The Official 2nd Amendment Appreciation Thread

[txbo]

You already know this, but MGRS is based on a grid system of 100,000 m/squares. Good for land nav, and even better for talking in the same language as the targeting systems for precision guided munitions. Has its' limits when you get to around 80 degrees north or south. Then again, who's invading (or bombing) there?

I can speak both, but I'm fluent in marine navigation. Remember, the current system of Latitude and Longitude in use tracks back to a guy named Gerardus Mercator, who came up with the system we still use today back in 1567-ish.

It ain't broke. Why fix it?

Impressive Wolf.

 

[golfballs]

Custom Engraving | San Antonio Laser Engraving

 

[NorthDallas40]

You already know this, but MGRS is based on a grid system of 100,000 m/squares. Good for land nav, and even better for talking in the same language as the targeting systems for precision guided munitions. Has its' limits when you get to around 80 degrees north or south. Then again, who's invading (or bombing) there?

I can speak both, but I'm fluent in marine navigation. Remember, the current system of Latitude and Longitude in use tracks back to a guy named Gerardus Mercator, who came up with the system we still use today back in 1567-ish.

It ain't broke. Why fix it?

For my early years most of our stuff was Navy and Air Force. So i finally come in contact with the land forces and they ask me about a “10 digit coordinate” accuracy. I’m like “a what?” And they give me a funny alpha numeric code with letters at the front followed by 10 numbers. I’m like wtf is this? That’s a map coordinate. No it’s not. Yes it is. Welcome to MGRS. So I took a crash course. It’s easy, intuitive, and lends itself easily to its paired sector map. Thus... I must hate it. 😬

I just get hung up on the built in errors on the edges and at steeper latitudes like you pointed also. But... all of our land forces utilize it almost exclusively.

 

[txbo]

For my early years most of our stuff was Navy and Air Force. So i finally come in contact with the land forces and they ask me about a “10 digit coordinate” accuracy. I’m like “a what?” And they give me a funny alpha numeric code with letters at the front followed by 10 numbers. I’m like wtf is this? That’s a map coordinate. No it’s not. Yes it is. Welcome to MGRS. So I took a crash course. It’s easy, intuitive, and lends itself easily to its paired sector map. Thus... I must hate it. 😬

I just get hung up on the built in errors on the edges and at steeper latitudes like you pointed also. But... all of our land forces utilize it almost exclusively.

Fascinating stuff.

 

[UT_Dutchman]

I could go on for pages about the potential disaster-in-waiting, on many levels, thanks to our almost sole-source dependency on GPS. Maybe later.

On another note, having a great time up in the Holy Land (Smokies). Our cabin looks out at Mt. LeConte, and we have had incredible sunrises the last two mornings. Bear all over the place. They are always at the cabin, but we saw a mother and 3 cubs on Roaring Fork; drove by one bear in the downtown area; and we get a parade of another mother and 3 cubs by the cabin around 8:15 in the evening. It bothers me how close the bears are getting. People just don't know how to give them their space, and if/when they get to close to momma/cubs, bad things can happen.

Weather turning against us starting tomorrow, so we'll go hit Cades Cove earrrrly tomorrow morning, then hop over to Townsend to visit ABR and this phenomenal coffee spot (Artistic Bean). Yeah, they probably voted for Bernie, but they turn out a mean cup of brew, and we always get a bag of their roasted espresso beans to nibble on.

If we can ever retire, if will be up here, what with home being where the heart is. Probably have to settle for some flat land in the Townsend / Walland area. That's close enough.

Trying to figure out what to do with a hyper-active 11 year old nephew when the storms come. Wore him out on a hike today...ha ha ha. Already planning on the Aquarium. Suggestions welcome.

There's just a lot more bears up there now. The park service has closed 2 backcountry campsites and has warnings for at least 2 shelters because of bear activity. The bears know where the food is, where people are. I think everyone should practice the Leave no Trace ideology.

 

[WallyBalls]

I could go on for pages about the potential disaster-in-waiting, on many levels, thanks to our almost sole-source dependency on GPS. Maybe later.

On another note, having a great time up in the Holy Land (Smokies). Our cabin looks out at Mt. LeConte, and we have had incredible sunrises the last two mornings. Bear all over the place. They are always at the cabin, but we saw a mother and 3 cubs on Roaring Fork; drove by one bear in the downtown area; and we get a parade of another mother and 3 cubs by the cabin around 8:15 in the evening. It bothers me how close the bears are getting. People just don't know how to give them their space, and if/when they get to close to momma/cubs, bad things can happen.

