My Little Mosin: Firearms are Magic (Monday Gunday guest post by Jeff W.)

Erin says: Jeff W. is an internet friend of mine. This is his first post on my blog. 

I’ve been a longtime reader/stalker here on Lurking Rhythmically, only having recently started commenting and talking with Erin (over My Little Pony of all things, because I am an avowed Brony), but that’s not why I’m making this guest post extravaganza. I’m doing this because another hobby I have is shooting, and Erin has kindly invited me to write a Monday Gunday guest post specifically about my first time shooting a Mosin-Nagant. I own a couple of other long guns, and I’ve been known to shoot a few rounds now and then, but I’d never fired a Mosin, or even picked one up, before last weekend.

After breaking the ice with her about bronydom, Erin and I got to chatting about enjoying shooting, and  then Chris Bridges did his post about going to the range for the first time with Erin and shooting there. I don’t exactly know what sparked it, but I decided that I needed a Mosin-Nagant of my very own. I IM'ed Erin the next day and blamed her for this new need in my life and all she did was laugh and encourage me. [1]

As it shakes out, I live in the buckle of the Bible Belt so gun shows aren’t exactly uncommon (I can count on at least 4-5 a year here). There was one that upcoming weekend and I declared that I was going to go and get my very own Mosin-Nagant. Unfortunately I had some issues with house care come up that same weekend and I missed my opportunity to get one. I bemoaned this fact to Erin the very next day and she sent me to this site to help me get over my infinite sadness at missing out on militias and Mosins… or because she’s a pusher and wouldn’t be thwarted by a setback on my part, I’m honestly not sure yet. [2]

Anyhow, I ended up sending the link on to several friends, including some brothers who had just returned from a bear hunt in New Mexico (I know my target audience) to see what they all thought. About 15 minutes later, my friend J (name redacted to protect the not-so-innocent) texted me and asked if I wanted one because he was already planning on ordering some. The Friday before Labor Day weekend, we placed an order for 4 Mosin-Nagants and a crate of ammo [3] to be split between us. J knows a fellow with an FFL who would receive them and cut us a deal on the price for the transfers. By 1:00 that afternoon it was a done deal.

Long story short (too late!), the rifles came in Friday before last and on Sunday 9/11 we went out to go shoot them. We figured on a solemn day we should actually continue life as normal and actually have fun (this isn’t a political statement, just a belief that life needs to go on). 

We went down to our shooting spot on some land that J owns and set up to make some noise and wreck some targets. Now this land we’re shooting on is not too far from the geographic middle of nowhere but it’s very pretty. From our shooting spot to the targets is about 75 yards. That mess in the middle is a dried pond; it’s been a rough summer here in Oklahoma.

Click to embiggen

So since Erin got me into this, and I got the rest of the guys to fall into the Mosin trap, I got the “honor” of having the first shots. I was warned by Erin and all of the internets that the Mosin kicked like a mule so I think we were all a bit nervous about it. At any rate I went first. Here’s a video of that:

The kick wasn’t too bad really, not as bad as I’d been led to expect [4], plus the gun was a LOT of fun to shoot. The four of us would do 5 rounds each, then go check the targets, for a total of 20 rounds fired apiece. I was shooting at the far left target in the first pic. So how’d I do at 75 yards with open sights? Not too bad…

For 75 yards over iron sights, this is actually really good.

My results were as follows:

Rounds 1-5 –  Nothing of note.

Rounds 6-10 – Group 1.

Rounds 11-15 –  Group 2.

Rounds 16-20 –  Nothing you can see, I was shooting at a tennis ball. I missed it.

My buddy J got 2 tennis balls in 5 shots from the same distance, so these rifles are pretty darn accurate! I’ll probably be souping mine up in a similar fashion to Erin’s sooner or later. My biggest complaint was the weight especially when firing the gun standing and unsupported. All in all, though, these guns are a great deal of fun! All four of us thought so. I can’t wait to shoot them again. [5]

Editor's Notes:

[1] This is indeed true. I am an evil temptress.

