Whales
Driving home Mike Wills mentioned that the first whales of the season were in False Bay.
(Fish Hoek beach, looking out to the far side of Simon’s Town. That’s Boulders over there, for those of you with a thing for penguins).
Didn’t expect them to be so close to shore (OK, there’s a bit of shortening with the lens and all, but they’re right in). It was getting dark, so I didn’t stick around waiting for a more interesting photo opportunity.
These are Southern Right Whales, and we have plenty of them — as opposed to the North Atlantic Right Whales, who number around 400 and are individually named, and the North Pacific Right Whales, who are even more rare.
“Our” fellows cruize in here around the beginning of September, bringing lots of revenue for small towns like Gansbaai and somewhat bigger towns like Hermanus.
You know you’re living in the future when…
<Tanya> I’m not going to read, I’m going to watch TV — I’ve been staring at a computer screen all day.
<me> Welcome to the 21st Century.
Much more competenterer
Waybackwhen the Firearms Control Act of 2000 was drafted, they couldn’t decide whether they should licence the person or the firearm. So they did what any committee would do — they chose both.
Which leaves us with the situation where you can be fully “competent” to own, say, a handgun, but then be denied the licence for said handgun because you didn’t prove to the registrar that you “need” it.
If you want more than two handguns or four firearms in total, you need to be a “dedicated” [hunter|sports shooter|collector]. This basically means joining an accredited organisation and jumping through whatever hoops said organisation choses to make their members prove their dedication. This can be as easy as attending four meetings or shooting four matches a year. Once you are a “dedicated” individual it becomes much easier to obtain a licence for a firearm appropriate to the organisation you are “dedicated” with. After all, if you are “competent” and have a letter from the chairman saying you need a semi-auto rifle* for 3 gun shoots or as a collector or whatever it’s really difficult for them to deny the licence.
So when I went through the rigmarole I obtained competency for handgun, rifle and shotgun. You have to prove you know the law and that you know how to make the gun go bang in such a way that you can broadly hit what you’re aiming at. I suspect that at the time there was no Unit Standard for semi-automatic rifles, or maybe it was a security business only thing, but whatever, I didn’t do the “self-loading rifle” competency.
Until yesterday, that is. Because they’re sitting on a licence application for a Browning semi-auto 22, and the only possible reason they might not give me the licence is that I don’t have this specific competency (this is not how we read the law, but our police are well known for their creative interpretation of the Law & Regs as well as their point of view that if you don’t like it you’re more than welcome to take the matter to court (where they will defend themselves using your tax money)).
And more importantly, I want to apply for a licence for a Garand, because why I can.
So I bought the book a few months ago, from Parow Arms & Ammo. Completed the open book exam, made an appointment, was handed a closed book exam asking the easy half of the questions from the open book exam, exchanged that for a competency certificate they had printed the week before, and then had to put ten shots into an A5 paper target at 10m with a Norinco LM4 (I think).
I’ve heard that one can fail the competency but if you do you should probably have someone help you with the shoelaces thing in the morning as well.
* Semi-auto rifles are “restricted”. Means only thpethial people can licence them. Fully automatic firearms are “prohibited”. This doesn’t mean what Merriam-Webster thinks it means. It means that only vewy vewy thpethial people can licence them. Collectors and film props guys, basically.
The next shelf
(There are quite a few shelves still to come.)
This one goes around the TV. First step, bolt the TV bracket to the wall.
Looking good.
I will have to make a plan with the white wall behind the TV.
The reason I’m doing this in stages is that I wasn’t sure exactly where this unit would end up. It could have been 5cm to the left or the right. Now I can measure the remaining space and design a bookshelf to fit.
WTF?
Lemme get this straight…
You’re trying to bribe me into persuading my boss to pay R7600 to send me on a course? Bribe me with a free crackberry? And the course is on ethics?
Thanks but… no thanks.
New toys
So we made it back home from our USA trip. When we landed at Schiphol I turned on my cellphone, which started buzzing with 12 SMSes “SAPS message: Your firearm Licence Ref. 12345 has been finalized. Card can be collected at your DFO.”
Well, OK, fair and well, but I’m not waiting for 12 licences, I’m waiting for a whole lot more, and furthermore they’d only been in the system for two months so no way can they be ready?
Well, turns out they were ready, 28 of the 33 I had applied for. Of the remaining five, three are firearms I handed in during the amnesty, and I know they’re taking a different (and much longer) route, one they’re still thinking about (probably because it’s a semi-auto 22 rifle, and they don’t particularly like people having those) and one (a 38 Special revolver) got denied.
Yea, that’s right, 28 new guns including two 357 Magnums, a 45, a semi-auto shotgun… but not the 38 Special revolver. I guess the “yes” and “no” buttons are very close together on the system.
On the left, a Llama XA in 32 ACP together with my previously licenced Llama XXVIII XV in 22 and Star DKL in 380 ACP / 9mm Short. They’re +- 2/3 size Colt 1911 semi-clones.
To the right of that, a Star B (9mmP) and above it an Astra A-100 in 45 ACP.
Then, a Colt 1903 pocket hammerless in 32 ACP (this one was made in 1920 and isn’t nearly as nice as Tamara’s older models) and above it an Astra Cadix (22 Magnum, 9 shot) revolver.
The little pistol with the white grips is a Llama XVIII “Executive” in 25 ACP and is a lot more fun to shoot than you might think. Above and below that is an FN 1906 Vest Pocket in 25 ACP and an Astra 2000 in 22 Short.
The long barreled revolver is a Llama Ruby XXIV 22 target model.
The Browning 1910 (32 ACP) at the top right is in really good nick, as is the Astra 500 below it. The Astra 500 is an interesting piece — it’s basically a single-action Constable, and they only made 450 of them. Nice rescuing something like that from the cops’ smelters.
I ended up not shooting the A-100 or the 2000 because… I didn’t have ammo. For some reason, when packing, I thought the A-100 was 9mm and the 2000 was 25 ACP. Silly me.
And I only got three shots through the 1903 before the front sight fell off. Managed to find it, will have to make sure it stays put next time.
I also left two of my “new” guns at home — the Llama Comanche III ‘cos it was at the bottom of the safe and I didn’t see it, and the Marlin 1894 because (1) the firing pin is borken and (2) I don’t have any 38-40 ammo at the moment.
I’ll obviously have to repeat the exercise this coming weekend.
Also, another road trip to Witbank is indicated to fetch the other half of the guns from Classic Arms.
(Not pictured is the Ruger 96/22M levergun in 22 Magnum which I shot on the rifle range. Nice gun, will have to find a scope for it).
[Thanks to littlegun.info for the Llama Shooter’s Bible scans]
Disney
Internet is $9.95 for 24 hours, so we’ve been out there experiencing Disney rather than in here blogging.
Best so far: Hollywood, the Rock and Roller Coaster. We’re going there again. Tanya also liked the Tower of Terror.
The Star Wars ride is also very well done, much better than the space one at Epcot (in general, Epcot did not impress us).
From the all-you-can-eat department — if you’re hungry, the chicken dinner at the All Stars (where we’re staying) isn’t a drumstick and a thigh as you might expect, no, it’s a half chicken (plus two veg and a roll). Good value for under $10. Wine choice is limited to Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio or Merlot, and not expecially good examples of those. Ah well.
Abovementioned internet is in the form of a single RJ-45, so it’s time to log off and give Tanya a turn.
Ten years ago
On this place, 10 years ago, nothing happened.
Back home though, I met Tanya.
Happy anniversary to us.