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“Aw shucks Born again Cynic! Paint me surprised by this Soldiering Stupid Hit You have to be kidding, right!?!

Pentagon Abandons $110 Million Military Base As African Regime Takes Over by Jake Smith

The Pentagon announced Monday that it had finished withdrawing U.S. forces from a $110 million military base in Niger, Africa, as the nation’s ruling regime takes over.

Niger’s Air Base 201 previously hosted hundreds of U.S. troops who have now evacuated at the request of the country’s military junta. The Pentagon said in a statement on Monday that all remaining forces and assets at the base have been withdrawn as final evacuation efforts come to a close.

“This effort began on May 19 following the mutual establishment of withdrawal conditions and coordination will continue between U.S. and Nigerien armed forces over the coming weeks to ensure the full withdrawal is complete as planned,” a statement from the Pentagon reads. “The effective cooperation and communication between the U.S. and Nigerien armed forces ensured that this turnover was finished ahead of schedule and without complications.”

Some U.S. troops will remain at the U.S. Embassy in Niger while final withdrawal operations are completed in the coming weeks, according to The New York Times. Some equipment from Air Base 201 was shipped out, such as weaponry, but other equipment was left behind.

The U.S. relationship with Niger began to unravel after the country’s military regime toppled the democratic system in mid-2023, sending the nation spiraling into chaos. The regime was adamant that it did not want the U.S. to maintain a presence in Niger and demanded its immediate withdrawal.

Attempts to negotiate with the military regime largely failed as the country became increasingly hostile to troops stationed in the country. Officials issued a formal order in May to begin evacuating U.S. forces over the coming months, with the last of troops expected to depart from Niger by mid-September, according to the Times.

Some prominent U.S. defense officials argue that not having forces in Niger limits the U.S.’ ability to conduct counterterrorism operations against extremist and terrorist groups in the Sahel region.

“This does make safeguarding U.S. security interests in the Sahel that much harder,” Maj. Gen. Kenneth P. Ekman of the Air Force, tasked with overseeing the withdrawal, told the Times in July. “The threats from ISIS and Al Qaeda in the region are getting worse every day.”

However, some defense experts and former U.S. officials who previously spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation believed that withdrawing forces from Niger was the right decision, given that they were falling under an increasing amount of danger from the country’s hostile government and population. Boots on the ground are not necessarily needed to conduct counterterrorism operations, as the U.S. has other extensive military and intelligence capabilities, experts told the DCNF.

“What the [Biden administration] was not understanding, is that these guys are cold-blooded. This new government in Niger? They don’t care. They do not want the United States involved in their country,” Michael DiMino, a former CIA official and senior fellow at Defense Priorities, told the DCNF. “There was this denialism for several months that, ‘We can salvage this, we did fix this.’”

The Pentagon and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Uncategorized

Cleaning a Rifle Barrel – The Real Gunsmith

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Walz has a History of Betrayal for Gun Owners and Veterans

Democrat Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has chosen Tim Walz as her running mate to take on former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance.

Tim Walz was a moderate Democrat from Minnesota who had an A rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and was listed by “Guns and Ammo” as one of the “top 20 politicians for gun owners” before running for governor. He even signed onto an amicus brief in support of Dick Heller in the Heller v. DC Supreme Court case before making a sharp turn to the left and started pushing for anti-gun policies. When Walz was a member of the House of Representatives for 12 years, he represented a conservative district that borders Iowa and was relatively friendly to guns.

“A ban on handguns is both unusual and unreasonable,” the brief says, later adding: “The District’s law-abiding citizens are deprived of handguns that are commonly kept by law-abiding persons throughout the United States for lawful defense, which exacerbates the District’s high murder rate.”

That all changed in 2018 when Walz decided to run for Governor of Minnesota. He started pushing anti-gun policies such as universal background checks, opposing concealed carry reciprocity, and a so-called “assault weapons” ban. According to Walz, he changed his mind on guns after a Las Vegas shooting, but many believe that his move to the left has more to do with trying to get votes than an actual change of heart.

“As a member of Congress, I support universal background check legislation, oppose conceal and carry legislation before Congress, and oppose legislation to reduce restrictions on gun silencers,” Walz wrote on Facebook during his run for governor. “As governor of Minnesota, I will work to ensure that Minnesota passes universal background check legislation. I will support increased funding for mental health services and support additional restrictions that ensure that Minnesota keeps guns out of the hands of dangerous people.”

The drastic change caused the NRA to change his grade on guns from an “A” to an “F.” He started taking money from left-wing anti-gun groups such as Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety and inviting Gabby Giffords to bill-signing ceremonies. Walz celebrated the downgrade from the NRA while claiming he was still a gun owner.

