Since pdb was kind enough to add me to his blogroll, and the hits have already started rolling in, I figure it’s probably a good idea to put up a little introductory note. I’ve been on the net for… well, probably about 12 years now, but never seriously blogged before. Hell, I’m not seriously blogging right now…

Anyways, I’d been squatting on the domain name for a while and I had some time to kill this afternoon and, well, one thing led to another. In a few quick minutes I’d opened a blogger account, scribbled the jibberish below about my ghetto trigger pull gauge and set up my domain name to redirect to the page you’re reading now.

In case you’re wondering, the blog title comes from Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If.”

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

Oh, and the tagline below it is randomly generated thanks to a little snippet of JavaScript I found floating around on the tubes; here to be exact. Go ahead, reload the page a half-dozen times or so. Amazing, isn’t it? And no, I did NOT come up with that feature just to rack up more hits, no matter what pdb says. Don’t listen to him. He lies.

I don’t have any specific format or focus in mind for the blog. Basically, if I think it’s interesting, and I’m sufficiently motivated to type it up, it’ll appear here. There will be gun and shooting-related stuff, of course. Probably some Linux, BSD, and open-source related material, too. Sushi? that’s a safe bet. Books, movies and music are fair game. Maybe the occasional entry about booze. Oh, and boobs. Gotta have boobs.

My fledgeling blogroll is on the right. By way of explanation:

pdb: For a guy who’s made it his life’s work to corrupt the hearts and mind’s of America’s tender, impressionable youths sell video games, he’s really a fairly decent sort.

Tamara: I think we first crossed paths years ago on The Firing Line. She knows more about guns than me and writes a helluva lot better, so I should hate her. On the other hand, she knows a ton about guns and she’s a great writer…

Billy Watson: Not only does he produce truly world-class smut, he’s also a literate, witty, and damn entertaining blogger. Good taste in music, too.

Gutrumbles: RIP Rob. He wrote a ton of great material, but the part that always comes to mind first is this bit from an entry entitled “Key Wasted:”

I’m not sure what all happened next, but I believe that tequila was involved. I made it back to the hotel late last night. I asked a couple in the lobby as I was checking out this morning about whether I showed my ass or not during my revelry. They told me that I staggered into the lobby the night before, took one look at the stairs, pointed an accusing finger at the steps and said, “FUCK THAT!” and rode the elevator up to the second floor.

Alright, that’s good enough for now. Stay tuned.

While chatting with my online buddy and fellow firearms enthusiast pdb this afternoon, I was suddenly struck by my annual Good Idea. I was beginning to worry, since it’s nearly November and, while I’d had (and acted on) plenty of Bad and Really Bad Ideas, the Good Idea was proving elusive. Oh, me of little faith…

So what’s the great idea? A trigger-pull gauge that cost me $0 and seems to be reasonably accurate and quite repeatable.

Part the First: Gathering the materials

1 - empty 2-liter pop bottle (here in the Midwest, it’s pop, not soda, dammit)
1 - regular wire coathanger
1 - 18″ strip of duct tape

Part the Second: Assembling the test apparatus

Use the duct tape to attach the 2-liter to the bottom of the coathanger, horizontally. Slightly straighten out the hook of the coathanger so it’s easier to fit through the trigger guard. That’s it. We’re not building a Saturn V here, kids.

Part the Third: Measure the damn thing already

Fill up the bottle. Put the cap on (Do I really need to spell that part out?). Clear the gun. Cock it, if necessary. Hold the gun, pointed straight up, and hang the coathanger from the middle of the trigger.

A liter of water weighs 2.2 lbs. Throw in an ounce or two for the bottle, hanger, and tape. If the trigger doesn’t trip on a full 2-liter bottle, your trigger is over 4.5 lbs or so. Get a bigger bottle and try again, or just head for the gunsmith. If the trigger DOES trip, you can pour water out of the bottle, a little at a time, and re-test until the trigger holds. Then figure out how much water is in the bottle and multiply by 2.2 lbs. Yeah, I know, I didn’t list a calculator on the materials list. Oops.

Actually, since most factory triggers are going to be well over 4.5 lbs these days, the $0 trigger pull gauge would be considerably more versatile with a gallon jug in place of the 2-liter bottle. However, I’m profoundly lazy and I didn’t happen to have a gallon jug handy. Such is life. For reference, a gallon of water weighs 8.35 lbs.

Now, I’m not using distilled water at standard temperature and pressure, and I don’t know the exact weight of the rest of the test apparatus. Big deal. This method isn’t going to produce an answer to six significant figures. Still, it’s quick way to get a pretty good idea of your piece’s pull weight, and it’s hard to beat the price.