Weather turning against us starting tomorrow, so we'll go hit Cades Cove earrrrly tomorrow morning, then hop over to Townsend to visit ABR and this phenomenal coffee spot (Artistic Bean). Yeah, they probably voted for Bernie, but they turn out a mean cup of brew, and we always get a bag of their roasted espresso beans to nibble on.

If we can ever retire, if will be up here, what with home being where the heart is. Probably have to settle for some flat land in the Townsend / Walland area. That's close enough.

Trying to figure out what to do with a hyper-active 11 year old nephew when the storms come. Wore him out on a hike today...ha ha ha. Already planning on the Aquarium. Suggestions welcome.

My wife has become obsessed with ABR.

She doesn’t even need TV now, she just watches the bears.

 

[GreyWolf1129]

My wife has become obsessed with ABR.

She doesn’t even need TV now, she just watches the bears.

Ha. Yeah, we've been members for years now, and we go by their place in Townsend every year, including this year, when we go up for vacation. Those folks are top-notch.

Tell your wife we have one of the clay paw prints of "Boston". She'll know exactly what that is. A few years back, I made the suggestion that they make impressions of the paws of their bears, then reproduce them in clay and sell them. I thought it was a helluva idea to make money. They ended up doing a trial run, and we got Boston's paw print for our trouble.

We've had lunch with curator Coy. Sharp guy. Really loves what he's doing.

We kinda sorta maybe have an "in" with those folks. If there's something she's got her heart set on, shoot me a line. I'll see what we can do. Forget visiting the compound; even we can't pull that one off.

Having seen what they do first-hand, and being from that area, I can tell you that ABR is doing it right, and they spend every dollar they get on taking care of orphaned cubs. They work hand-in-hand with the UT Vet Center and TWRA, and they have established a reputation as the premier cub rehab facility in the nation, if not the world.

:salute:

 

[GreyWolf1129]

There's just a lot more bears up there now. The park service has closed 2 backcountry campsites and has warnings for at least 2 shelters because of bear activity. The bears know where the food is, where people are. I think everyone should practice the Leave no Trace ideology.

Yeah. It's sad some of the stuff we see up there now, especially around the cabins and in Cades Cove. We saw a bear...probably a yearling...on Hwy 321 just off the Parkway when we were coming back from Roaring Fork. Started to climb a tree in front of a motel, then took off running across 321. My wife was freaking out. Bear got across safely, but it hurt my heart to think about what might happen if some idiot tourist got too close.

Same with the mothers and cubs in Cades Cove. One of these days, someone's going to get mauled, but good, on the Loop Road. Frontier justice, but not good for the bear.

We had a mom and 3 cubs out back of our cabin Thursday evening. We had seen them walking by the cabin earlier in the week, so we knew they were in the area. Cubs were very healthy, which is a good sign. Last year's hard mast was solid, according to ABR, so the cubs and yearlings should be in good shape. Mom was on the thin side, which is to expected in May, but otherwise she looked good.

In over 40 years of being in and around the Smokies, including almost every trail there, I've had exactly one really close encounter with a bear. Years ago, I got trapped in the hiker's shelter at Ice Water Springs at around 10pm by a marauding male. Both of us survived, but I used up an 18-ounce can of bear fogger in the process, and didn't get a wink of sleep until the sun came up. With no way to retreat, I got lucky. But if you know what to do, and what not to do, you'll usually be okay.

Its the ones that don't who trouble me.

 

[GreyWolf1129]

Heyyyyyyyy GV! I had no idea Daniel Defense was so close to me. So it got me to thinking.....

Suppose I was thinking about a 16" heavy barrel in 1/7 twist for my 6721. Does anyone make them, and if so would you perhaps have a recommendation? I'm just asking for a friend.

 

[GreyWolf1129]

Hang on....

 

[vol_in_ar]

I think the Army made some of the same decisions. Buddy of mine that retired a few years back said about hardly anyone below O-4 or E-7 can do land nav without GPS.

wow, I learned valuable lessons walking around Ft Benning, and Ft Sill, lost in the woods, until I became profiecient...

"women grab my ass" still is stuck in my head as a means to remember conversion of grid to magnetic azimuth conversion

Wolf,

I couldn't sail around the ocean, but I can lay an artillery battery thru celestial means...and rain down hell in waves or at least I could at one time

 

[GreyWolf1129]

wow, I learned valuable lessons walking around Ft Benning, and Ft Sill, lost in the woods, until I became profiecient...