“It’s true. I’m a veteran, a hunter, and a gun owner,” Walz tweeted in July. “But I’m also a dad. And for many years, I was a teacher. It’s about keeping our kids safe. I had an A rating from the NRA. Now I get straight F’s. And I sleep just fine.”

 

Mr. Walz claims he supports the Second Amendment but also thinks laws like universal background checks and extreme risk protection order (ERPO) laws don’t violate Constitutional protections. He refers to such policies as “common-sense safeguards.” Walz also claims that anti-gun laws do not make it more challenging for gun owners to acquire firearms, even though he backs banning certain guns.

“You are not going to frame this that this is taking your guns, because I’m going to frame it that you’re not sticking up for our children,” Walz said in a press conference where he pushed for Red Flag laws to take away Minnesotans’ guns.

Mr. Walz says he wants to ban the guns he carried “in war,” but there is a glaring issue with his statement. He has never been in combat or carried any firearm “in war.” Walz, known to wear a Green Beret baseball cap when he wasn’t a Special Forces member, did deploy to Italy, which is not a war zone.

“We can make sure those weapons of war that I carried in war is [sic] the only place that those weapons are at,” he said.

 

According to retired command sergeant major Tom Behrends, who spoke to Alpha News, Walz turned in his retirement papers once he learned he would have to deploy to Iraq four months before he was initially scheduled to retire. Mr. Behrends would deploy in Walz’s place and served two years in Iraq with Minnesota’s First Battalion-125th Field Artillery.

“I was like well, for Pete’s sake, if this guy quits, if I say I’m not going to do it, I mean, what the hell kind of leadership is that?” Behrends recalled. “If a company would say we’re going to deploy to Iraq and the foreman says, ‘I’m not going,’ what does that say to the 500 that work in that factory?”

Mr. Walz also claimed to have retired as a command sergeant major (E-9), but that isn’t true. According to the Minnesota National Guard, because of his rushed retirement he couldn’t complete all the coursework to maintain the rank in retirement. His service record shows he retired as a master sergeant (E-8), not a command sergeant major.

No matter how gun owners feel about the stolen valor claims, one thing is for sure: Tim Walz will be no friend to gun owners unless it politically benefits him.

About John Crump

John is an NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. Mr. Crump has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.

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Ammo

How to load & make brass for 8x52r Siamese Mauser (Hey follow at your own risk! Grumpy)

https://youtu.be/NjeTCvzXvgQ

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All About Guns

Hotchkiss Portative: Clunky But Durable

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All About Guns You have to be kidding, right!?!

THE GOLD ELEPHANT GUN !!

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All About Guns

Ballard .41 Rimfire Derringer: An Old West Boot Gun

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All About Guns Art

‘Hunting Bighorn Sheep’ by Philip R Goodwin.

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All About Guns

Winchester Model 64

Refined lever is a classic “class act”
 By Payton Miller
A late 1940s-vintage Model 64 (top) features a 24″ barrel, pistol grip and two-thirds magazine. The early 1960s Model 94 (below) features a 20″ barrel, straight grip and full-length magazine.

A whole lot of lovers of leverguns consider Winchester’s graceful Model 64 to be the best-looking rifle ever put together — and they’ll certainly get no argument from me.

If any make or model of lever action better fits the definition of “deer rifle,” I don’t know what it could be. In fact, a deluxe version was, at one time, marketed as “The Deer Rifle.”

As an 11-year-old rifle-crazy kid, I can still remember thinking the full-page picture of the Model 64 in my early ’50s copy of Stoeger’s Shooter’s Bible was just about the coolest thing ever.

In the years after, I got to use — and own — various straight-gripped 20″ Model 94 Carbines and 16″ Trapper models, but still the 24″ barrel M64 with its two-thirds length magazine and pistol grip haunted me.

The Lyman 66A receiver sight is a serious improvement over the original buckhorn open sights.
This 2011 Miroku-made Model 64 is an Angle Eject design and is drilled and tapped for scope mounts. The tang safety is easier to access than the later crossbolt safety installed after 1992.

History

Officially introduced in 1933 as a refined replacement for the Model 55 — another Model 94 variant — the Model 64 ceased production in 1957. Early on, it could be had in .25-35 and .32 Winchester Special. There were a very few made in .219 Zipper with a 26″ barrel, but the majority of them were in .30-30.

It was briefly reintroduced by Winchester in 1972 and again as a Miroku-made offering in 2011.

The Japanese-made Miroku Model 64 is different from the original Winchester in two major respects. First off, it’s an Angle Eject and is drilled and tapped for optic mounts, giving you a far easier scoping option than the original if this is your preference.

