Awww...Isn't She Cute...

This is a humbling moment for me. This proud new father would like to welcome home the newest member of his family...

At around 7pm this evening, I brought home my newest battlerifle, Carolyn "The *edited*" McCarthy. She weighed in at around 9lbs and probably 32 inches long. Kinda homely, in a Git 'R Done sort of way, but she's got her own special charm. Sort of like a newborn baby, so ugly they're cute. At least, most people tell me they're cute, I just see the "so ugly" part.

Anyhoo, I took the last 2 hours cleaning her up. The techs who assemble these particular rifles (of which I now have 3) have been charitably compared, online, to a band of drunken monkeys. My first battlerifle (John Kerry) was manufactured during the ban, and was in as good or better condition than most of the ARs and M1As I see. The second one (Nancy Pelosi) was dirtier, and the wood was worse, but the metal was higher quality. Carolyn was fantastically dirty - I ran the cover underwater for about ten minutes and it's still slick with paint. There's metal shavings all over the inside of the gun, even the barrel. The handguard doesn't fit quite right, and the wood looks like fiberboard. Metal's nice though. The overall quality has gone up, but quality control has hit the skids. I did what I could, but she's getting a gasoline bath once I start modding her.

And hoo boy, do I intend to mod her. Kinda cute now, like I said, in a homely way, but this is going to be my goto gun, what I keep under my bed for home defense (and no, rifle rounds aren't any worse at overpenetration than pistol rounds, go look at the http://www.theboxotruth.com). Anyway, the first thing that's gonna get added is a folding stock. Perfect for under-the-bed storage. A nice quick-detach sling will get connected to that. Then a new ergonomic pistol grip, a quad rail set, and a front pistol grip. Maybe a flashlight too. Lessee here...that's 1, 2, carry the 16...that's 4 total evil features on one gun, and one that's been specifically targetted for elimination too.

Take that, Carolyn McCarthy.

You...witch.

(Yes, WITCH was the word I was looking for, NOT the one that rhymes with it! Nope, it was witch!)