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11/01/2004 Archived Entry: "Machine gun rock & roll"

NOW I KNOW WHY THEY CALL IT ROCK & ROLL!!!!! And trust me, I'm not talking about music! The Desert Hermitage had another visitor this weekend (yes, very busy hermitage, I know). This visitor -- a high-energy fella who goes by the handle UnReconstructed -- brought a Mac-10 machine gun. AND 600 rounds of ammo.

Whoohoo! Were we a bunch of happy hermits.

The Mac-10 was fully tricked out with a rifle stock, extended barrel, nice compensator, and Russian-made holosights. Very hot -- literally very hot after we each put 100 rounds or so through it. Nobody but UnReconstructed himself had ever shot a machine gun before. (Well, technically I did, once, many years ago. But that was a badly homemade job and I fired only a couple of rounds out of it, fearful it was going to blow up in my hands. This was a gunsmith's gun -- very smooth.) He had "slowed it down" so it fired about 800 rounds per minute, instead of the 1200 per minute the Mac is designed to do. (I think 800 is plenty ...)

First, each of us shot a 30-round magazine, squeezing three- or four-round bursts out of the trigger to accustom ourselves to the feel of the gun. Then, under UnReconstructed's supervision, we all took a turn holding down that trigger and letting 30 rounds go out as fast as they would go.

Yowee, is that ever a hoot! At first, the force of the 30 rounds of .45 ACP blasting out of the gun in seconds pushed us off balance, even when we braced ourselves as UnReconstructed taught us. We'd get halfway through the magazine, stagger backward or sideways, and laugh at the sheer staggering (but damn, what fun!) power of the weapon in our hands. Then UnReconstructed showed us how to lean into the gun. Pretty soon, we were looking like real machine gunners, thrusting our upper bodies forward as the gun tried to push us back, standing firm, looking like nothing in the world could stop us.

Alas, that was about the time we ran out of ammo. And that did stop us. :-(

It was a great visit -- even the non-shooting parts of it. UnReconstructed turns out to be another Net acquaintance who's just as warm, smart, and decent in person as he appears from his e-mails and forum posts. We had a wonderful weekend. I feel truly blessed to be here in this place and to have such extraordinary friends. You come back soon, too, UnReconstructed. And bring your kind and surprising wife.

But ... er, now it's time to get back to work again. Oh damn.

I'm hoping to blog a little more from here out. My Net access remains unpredictable. But now with the cold weather arriving (this being high desert, not the Phoenix or Tucson type), I should be hunkering down and spending more time cuddled up to my computer.

I've missed blogging and missed the family at the Claire Files forums. But I'm still not missing all the news I'm missing. Not one bit. Who cares who wins the damned election?

"It's still rock & roll to me." :-)

Posted by Claire @ 12:31 PM CST
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