[2] Both answers are correct. See above note for clarification.

[3] One crate of ammunition = 880 rounds total, or 220 per person.
[4] This is a bald-faced lie, as you can tell when you watch the video. "Holy crap!" indeed. Also, I have a record of our IM conversation the next day:

10:44 AM Jeff: 1) I'm getting my friend to email the pics, but I went 12/15 on the paper at 75 yards open sights

10:45 AM 2) my damn arm feels like it wants to fall off

 me: LOL

 Jeff: no bullseyes but I'm pretty satisfied with the way it shoots

 me: 1) Good shooting, especially on iron sights

  2) LOL

  3) I warned yooooouuuu

 Jeff: friend of mine hit a tennis ball with iron sights from 75 yards

  you did

10:46 AM me: How many rounds did you put through?

 Jeff: just 20 each from all four of us

 me: And did you use a recoil pad or were you all manly?

 Jeff: we were all manly

  this time

  but probably never again

  :D

 me: Never again? :P

  Yup. 20 seems about right.

10:47 AM Jeff: then I went home, watched enemy at the gates and cleaned the hell out of that gun

 me: Who shot first?

 Jeff: me

  standing

 me: What was the first thing you said after the first shot?

 Jeff: actually the first shot I said "it's not that bad"

10:48 AM it wasn't until about the 10th or 12th shot that I started to feel it

  and today I really feel it

[5] Welcome to the Mosin Militia, Jeff!

PPR: Timney Trigger for the Mosin-Nagant

Before I begin this review, I need to make a few statements:

1.
This review is four months late.  While I have semi-good reasons for this -- Christmas holidays, my mother's hospitalization on December 26th, her subsequent surgery in February and her slow recovery while I took over her duties, general health issues on my end -- these are not sufficient excuses in my mind. If I'm going to be thought of as a professional writer and reviewer, I need to act like one, and being this far past a deadline (even if that deadline was self-imposed) is not at all professional. Therefore, I must beg the forgiveness of the Timney Trigger corporation, and hope that the thoroughness of this review will make up for its tardiness.


2. 
Any time I review a product for a Mosin-Nagant, I can always expect certain comments from the purists. "Why would you want to bastardize a perfectly good piece of history?" is one of them. "Why would you spend X amount of money on a cheap rifle that's only worth a hundred bucks?" is another.

The answer is simple: "Because I want to. This is my rifle, so I can do what I like with it, and who are you to demand I justify myself?"

Therefore, if you are inclined to ask these questions, I am going to warn you now:  This review is not for you.

ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE. 

If, however, you like modifying firearms, or at the least are tired of the 8-9 pound trigger pull on your Mosin, then these words are for you.

USE THEM TOGETHER USE THEM IN PEACE.

Palette's Product Review: 
The Timney Trigger for the Mosin-Nagant ($103.95)

When I first contacted Timney for a test & evaluation trigger, there were several things I wanted to discover:

1. Will it drop in like they say it will?
2. Will this trigger reduce the horrible pull weight of the stock trigger?
3. Will it improve my accuracy?
4. Is it, in fact, worth the price of a (pre-panic) Mosin-Nagant?

Little did I know that this simple request would send me on what can best be described as "An adventure in gun modification."  

1) Ease of Installation

Let me immediately clear the air about something:  When I first groused about "Not all drop-in triggers actually are," I was operating from an incorrect assumption.  I had seen that Timney triggers for both the AR-15 and the Ruger 10/22 were "drop-in"  (meaning no modification or gunsmith needed), and I foolishly assumed that all Timney triggers were drop-in.  This is not the case, and nowhere on their website, in their marketing literature, or on the product pages do they claim that all of their triggers are drop-in. This was my fault.

