Before I link today’s videos, I want to give a tip of the Hatlo hat to great and good FoTB (and official firearms trainer to WCD) Karl, who has actually been linking some of my posts on the KR Training FaceBook page. Thanks, Karl!
As a thank you and tribute to Karl: “Combat Firing With Hand Guns” from 1944.
“Being a good shot on a range doesn’t mean that a man will be the same good shot when the target is moving or firing back at him.”
Bonus video #1 and 2: posting these as a hat tip to Bayou Renaissance Man. They’re also pretty long, but we are entering the weekend. Think about your next range trip.
I haven’t done anything super geeky in a little while, so today’s the day.
“An Introduction to Digital Computers”, from the UNIVAC division of Sperry Rand sometime in the 1960s.
Bonus video #1: it seems only fair to give the other guys their turn. This is a compilation put together by the Computer History Archives Project of promotional videos for the IBM System/370.
She did a lot of theater work (and won a Tony), did some movie work, and a whole bunch of TV (winning three Emmy awards). No “Mannix”, but she did appear on a lot of Quinn Martin productions.
Okay, that’s kind of a trick question: very few people other than military aviation buffs remember the XB-70. It was an amazing concept: a plane capable of sustained flight at Mach 3 and 70,000 feet.
Sadly, the project was overtaken by events: they ended up building only two planes, and one was lost in a mid-air collision. The other one is in the Air Force Museum in Dayton.
I didn’t know that there was video of the XB-70 in flight. Until last night, that is.
Bonus video #1: since that one was a little short, I’m going to go a little long with this one. “Ejection Decison – A Second Too Late!”. Basically, the point of this training film is: decide before you start flying under what circumstances you’re going to eject. There’s some good video of actual ejections, as well as testimony from pilots who planned and followed through.
Bonus video #2: a short history of the ejection seat from Martin-Baker.
Tom Lester. He didn’t have an extensive list of credits, but is perhaps best known as “Eb Dawson”, the farmhand on “Green Acres”. He was apparently the last surviving member of the original cast.
I did finally make it down to Cabela’s on Monday. They were open, but with the standard measures in place: limiting the number of people allowed inside, social distancing (you had to take a number and wait behind a rope just to even approach the gun counter), etc.
They were pretty much cleaned out of handgun ammo. Some rifle ammo and what appeared to be plenty of shotgun ammo with smaller shot. (Think birds and skeet, not self-defense.) Some used pistols, but less than usual. Not a whole lot of used rifles: a fair number of Mosins and a bunch of Savage rifles that they seemed to be clearing out, but very few rifles beyond those. There were obvious holes in the new gun stock, but they weren’t totally sold out.
I saw two pre-Model 27 Smiths, one for $800 and one for $900. Of the two, I liked the $800 one better, and a pre-27 is high on the want list, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to pull the trigger on it. I have the money, but I also had planned a trip for mid-June and was holding on for hotel expenses and possible purchases there.
Then I came home and found out the event I was going to in June was cancelled. So much for that.
(This is kind of cool. It is SA/DA, which fits the criteria I’m looking for to shoot Karl’s “Historical Handgun” class eventually. But I already have one .40 S&W (a Glock 35) and can easily convert my M&P in .357 SIG to .40 S&W as well. I really want something in 10mm (like a S&W 1076/1006), not .40, so I can check that box on my gun hipster bingo card. Also, to be honest, that big “40 TACTICAL” on the slide is kind of a turn-off.)
I’m still thinking accessories instead of new (to me) guns, though, unless I see something at a really compelling price. Also, if things get better, Mike the Musicologist and I are talking about hitting Wanenmacher’s in November…
I think today’s featured video falls squarely into the “educational” category. It is also a little better quality than usual.
“Range Safety For Firearms Instructors”, from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC, because I’m not going to keep typing that out). I’m actually quite serious about the educational value of this one: if you’re an NRA certified instructor, all of this is probably covered in your training. But if you’re just a guy taking new or inexperienced shooters to the range, you might get some useful tips out of this.
(It is a little over 15 minutes, but if you’re pressed for time, you can probably skip over the part where they specifically talk about the Uzi. Unless you’re taking new shooters to the range to shoot your full-auto Uzi submachine gun, in which case I want to go with you. Please?)
Bonus video #1: if you’re more pressed for time, here’s a basic introduction to range safety from the National Shooting Sports Foundation that would be good to show to new and inexperienced shooters.
Bonus videos #2 and #3: more from the good folks at FLETC. “Rounds of Authority”, about various types of shotgun ammunition. If you ever wanted to see folks shoot various types of shotgun rounds (including some of the exotics) into various objects (ballistic gel, car doors, soft body armor, etc.) this is the video for you.