"women grab my ass" still is stuck in my head as a means to remember conversion of grid to magnetic azimuth conversion

Wolf,

I couldn't sail around the ocean, but I can lay an artillery battery thru celestial means...and rain down hell in waves or at least I could at one time

Now you've got my attention, because I have never heard of "Celestial-based Artillery Fire".

By all means, proceed. This will give me yet another opportunity to tweak the nose of the numerous current and former Coasties I am forced to work with (I kid)...an opportunity which I promise you will not go unused.

My current favorite is this: Coast Guard husband calls his wife. "Honey, we're going on deployment. I might be late for dinner."

I know....shots fired.

 

[vol_in_ar]

well technically your not firing celestial as in "star wars", but you can use your aiming circle to lay the guns based on celestial formations, ie, North Star, Big Dipper etc....

 

[GreyWolf1129]

well technically your not firing celestial as in "star wars", but you can use your aiming circle to lay the guns based on celestial formations, ie, North Star, Big Dipper etc....

Wow. I had no idea. "Celestial Artillery". Has a nice ring to it.

"This round sent to you courtesy of the North Star."

 

[ACvol3]

Yeah. It's sad some of the stuff we see up there now, especially around the cabins and in Cades Cove. We saw a bear...probably a yearling...on Hwy 321 just off the Parkway when we were coming back from Roaring Fork. Started to climb a tree in front of a motel, then took off running across 321. My wife was freaking out. Bear got across safely, but it hurt my heart to think about what might happen if some idiot tourist got too close.

Same with the mothers and cubs in Cades Cove. One of these days, someone's going to get mauled, but good, on the Loop Road. Frontier justice, but not good for the bear.

We had a mom and 3 cubs out back of our cabin Thursday evening. We had seen them walking by the cabin earlier in the week, so we knew they were in the area. Cubs were very healthy, which is a good sign. Last year's hard mast was solid, according to ABR, so the cubs and yearlings should be in good shape. Mom was on the thin side, which is to expected in May, but otherwise she looked good.

In over 40 years of being in and around the Smokies, including almost every trail there, I've had exactly one really close encounter with a bear. Years ago, I got trapped in the hiker's shelter at Ice Water Springs at around 10pm by a marauding male. Both of us survived, but I used up an 18-ounce can of bear fogger in the process, and didn't get a wink of sleep until the sun came up. With no way to retreat, I got lucky. But if you know what to do, and what not to do, you'll usually be okay.

Its the ones that don't who trouble me.

There is so much animal activity at the ice water spring shelter. I've had some crazy experiences there

Was the peacock there in the morning?

 

[hog88]

wow, I learned valuable lessons walking around Ft Benning, and Ft Sill, lost in the woods, until I became profiecient...

"women grab my ass" still is stuck in my head as a means to remember conversion of grid to magnetic azimuth conversion

Wolf,

I couldn't sail around the ocean, but I can lay an artillery battery thru celestial means...and rain down hell in waves or at least I could at one time

My first time in the field as a buck nothing private fresh to my first duty station included an all night can’t find our ass hump-a-thon. Then and there I decided I will never be in the field again without knowing where I am. I got pretty dang good at land nav after that.

 

[hog88]

well technically your not firing celestial as in "star wars", but you can use your aiming circle to lay the guns based on celestial formations, ie, North Star, Big Dipper etc....

Of course I wasn’t artillery but I have called for fire many times and never knew that. How’s that work?

 

[WallyBalls]

Ha. Yeah, we've been members for years now, and we go by their place in Townsend every year, including this year, when we go up for vacation. Those folks are top-notch.

Tell your wife we have one of the clay paw prints of "Boston". She'll know exactly what that is. A few years back, I made the suggestion that they make impressions of the paws of their bears, then reproduce them in clay and sell them. I thought it was a helluva idea to make money. They ended up doing a trial run, and we got Boston's paw print for our trouble.

We've had lunch with curator Coy. Sharp guy. Really loves what he's doing.

We kinda sorta maybe have an "in" with those folks. If there's something she's got her heart set on, shoot me a line. I'll see what we can do. Forget visiting the compound; even we can't pull that one off.

Having seen what they do first-hand, and being from that area, I can tell you that ABR is doing it right, and they spend every dollar they get on taking care of orphaned cubs. They work hand-in-hand with the UT Vet Center and TWRA, and they have established a reputation as the premier cub rehab facility in the nation, if not the world.