However -- and this is where I feel a bit vindicated -- any instruction manual which says "Step 7: Using a Dremel tool, remove enough wood [from the stock] so the trigger area will partially insert" without having previously warned you, either on the product webpage or at the beginning of the instructions with "Tools you will need" that you will, in fact, need a Dremel tool, has dropped the ball in a significant manner. I was quite irritated to have gotten my nifty new trigger only to find that, before I could install it, I needed to buy a power tool. 

 

This is the only bad thing I can say about the instructions, though. They are clear, concise, and well-illustrated. I particularly love Diagram B with its clearly labeled "Save these parts" and "Discard these parts."  Other accessory makers could take a lesson from the clarity of these instructions.

In addition, were it not for the required inletting of the stock, the trigger itself is, essentially, drop-in: Drift out trigger pin and unscrew trigger screw; insert Timney trigger; re-insert trigger pin and trigger screw. Assuming you've already removed the action from the stock, the entire procedure takes five minutes, tops.

The real time sink is in Dremeling out material from the stock in order to make the trigger fit, and that is where things got a bit crazy for me. Never having used a Dremel before, I became too aggressive with it and took off too much material. (I hope this is a common malady among new Dremel owners.)  This left me with a stock that might be dangerous to use due to the gaps and amount of slop and wiggle that would surely follow.  I decided that I might as well use this opportunity to bed the action; not only would this fill in the gaps, but I had read that a bedded action allowed for greater accuracy. 

I will spare you the details of the procedure. If you like, you may hum the MacGyver or A-Team theme while imagining me putting Vaseline on the contact surfaces of the action and forming Loctite Repair Putty * into the gaps while watching The Walking Dead. Instead, I will simply show you the final result, although this picture will no doubt shock and horrify the purists:

The reason it looks uneven in places is because I used a Sharpie marker to color in the places where the gray epoxy was peeking out past the stock. It's ugly, yes, but it works -- which is basically the entire point of the Mosin-Nagant, after all, so it all coordinates thematically.  More importantly, I did it myself without needing to pay a gunsmith to do it for me. If I can do this, then so can you.

* Why Loctite epoxy putty?? Because it's what I had on hand, and I was impatient. Considering the epoxy has a bond strength of 1400 psi and can be sanded, I think it's a fine choice. I've since shot several hundred rounds of milsurp 54R through the bedded rifle and haven't had a single problem.

2) Trigger Pull

If you have ever shot a Mosin with a stock trigger, you know how terrible it is: that long, slow, painful draw until the rifle finally, mercifully goes "bang!"  It's a Russian design in every bad sense of the word.

The best way I can describe the difference between it and the new trigger is like this:  you know how instructors are always telling shooters that the gunshot should come as a surprise?  At the range  with this new trigger, I settled in and started pulling -- and promptly went "Holy crap!" when the rifle fired about a quarter through my expected pull. I was, literally, startled by how smooth and easy it was. Not only is the Timney trigger an absolute pleasure to shoot, it made my shots more accurate simply by eliminating over half of the pressure needed to squeeze the trigger. This meant I didn't have to concentrate on keeping the rifle from shifting as I applied pressure and could instead focus on aim and smoothness of pull.


3) Accuracy

This is me at 50 yards. I needed to fine-tune my scope a bit, hence the "walking in" effect.

And this is me at 100 yards, with the scope fully zeroed and having gotten used to the new trigger:

Compare this to the last time I shot my Mosin at 100 yards:

Considering that the time between these two pictures is about 9 months, I can't attribute all of that to an increase in skill. Clearly, the lighter and smoother pull is reducing trigger jerk, and that results in increased accuracy.


4) Reduction of Barrel Whip

Interestingly enough, after this I noticed that my Mosin did not do its expected "jump several inches into the air and come down on its bipod in a different place" dance like it usually does. (Note: I did not use the Armadillo Bag for this test.) Now, I do not for one second believe that the Timney trigger is responsible for this; I believe it's due to the action having been bedded. More contact area with the stock means more mass and surface area to counteract any twisting and whipping that will occur as the barrel (and therefore the action) attempts to twist out of the stock. Even indirectly, Timney has helped tame my beast of a rifle, and for that I am quite grateful.