In a similar vein, “.40 Caliber Ammunition”, focusing specifically on the .40 S&W and the various tactical and training loads available at the time (1998). And yes, this features more video of stuff being shot.
Keep in mind that these last two are pretty old (23 and 22 years, respectively) and represent what was available at the time, and what the thinking at the time was. Don’t take this as revealed gospel truth today.
Not just bombs – though what high explosives fan can resist the biggest booms of all – but atomic energy in general. The early power reactors. Atoms for peace. Project Plowshare.
I have personal reasons for this, but in my mind, it also ties in to something I call “The Future We Could Have Had”. A lot of folks have written about facets of that future, and someday I may do a longer blog post on the idea.
Today is not that day. But here are some vintage atomic videos to hold you.
First up, “First Reactor In Space…SNAP 10A”. SNAP 10A was an experimental reactor launched almost exactly 55 years ago (April 3, 1965) and was the first nuclear reactor in orbit.
Bonus video: “Power For Continent Seven”. Yes, there was a reactor at McMurdo Station (PM-3A) that operated for about 10 years.
Slight spoiler: if you read the Wikipedia entries, you’ll find that neither one of these projects was, shall we say, 100% successful.
It may actually come as a surprise to some of you that I expect blogging to be light, at least for a little while. After all, what else am I going to do?
I’m thinking about making a run down to Cabela’s to scope out the situation for myself, and I’ll probably be putting up an obit and a jail post later on today.
In the meantime, please enjoy this vintage musical interlude:
Two of my favorite things written by Neal Stephenson:
Cryptonomicon, a book that seems scientifically designed to push the maximum number of my buttons.
“Mother Earth, Mother Board”, Stephenson’s long but fascinating essay about submarine cables. This was originally published in Wired almost 24 years ago, and (interestingly enough) is reprinted as part of the back matter to the Kindle edition of Cryptonomicon.
I mention these things because this came across my YouTube recommendations, and I thought it was worth running on a Sunday: “The Voice Beneath The Sea”, about laying a trans-Atlantic cable to link the US, Canada, and the UK. Brought to you by “The American Telephone and Telegraph Company Long Lines Department”.
Man, I miss the days of organizations like the “Long Lines Department” and people with names like “Wildman Whitehouse” (even if the latter was grotesquely incompetent).
Bonus video #1: This seems oddly appropriate in these days of Zoom and Skype and WebEx: “Face to Face”, a 1970s promo film from AT&T for the Picturephone.
This is weird, but: I have a really vivid memory of seeing a Picturephone demonstration on TV when I was very young. Specifically…on “Captain Kangaroo”. I kid you not. I guess there were a lot of five to seven year old kids in the target market for AT&T’s service. Or perhaps it was really targeted at all the stay-at-home moms who were watching the show with their small children?
Bonus video #2: “Tools of Telephony”, produced by Western Electric.
I have another video or two along the long lines line (see what I did there?) that I want to put up, but I’m waiting for it to get hot again: I’m hopeful that at least one of those videos will cool you down a bit.
When I was young, I was a big fan of “Highway Patrol“. No, I didn’t watch it first run: I’m not that old. One of the Houston UHF stations aired it.
“Highway Patrol” started popping up in my YouTube recommendations, and I’ve been watching episodes occasionally. This episode came up yesterday, and I watched it last night. (I’d already seen the “Most Shocking”.)
What struck me when I was watching was: it is an interesting contrast to this Dragnet 1967 episode on a similar theme:
Note that in “Highway Patrol” it is the sweet innocent wife (who tries so hard to do the right thing) that gets the worst of it, while in “Dragnet” it ends up being the husband who gets some kind of rough justice for his careless drunken driving.
Back on the beat today, since it is Saturday: I have some lighter stuff to post, but I’m saving that for the Sabbath. These will be good to watch if you get tired of tonight’s “Most Shocking” marathon on the Justice Network (or if it is an episode you’ve already seen). They are also a bit longer (but it’s a weekend, so you don’t have to worry about fitting these into your coffee breaks). And I’ll warn everyone: the effects in these, especially the second one, are a little graphic.
First up: “Officer Survival: High Risk Patrol Tactics”. I think this title is a little misleading, as it deals less with patrol: the instructional point of this video is basically how to deal with armed, barricaded suspects.
Bonus video: “Vehicle Stop Tactics”. This one features a lot of the mistakes police officers made in “routine” stops. The latter part of this one (roughly the second half) also demonstrates how to do a high-risk felony stop correctly, so it kind of overlaps “Felony Vehicle Stop“.
This one goes out to all the high explosives fans out there.
“Demolition: Electric Priming”, an Army training film from the 1950s giving you everything you need to know to prime and detonate explosives with electric blasting caps.