Secondly, it features a tang safety, not always beloved by purists but a darn sight preferable — and more accessible — than the crossbolt safety in a dished-out receiver recess Winchesters were saddled with in 1992.

The only drawback to the tang safety placement is it makes the installation of a folding tang peep sight out of the question.

Range Time

So let’s get crass and talk ballistics and address the burning question: Besides sheer aesthetics, what’s the extra barrel going to get you over the vastly more popular Model 94 Carbine?

The velocity pickup from the Model 64’s 24″ barrel over a 20″ Model 94 is fairly significant although not really breathtaking when you take the .30-30’s practical sphere of usefulness into consideration.

Here are the numbers we got: Hornady 140-grain Full Boar — 2,607 fps vs. 2,442 fps, Hornady 160-grain LEVERevolution Flex Tip — 2,571 fps vs. 2,280 fps and Winchester 150-grain JHP — 2,441 fps vs. 2,283 fps.

Although the speed bump from the Model 64’s 24″ tube doesn’t quite turn the .30-30 into a .308, at real-world deer yardages, it’s close enough.

Our test gun was a late 1940s specimen in breathtaking shape. The owner, John Wightman, made the intelligent decision of installing a Lyman 66 receiver sight on it rather than rely on the original-issue buckhorn open sights — which aren’t all that wonderful in conjunction with elderly eyes.

Our Model 64 preferred Winchester’s traditional 150-grain JHP a
bit more than Hornady’s polymer tipped 160-grain LEVERevolution.

Slight Adjustments

Moving up the barrel and yanking the blasted sight hood off, we found the original bead front to be fairly small. Yes, a larger bead would be quicker and easier to acquire, but then you’d have to deal with the fact a “too big” bead will practically subtend an 8″ bull at 50 yards.

If you have to form a “figure 8” using a 6 o’clock hold, a smaller bead works better. Of course, a flat-top blade would be the best choice — which is something to consider if your goal is to enhance the “on paper” performance of your rifle. “Flat on round” works better than “round on round” for me, particularly since my eyes ain’t what they used to be.

For field use, many shooters simply remove the aperture from the Lyman sight, giving you a large, quick-to-acquire facsimile of a “ghost ring.”

From a sandbag rest at 60 yards, our Model 64 showed a distinct preference for traditional 150-grain ammo, specifically Winchester Super-X JHPs. Runner-up in the accuracy department was Hornady 160-grain FTX LEVERevolution.

We did our preliminary sight adjustments at 25 yards using 150-grain handloads, both to get acquainted with the rifle and to help hoard our factory stuff for later. Centerfire metallic ammo in non-NATO calibers isn’t easy to find these days!

The trigger on our test gun exhibited a bit of takeup and broke at a few ounces under 4 lbs., pretty good for a dead-stock levergun of any era. Recoil was noticeably tamer than from the lighter (by about a half-pound), shorter Model 94 Carbine we had along for the ride.

Both featured recoil padless shotgun-style buttplates, but I’m pretty certain the Model 64 would have been quite tolerable even if it had been saddled with an older crescent-style buttplate.

According to Steve Fjestad’s Blue Book of Gun Values, 66,783 Model 64s were produced in the original 1933–1957 run, while 8,250 were made in the 1972–73 cycle, all in .30-30 and referred to as the Model 64A.

Obviously, these numbers are dwarfed by those of the Model 94, so prices of the Model 64 in used racks and auctions are going to reflect this discrepancy. Thus, if you’re hot for one you find, you may have to dig deep.

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Gear & Stuff

THE MAKING OF A KNIFE NUT BY JEFF “TANK” HOOVER

JACK-KNIFE DREAMS, KA-BAR KIDS & BIG BOY TOYS

Tank’s first pocketknife given to him by his grandpap (center), complete
with his name and a custom grind job, along with a few others that followed.

What self-respecting boy didn’t want a knife when growing up? Back when I was a kid, all boys pined for their first knife. It was akin to the first step of adulthood to my way of thinking. Plus, Danial Boone and Davy Crockett (both played by Fess Parker) carried a Bowie knife hidden in fringed high-top moccasins, always at the ready.

Almost every episode showed him using his knife to help him escape or kill something, in a last-ditch effort to save his life. If that isn’t reason enough, I don’t know what is. There are a lot of dangers lurking in a 7-year-old’s mind.

Ruana Knives of Montana are a favorite of Tanks. Started by
Rudy Ruana, the company is known for bevel cut elk stag aluminum
handles and forged leaf spring blades.

Obstacles

Moms are less enthusiastic about these cutting yearnings, fearing unexpected trips to the emergency room. Fortunately, dads, uncles and grandads understood these struggles. For boys, sharpened steel is mythical. Why wouldn’t it be? Having your own shiny, sharp folding blade pocketknife, while not as cool as a Bowie knife, could still get you out of trouble.