5) Is It Worth Buying?

As always, the answer is "It depends."

If you enjoy having a cheap, no-nonsense rifle, do not buy this product.  If you enjoy abusing yourself or your friends with a nine-pound trigger pull, or if you cannot accept paying for a trigger that costs as much or than your rifle is worth, then do not buy this product.

On the other hand, if you enjoy having a manageable, adjustable trigger, buy this product. 

If you like having a safety that you can actually use (during hunting season, say), buy this product. 

If you enjoy shooting a Mosin for fun and want to increase that fun, buy this product. 

In short, owning the Timney Trigger has improved both the experience of shooting a Mosin-Nagant, and my performance with it. While it is expensive, if you are a serious Mosin shooter you will find it worth every penny. I highly recommend it all of my comrades in the Mosin Militia (especially AGirl, whom I know owns a Mosin), and I would consider it an essential upgrade, second only to a recoil pad.

Just make sure you have access to a Dremel tool.

My Rating:  A+

Obligatory finger to the FCC:  Timney provided this trigger to me for free and with no expectation of a good review. However, they did include a Watermelon-flavored Tootsie pop in their packaging, which is something that I wholeheartedly endorse. In fact, more manufacturers should include goodies in their T&E packages. Just sayin'. 

Monday Gunday: Cleaning your Mosin-Nagant

This weekend, two important things happened:

1. I took Izzy to the 100 yard range and shot nearly 40 rounds of ammo;
2. A Girl and Her Gun bought a Mosin-Nagant!

Is gun. Is meant to be big, strong like horse.

Therefore, to welcome A Girl to the Mosin Militia, today's post is all about how to effectively clean your Mosin after shooting a bunch of rounds through it.

But first, pictures! You guys want to see what I did to my targets at 100 yards, right? Of course you do!

This is how I set up my targets, one on top of the other, because I didn't know how much my bullets would drop at 100 yards and I wanted to make sure I'd be on paper.  The answer? Not very damn much. Not sure if it was my posture, or the ammo if I was using, but damn if the first few rounds didn't seem like they were rising. Eventually I just stopped worrying about bullet drop altogether and was firing pretty much straight-on, elevation-wise.

As for windage... there was some pretty impressive wind that day, and it was swirling through the berms of the range, sometimes crosswise and sometimes straight at me. I'm not sure if that was the big difference, or if the windage on my scope was off, but either way I needed to aim slightly to the right of the target in order to hit it.

Anyway. My first few shots were higher than expected. You can see two of them at the bottom of the top target, and some others were off-paper. I fired 38 shots, and if you count all the holes you'll find 35 of them. Not bad, I'd say! I was using milsurp ammo, a bipod, and a 7x scope.

This was my first target. 13 holes punched in it. While half aren't in the inner ring, they'd still be hits on a human torso.

My second target, once I'd settled in a bit (still had some windage problems). The very bottom two holes are from shooting at the bottom target. I had 20 shots on paper here. Anything in black is a torso hit, and anything inside the middle ring is a cranial hit.

I'm actually quite shocked at how well I did, as this was my first time with Izzy at a hundred, and there was lots of wind, and 7x magnification with long eye relief isn't what I'd call a good sight picture (but then, I have crappy vision).

So after shooting 40 rounds -- about twice what I've ever fired on previous trips -- Izzy needed a good cleaning. Since A Girl said she had trouble determining how to clean her Mosin, I offered to tell her how to do it.

First, if you haven't already, remove all cosmoline from the gun. I did that after buying Izzy in 2010 and all I used were paper towels and a can of WD-40, but my friend Jeff swears by B-12 Chemtool: "spray the metal parts with it," he says, "and the cosmoline will literally drip off it in about five minutes, even if the barrel is clogged."