Bonus video #1: This is a little long, but I know there are several people who are going to want to watch this: a 1993 interview with Carlos Hathcock, Marine sniper.
Bonus video #2: for this one, I’m going to send you over to Lawrence. He’s put up a pilot for an unsold 1959 “Nero Wolfe” TV series…with William Shatner as Archie Goodwin. To which I can only say: ain’t that a kick in the head?
We watched “First Blood” recently. Yeah, yeah, Stallone is good. But so is Dennehy: he’s really convincing as the sheriff who isn’t necessarily cruel, but just simply out of his depth and doesn’t understand what he’s dealing with until it is too late. I think it was Lawrence who made the point that “First Blood” is really a story about managerial incompetence.
He was pretty good in “F/X” as well: I still say that’s a really underappreciated thriller.
All of these are just a little outside my target run length, but that’s okay. I hope everyone can deal with that.
First up: this might be just a little too much, even for my readers who are people of the gun. But I wanted to put it up because it is a nice slice of history from around the time I was born.
“Target Vs.”, a 1965 film from the Williams Gun Sight company about the 1965 National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio.
I don’t think I’ll ever be good enough to compete at Camp Perry, but I’d like to visit there one of these days while the matches are going on. Just to take in the scene.
Bonus video #1: “No Points For Second Place”. This is apparently a Grumman produced tribute to the F-14. With some handy tips on dogfighting thrown in.
Bonus video #2: “Police Pursuit Driving Part 2”. I guess this is a sequel (at least thematically) to “Police Pursuit“, but it lacks Jack Webb. I think it also lacks Smith and Wessons, though there is one ridiculous bit in here (you’ll know it when you see it).
I cannot tell a lie: “Some guys stay rookies forever.” gets a rise out of me.
I received a report from a usually reliable source that Brian Dennehy has passed, but I don’t have any independent or linkable confirmation of that at the moment.
As long as we’re talking about NRA videos and books, I thought I’d mention once again: today is National Buy a Gun Day.
I usually cut folks some slack if BAG Day falls on a Sunday or Monday. This year, I’m going to continue with the slack cutting, given the current circumstances: if you place an order for something today, or purchase something before the end of the day on Sunday, it counts.
I still haven’t found anything I really want: Classic Firearms is selling Beretta M9 pistols for $450. This kind of appeals to me, as someone who has a half-baked desire to accumulate a collection of every US military sidearm, but I don’t know that $450 is all that great a price.
CDNN is offering Radical Firearms AR pattern rifles in .224 Valkyrie for $500. I’m intrigued by .224 Valkyrie as a caliber, but I know nothing about Radical Firearms: I think I’d prefer to either buy a complete rifle from a manufacturer I know something about, or buy a finished upper (again, from someone I’m familiar with) and build up my own .224 rifle.
There’s a nice 4″ S&W in .45 Colt on GunBroker, but it’s up close to $800 right now, which is right on the edge of what I want to pay. I’m pretty confident it will break $1,000 by the time the auction ends tomorrow. Somebody else has another one for sale with a starting bid of $500, but it isn’t as nice.
I still haven’t been able to get out and do any gun photos yet, but I’m hoping to have that done by the weekend.
In the meantime, feel free to post comments with your BAG Day purchase, or send photos, or both.
Our first video today is a little longer than usual, and also not exactly a random YouTube find. This one was recommended to us by great and good FOTB (and official firearms trainer of WCD) Karl Rehn. (Speaking of stuff rescued from obscurity, that NRA pistol manual is pretty spiffy, too.)
“It Could Happen to You!”, a NRA film from the 1970s for women. The archive.org notes say it doesn’t have any guns in it: “Women are shown rather defending themselves with hairpins, their nails, and by locking themselves in their cars with handkerchiefs as SOS flags.”
Bonus video #1: This one should fit a little more comfortably into the coffee break time slot. “The Blackbirds Are Flying”.
No, this isn’t a nature video. This one is from Lockheed Advanced Development Projects, and shows off all three of the Blackbirds.
Bonus video #2: “The Petrified River: The Story of Uranium”. This is a Department of Interior – Bureau of Mines product, but was apparently filmed with the cooperation of the old Union Carbide Corporation. There’s some really nice plane video at the start, RoadRich…
Back on the beat, but this time something a little different: “Play It Cool: A Question of Attitudes”, a police training film from the 1960s about civility.
Bonus video #1: this is relevant to my interests. “Basic Principles Of Power Reactors”, put together long enough ago that it was done by the Atomic Energy Commission.
Bonus video #2: “Viet Cong Mines and Booby Traps”, a 1967 Marine Corps training film.