material in the necks is so thin that I crushed several of them trying to seat the bullets.
DeleteThe published ballistics of the 38-40 are close to the 40 S&W
Jonesing: While I agree in general, would it not be wise to have at least one not for general use capable to "reach out and touch someone" should the need arise? Just because Billy Dixon did it at Adobe Wells doesn't mean you can depend on short-range ballistics.
ReplyDeleteAmos: Unless this was a coded message (like BBC radio to agents in France in 1943), I'm completely lost. What is the reference to S'Mores? Paper dolls? Graham crackers?
Amos "dressed sycamores" which is now recognized as the scarring of the unfertilized fruit of the sycamore fig to convince the tree they have been pollinated. The obligate pollinator of the sycamore fig is a unique species of wasp and sycamore figs would not bear fruit unless they were scarred. How did they know?
ReplyDeleteS'mores are a camp-fire confection of melted marshmallows and chocolate bars smashed between graham crackers.
My kids heard the reading as "dresser of S'mores". I never had that problem because I was born before graham crackers were invented.
Graham crackers 1829 by Reverend Sylvester Graham.
Deletehttps://www.thoughtco.com/who-invented-graham-crackers-1991697
Funny
DeleteMy lovely wife read me her reading of the day, last night and I spent several minutes trying to figure out what that meant. Dressed sycamores indeed.
Glad the 'fix' was affordable!!!
ReplyDeletePortfolio thoughts. I would count dogs out but not hogs. From a community support perspective (vice individual preference) you'll add more value if your weapons choices mirrored that of the surviving community. In a life after the fall being of value to a community is essential. No sense in become less than useful and tempting folk with a plausable food group other than those you mentioned. In my mind a community will have need of three rifle calibers: 5.56, 7.62, and 22 LR. For sidearms I'd guess that 9mm would prevail. All of that other stuff is cool and knowing the ballistics tables for every load of every round is sporty, but when spicy time comes the community you join will want to make sure that should you go down they can grab your ammo and/or weapon and continue the fight. I do suppose that there are places out west where the terrain will allow/invite the use of a 50 cal, large Creedmore or Lapua round and I guess there are dense urban environments where the 7.62 just makes no sense. Having said all of this, if experimenting with loads and weights and trajectory gets you out to a range with weapons and you are moving projectiles down range then your skills will bring tremendous value to a group. You can grab a 5.56 from among the dead and keep on keeping on!
ReplyDeleteFor hogs I have found caliber to be invaluable. I've hunted with guys shooting .22 variants (AR and such) and the problem is, the hog fat closes around the wound, making it difficult to track. Angry hogs are hard enough to be squinting for some kind of blood sign. Better a larger caliber so the blood trail is obvious and bleedout is quick. JMHO
DeleteDonald Rumsfeld, "You go to war with the army you have".
ReplyDeleteToo bad it was an idiotic war.
Anyway, you buy what you can afford on a given day.
Back when surplus soviet 30 cal guns were cheaper, my friends acquired SKSs and Mosin Nagants. Surplus ammo, cast bullets and brass cases made for inexpensive shooting.
Then AR 15s got cheap, and plentiful.
It is worth knowing that hollow point varmint bullets REALLY enhance the terminal ballistics of 5.56 / .223 over mil spec ammunition that is in compliance with old treaties.
.22LR is a lovely meat getting round and the choice of assassins worldwide.