I've also been told that Nevr-Dull works great to give your barrel a mirror shine. Pinch off a wad of it, and ram it down the bore like it was a cleaning patch. If it comes out a blueish-gray, you're good; that's just the natural color of the polishing agent within the cotton. But if it comes out tar-black, you still have cosmoline or carbon buildup. Alternate swabs of Nevr-Dull and clean patches until it stops coming out black. I am assured that residual cosmoline within the barrel will adversely affect accuracy.

If you've already shot your gun, then I'm assuming cosmoline isn't an issue.So now let's get on with the post-shoot cleaning.

The absolutely first thing you need to do is neutralize whatever corrosive salts may be lingering inside your rifle from shooting military surplus rounds. (If you're using commercial cartridges, this isn't an issue, but you're paying a dollar a cartridge for the privilege when the rest of us are paying $30 for a box of 100.)  There are various schools of thought as to how best to accomplish this, from the old-fashioned "soap and hot water" technique to various pricey chemical neutralizers. I was told that ammonia works great for this, so I just grab a bottle of Windex a for the task. I live in hot, humid Florida -- aka corrosion central -- and I've never had a problem.

I find that it works best to remove the receiver from the magazine and clean them in three parts: the bolt, the magazine, and the barrel. The first two get sprayed down while sitting on my cleaning mat, and then wiped with a paper towel. Then I take the barrel into the bathroom, and after spraying the receiver I give several good squirts into the chamber, rotating the barrel in my hands so that the Windex coats the entire bore surface before dripping out into the toilet. Now take your bore inspection light (you do have one, right? You can buy one at Wal-Mart for about $7) and make sure everything looks wet & shiny.*

Foreplay is over. Now let's get to cleaning this bad boy!

Take your bronze brush and scrub the heck out of your bolt-face until there's no carbon left. Use a scraper if necessary. Coat with a lubricant of your choice (I prefer Break-Free CLP) and set it aside.

Take the hinge plate off the magazine and give everything a good squirt of CLP. Wipe down the excess and set it aside.

Time to get serious with the receiver and barrel. There are a few tools I swear by that make my life easier:

• Otis Tactical Cleaning System
• Hoppe's Boresnake in 30 caliber (model 24015)
• Mosin-Nagant cleaning rod guide

Take your Otis cleaning rod, select a #30 brush, and pull it through the bore a few times. If you're using the cleaning rod guide, you'll need to affix the additional pistol piece to accommodate the length of the rifle. 

Next, take the cleaner of your choice and spray or squirt it onto the boresnake. I like to put some right at the leading edge, and again after the bristles where it widens. Thanks to the cleaning rod guide you can do the easy thing and clean from muzzle to breach -- which is technically a no-no, but isn't a big deal in this case, because the guide will channel all the crud clear of the gun -- or you can go breech to muzzle if you'd rather. Do that however many times you feel is necessary (I like to do it about 5-6 times) and then run a patch through the bore.

(This is where things can get a bit tricky, because if you aren't using the rod guide then your patch is likely picking up crud from the outside of the chamber and pulling it through the bore. This is not what you want, because it makes your life harder and you think the barrel is dirtier than it actually is.)

Once you're happy with the condition of your bore, having run boresnake and patches down it a few times, and visually inspected it with a light, you're ready to clean the chamber and receiver. The receiver itself is easy: get a bronze brush, the cleaner of your choice, and scrub it until you're satisfied with its cleanliness. Don't forget to lube the trigger and check the tightness of the screw holding the interrupter pin!

Cleaning the chamber is probably the hardest part of all, and I don't have a great technique for it just yet. Fortunately, I am reassured that unless my rifle starts giving me problems with extracting spent rounds, it doesn't have to be pristine. If your 50+ year-old rifle can survive illiterate conscripts and the Russian winter, it can survive you!

My best suggest for cleaning the chamber is to spray it with a strong solvent, like Gunk Out, and then attack it with either the longest bronze brush you have, or put a larger bore brush on it (perhaps .45 cal, or a shotgun brush) and scrub the hell out of it. Then wrap a patch around the brush and wipe it clean. Repeat as necessary.