My own fascination started on my grandpap’s dairy farm. Following my uncles around during chores, I noticed both carried pocket knives. They’d cut feed bags, bailing twine from hay bales, pick out splinters, or even cut a hunk of venison sausage for a quick snack. These observations proved the handiness of a pocketknife. I surely and sorely needed one.

Knives can tell a story and are an integral part of history. From left to right: A WWII-era knife rehandled by soldier using plexiglass for handle and sheath, an old Marbles knife, and a custom from NC.

Pap To the Rescue

My Pap retired from farming when he turned 50, selling the farm to my two uncles. Having the gift of gab, the trust of fellow farmers and knowledge of growing corn, he was a natural at becoming a corn seed salesman. Part of being a successful salesman is making the customer feel appreciated. Hats, down vests, sweatshirts, gloves and pocketknives were common fare for buying clients.

Pap, being a good Pap, saw fit to buy pocketknives for all his kids, grandkids, neighbors and any potential customers. I had my resource to pocketknife ownership. The knives were three-bladed Stockman style, with one “blade” being a combination bottle cap/screwdriver — handy indeed. One side had the Trojan Corn emblem on it and the recipient’s name in red cursive writing on the other. I finally had my knife!

Kabars are another favorite. From top to bottom: vintage WWII
USMC KA-BAR brand, Camillius USN MKII, Camillus Kabar from
the early 90s, and KA-BAR USMC Fighting Knife from late 80s.

Turbo Grind

Happy as a lark for my pocketknife, I noticed it wasn’t hair-shaving sharp, even though I was lacking hair on my forearms. My pap had a tool/tractor shed with just about every kind of tool known to man. On his heavy work bench were bench grinders. Surely, I could hone a hair-popping edge with a course stone bench grinder? And it would be much faster than using a sharpening stone, right? Those were for amateurs.

I flipped the switch to the bench grinder. When reaching full RPM status, it hummed along almost silently. I figured I’d just grind a nice, neat edge on my newly obtained prized possession. After all, I’d had it for a whole 40 minutes at this point. Boy, won’t everyone be jealous of how sharp my knife is?!

Holding the knife to the spinning grinding stone, a hail of sparks erupts. This is good, right? That grinder ate up more blade faster than I could eat grandma’s iced Christmas cookies. I quickly switched sides, to maintain an even grind. Can’t do one side without the other. Even I knew about blade geometry and symmetry back then.

The blade was sharper but had a rough-edged appearance to it. A lesson was learned, but it took years for me to appreciate it. This knife was the catalyst for the rest of my life. I’ve pretty much carried a knife with me from that day forward.

Knives come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. The bottom
utility knife was designed by his editorship, Roy Huntington.

Present Day

Since I managed to keep all my fingers intact, a Cub Scout knife quickly followed from mom. Then it seemed like the floodgates opened. Knives appeared everywhere. Folding Stockman are always a favorite, along with single-bladed Buck Knives, handy Victorinox Army knives, Al Mar blades, and then … fixed-bladed Bowie knives.

The KA-BAR brand “Kabar” was my first fixed-bladed knife. Though the brand has since become synonymous with the style, Kabars were also made by several other manufacturers, including Camillus, Case and a few others.

It wasn’t long before I started collecting Kabar-style knives. They had a simplicity to them, made from 1095 carbon steel. A rattail-styled tang with stacked leather washers for a handle, if you worked them enough, you could hone a razors edge on them, but it defeated the utilitarian edge the blades were made for.

Kabars were made for digging, opening crates of ammo, hammering nails with their flat-steel pommel, opening C-ration cans in a pinch, or any other duties called upon. They could, and have been used, to take out enemy combatants, too.

Tomahawks are a special type of edged weapon. Shown are two Tyler Gun Works ‘hawks with a Cold Steel Vietnam remake from the 90s.

Others

The Kabars lead to Randall Made Knives, followed by other big Bowie-style blades. I guess once knives get into your system, you become a lost cause. Or are we predestined to become knife nuts? I think it’s a little of both, but one thing’s for certain: knife collecting/accumulating is fun and educational. What better way to learn about history than the type of knives, axes, and hatchets our forefathers used and carried?

I could easily go into far more detail on the different brands of knives I’ve collected over the years. Perhaps I will at a later date? I could go on forever talking about different Randalls, Buck Knives, my Ruana Knives from Montana, and much more.

I just wanted to scratch the surface and let you know you’re not alone in your quest for sharpened steel. Guns and knives go hand in hand and are the perfect way to complement any outfit before venturing out.