:salute:

Thanks man. Luckily she has an in as well. One of the people she works with lives up in Wears Valley and is one of the volunteer/bear sitters or whatever they call them (watches the monitors at night, helps the curators,...and she told me what else they do but i admittedly wasn’t paying attention). She learned real quick that there would never be a facility visit. Thankfully, she’s happy just getting “insider” info that isn’t on Facebook about the bears that come in (she gets a kick out of how some are lazy, some are playful, some are picky eaters, etc).

It really is an amazing facility. It’s so impressive to watch them bring an animal that is near death and slowly work it back to health, all while keeping it wild. They take such pride in their work. It’s nice to know they’re up there.

 

[GreyWolf1129]

Awesome. Small world. Tried to post it last night, but here's a pic from Thursday evening:

 

[GreyWolf1129]

There is so much animal activity at the ice water spring shelter. I've had some crazy experiences there

Was the peacock there in the morning?

This was a long while back, but I don't remember anything other than that bear.

We still hike when we're up there, but with age, knees, and in need of surgery for that hip, we're limited to relatively modest day hikes. Still, I think I'll drag Diana up to LeConte next year to watch the llamas eat lunch.

 

[GreyWolf1129]

Thanks man. Luckily she has an in as well. One of the people she works with lives up in Wears Valley and is one of the volunteer/bear sitters or whatever they call them (watches the monitors at night, helps the curators,...and she told me what else they do but i admittedly wasn’t paying attention). She learned real quick that there would never be a facility visit. Thankfully, she’s happy just getting “insider” info that isn’t on Facebook about the bears that come in (she gets a kick out of how some are lazy, some are playful, some are picky eaters, etc).

It really is an amazing facility. It’s so impressive to watch them bring an animal that is near death and slowly work it back to health, all while keeping it wild. They take such pride in their work. It’s nice to know they’re up there.

We have laughed, and we have cried at some of the stories from ABR. But the rare tears are worth the repeated success stories.

And then there was Milo.....

 

[WallyBalls]

We have laughed, and we have cried at some of the stories from ABR. But the rare tears are worth the repeated success stories.

And then there was Milo.....

Was he the one that was so hungry he was eating caulk or plastic or something?

 

[vol_in_ar]

Of course I wasn’t artillery but I have called for fire many times and never knew that. How’s that work?

you have to lay a battery based off of a known location, alot of times engineers will have survey stakes you can use, or you use the grid coordinates off of a Map, or a reverse azimuth off a known location on a map, ie hospital, church, school etc...

In the absence of that you can shoot an azimuth from known stars to determine your location, using the aiming circle...
Much like GW said earlier about the Navy training with sextants, I'm not sure if the Army still trains it at Ft Sill or not...

It was a lifetime ago, that I learned it

 

[UT_Dutchman]

Yeah. It's sad some of the stuff we see up there now, especially around the cabins and in Cades Cove. We saw a bear...probably a yearling...on Hwy 321 just off the Parkway when we were coming back from Roaring Fork. Started to climb a tree in front of a motel, then took off running across 321. My wife was freaking out. Bear got across safely, but it hurt my heart to think about what might happen if some idiot tourist got too close.

Same with the mothers and cubs in Cades Cove. One of these days, someone's going to get mauled, but good, on the Loop Road. Frontier justice, but not good for the bear.

We had a mom and 3 cubs out back of our cabin Thursday evening. We had seen them walking by the cabin earlier in the week, so we knew they were in the area. Cubs were very healthy, which is a good sign. Last year's hard mast was solid, according to ABR, so the cubs and yearlings should be in good shape. Mom was on the thin side, which is to expected in May, but otherwise she looked good.

In over 40 years of being in and around the Smokies, including almost every trail there, I've had exactly one really close encounter with a bear. Years ago, I got trapped in the hiker's shelter at Ice Water Springs at around 10pm by a marauding male. Both of us survived, but I used up an 18-ounce can of bear fogger in the process, and didn't get a wink of sleep until the sun came up. With no way to retreat, I got lucky. But if you know what to do, and what not to do, you'll usually be okay.

Its the ones that don't who trouble me.

Exactly right, I've witnessed a van load dismount and chase cubs into the woods with their cameras. It's really unbelievable.

 

[hog88]

you have to lay a battery based off of a known location, alot of times engineers will have survey stakes you can use, or you use the grid coordinates off of a Map, or a reverse azimuth off a known location on a map, ie hospital, church, school etc...

In the absence of that you can shoot an azimuth from known stars to determine your location, using the aiming circle...
Much like GW said earlier about the Navy training with sextants, I'm not sure if the Army still trains it at Ft Sill or not...

It was a lifetime ago, that I learned it

Makes sense, it’s all trigonometry and with known points I see it.