Before assembly, spray the receiver, chamber, and bore with more CLP. If you have excess, just wipe it on the outside metal of the rifle.

Re-assemble your Mosin, and do a function check. I have found it's very, very easy to over-tighten one of the magazine screws while under-tightening another, and this often leads to failure to feed. Once I get each screw started, I like to go back and forth between the screws in one-revolution increments. Load up a stripper clip, shove the rounds into your rifle, and carefully work the bolt to see if they feed.

At all times during the process, be aware of the rules of firearms safety! Know where the muzzle is pointing and for God's sake, keep your booger hook off the bang switch!

Et voila -- or, more accurately, электронной Вуаля -- your Mosin-Nagant is now clean, oiled, and ready for storage. Make sure it's unloaded, slowly and carefully  take the tension off the bolt, and put your rifle into its case.


Congratulations! You're all done!


*UPDATE:  If you are in the habit of shooting your Mosin with the bayonet attached, do not forget to clean the bayonet shaft closest to the muzzle! Corrosive salts will spray from the barrel and begin to rust your bayonet (don't ask me how I know this) if you don't hose it down with Windex.

I've since discovered an easier way to clean the bore without having to take the rifle into the bathroom:  I attach the bayonet, go into the backyard, and stab the receiver into the ground like a tomato stake. From there I just spray the chamber and barrel and let the Windex work its way down while I clean the bolt and magazine.

Monday Gunday: Happiness is a Mounted Bayonet

I took my brother to the range with me this past Christmas Eve, which was a nice bonding experience as he and I have such dissimilar tastes and experiences that we have precious little in common. I also gained some richly-deserved respect in his estimation of me, though I'm not certain if it's because his flighty little sister now has a "grown-up" hobby or if it's because I managed to finally beat him at something. Either way, I'm not complaining.

I shot some, he shot some, then I shot some again.
I claim most of the good ones, including the two pasted-over bullseyes.

However, as I was shooting my Mosin I noticed that the muzzle had a tendency to jump and buck. This probably isn't a recent development; I likely didn't notice it until now because up until this point I was still getting used to the recoil. But when the rifle's bipod leaves the shooting bench, though, that's something to take note of and worry about. Not that I think the rifle will break (Ha! I could throw this thing off the roof and the only damage would be to the scope), but because it was messing with my sight picture. I can hit targets at 25 yards with no problem, but at 50 I have to re-seat the rifle into my shoulder each time.

So I talked to my comrades from the Mosin Militia about how to remedy this situation. Fellow blogger Linoge informed me that

Apparently sporterized Mosins have a horrible tendency towards "barrel whip", in that the barrel is absurdly long and narrow when not supported by the wooden stock.  When you fire, there are all kinds of torsional forces at play, and harmonics build up and down the barrel as the bullet twists its way down. 

Barrel whip! This is a marvelous term which perfectly describes what I have been experiencing. But how to fix it? I wanted to avoid the expense of shortening or recrowning the barrel, and I was unable to mount a recommended anti-vibration device because I can't remove the front globe sight. I had heard about muzzle brakes/recoil compensators for the 91/30, but everything I've read about them suggests they are cheaply made junk with a dangerous tendency to fly off downrange after a few rounds.

Linoge's final answer was the solution:  just put the bayonet where it is supposed to be, and I would imagine all your ills will be cured.*

I liked this idea. I've wanted to mount the bayonet for some time, but I was unable to get it more than halfway down the barrel. This prevented me from locking it into place. So I went to fellow Brosin** Doug Parkhurst with my dilemma and asked if there was a way short of a Dremel tool to loosen it up. He replied,

Aye, those things are pretty damn snug - out of my 5, I could only fix the bayonet on 2 of them without some sort of grinding, and one of those 2 was only after about a week or two of persistence. Before resorting to a Dremel, you can try a good scrub with Break-Free CLP and a stiff gun brush. Sometimes just trying it over and over will eventually loosen it to the point where you can get it on and off without tools. But if it's especially stubborn, a Dremel used sparingly on the inside of the socket will work. Try to avoid hitting the spring latch; if you grind off too much of that, it won't lock onto the front sight post. FYI, the teardrop-shaped hole in the wide end of the combo tool in the cleaning kit can be used as a handy wrench to aid in removing it if it gets stuck. Hope this helps!

It did indeed help. If nothing else, this gave me permission to be as rough as necessary. This is one thing I've noticed about my Mosin: at times it practically requires manhandling, which is why I have a rubber mallet in my tool kit for when the bolt is feeling frisky.***

So I went it at with a will, using Break-Free and a bronze brush. That only amused the bayonet, as the brush left little bronze residue everywhere. Then I got serious with some steel wool, which I think maybe removed some of the bluing.

By this point I had lost patience and was ready to introduce power tools to the mix, so I went to Home Depot to look at Dremels. Sadly, they're too expensive for me (the cheapest was $80) but I did find a nice set of medium-coarse files for about $6. Choosing the round file, I sat down in front of the TV with it, the bayonet, and a bottle of CLP, and went at that sucker like it was a marital aid.

A couple of hours later, the bluing had come off and I was looking at the shiny steel underneath. Sure enough, it went down over the barrel, but I couldn't twist it to lock into place. Sure, I could get it to move with application of the rubber mallet, but that would be inconvenient (not to mention conspicuous) at the range. I took the flat file to the sides of the front sight and worked on them until -- FINALLY -- I was able to mount the bayonet.

This is the fruit of my labor. Izzy is now suitable to act as a boar spear, and if I pull the trigger I can make instant bacon.

Long gun is long.

And now I can, in the words of Doug Parkhurt, "twirl gaily through the house with [my] 65" pointy bang stick of doom (but watch out for the ceiling fans)."


* This has to do with the aforementioned barrel harmonics and torsional forces. The short simple answer is that the bayonet acts like a counterweight and the barrel thinks it's a foot longer than it really is.

** A brony who also likes Mosins, naturally.

*** "Yob tvoyu mat! And you'll get more of the same until you decide to work!"

WMW: Quote of the Day (gunblogger edition)

From A Girl and Her Gun:

"I don't exactly live life on the edge, but regardless of the risks, I am going to sniff my rifle from time to time."

AGirl is a member of the Mosin Militia. Owning a Mosin will do that to a person. :D

Because I hate leaving good lines on Facebook

So apparently there's a "Transgender War on English" now? Wow. This is the first I've heard of it.

How exciting!  This does however lead to several burning questions:

• Why was I not ordered to enlist or report for duty?
• Where exactly are the front lines?
• Do I need my Mosin?
• Which side do I fight on, anyway? Because as David Blackard at BCP will tell you, I am an intense grammarian; but yet I am also trans. 
• Do I still get to wear my witch costume if I end up fighting against political correctness?

I need to know these things!

And god bless my Facebook friends. They came up with some good lines, too:

Did you miss the draft? Oh good grief, seriously? Well ... I don't know what to say. Millions of letters went out. Oh dear god, I hope the addresses weren't mis-spelt. The shame.

I think you might be called to referee.

I can't say whether you would NEED your Mosin, but it's always a fine fashion statement.

But this is my favorite:

Perhaps because you're just in the Transgender Militia, which is only activated after the Active Transgender Army, Transgender Reserves and Transgender Inactive Ready Reserve. Surely the National Transgender Guard would be committed long before the Transgender Militia.

In conclusion, take it away, Eddie Izzard:

I get some of the best letters

From a fan whose name I will withhold just in case anonymity is desired:

Curse you and your deviant Nagant-pushing! Now I've got *another* caliber/mouth to feed! And it's the carbine, too, so I get to spend my waning years yelling "What?!" at relatives.

So not only have I recruited another person to the Mosin Militia, I've saved the future by ensuring there's another cranky deaf old fart to plague a family.

And I get to add "Deviant Nagant-Pusher" to my list of epithets!

My job here is done.