Gold Standards VI – The .30-06 Springfield

by | Mar 16, 2020 | Guns, History, Outdoors, Products You Need | 287 comments

The Perfect Centerfire Rifle Cartridge

Resolved: The .30-06 Springfield, originally known as the Caliber .30 U.S. Govt Model of 1906, is the standard by which all North American centerfire big-game cartridges must be judged.  This round not only has great advantages of versatility, being able to be loaded for any game from groundhogs to moose; it has also served as father and grandfather to more centerfire rifle cartridges than any other.  I’ve often said that if you can own only one centerfire rifle, buy a .30-06.  This great old round has long been the gold standard for all centerfire big-game rifle cartridges.  Here’s why.

The Forerunners

The influences that led to the genesis of the .30-06 come were twofold.

First:

When the last decade of the nineteenth century began, the United States Army was still using the 1873 “Trapdoor” Springfield single-shot rifle and its .45-70 black-powder cartridge.  When the .45-70 was new, it was considered a “small-bore” round by the standards of its day – “its day” being the 1870s.  In 1890, smokeless powder was the new standard.  In Germany, the GEW98 rifle was shooting the new 7.92x57mm smokeless-powder round.  In Britain, the Lee-Metford rifle and its .303 round were the new hotness.

The United States Army had some catching up to do.

What they did to catch up, initially, was to adopt a foreign-designed rifle.  The Krag–Jørgensen was a rather odd bolt gun, originally designed by the Norwegians Ole Herman Johannes Krag and Erik Jørgensen in the late 19th century.  In 1892 the Army held a design competition, testing several different rifle designs before settling on what would become the Springfield Model 1892–99 rifles.

The “Krag” was something of an oddball by today’s reckoning.  The Army had specified a couple of things in their first repeater, namely a magazine cut-off to allow the use of the gun as a single shot while reserving the rounds in the magazine.  Another requirement was that the rifle’s magazine should allow “topping-up” the piece with single rounds.

The Krag met those requirements with a magazine that loaded through a spring-loaded gate on the right-hand side of the rifle.  This was an interesting arrangement, as one could drop fresh rounds into the magazine without opening the bolt, leaving the rifle in a ready-to-fire state while reloading.  The action was smooth in operation, and in fact was popular as the basis for custom sporters until right around World War II.

To go along with the new rifle was the Army’s first .30 caliber smokeless powder cartridge.  The .30 US Army, also known as the .30-40 Krag, was adopted in 1892 along with the first iterations of the Krag rifle.  This was a rimmed cartridge launching a 220-grain bullet at about 2,000 fps.  This wouldn’t blow up many skirts today, but at the time this was a respectable figure.

The Army now had a reliable repeater firing a smokeless-powder round, but they weren’t done yet.

Second:

When the Springfield Armory began considering a new service rifle and cartridge, they clearly looked very hard at the products of the Mauser-Werke in Oberndorf.  The 1892 competition had evaluated the 93/95 pattern Mausers, a weaker, small-ring design with a cock-on-close bolt that required the soldier to push the bolt closed against the mainspring.

Just a few years later, though, Mauser had made a great leap forward, one that we have examined in these virtual pages before, that being the big, tough Model 98 action.

Germany’s GEW98 rifle had a lot going for it:  A strong, reliable action, a completely enclosed box magazine that loaded from stripper clips but could still be “topped up” with single rounds, and a slick, rimless, powerful smokeless-powder cartridge.

Also, in 1898, the United States entered a little fray that became known as the Spanish-American War.  During that fracas the Spanish troops were armed with M1893 Mausers, the aforementioned small-ring design which had its weaknesses – but the cartridge they were using was not one of those weaknesses.  The Spanish had adopted the 7.57mm round, which fired a 173-grain bullet at 2,300fps.  The Spaniards, loading their five-shot 93s with stripper clips, kept up an impressive rate of fire at considerable ranges.  The 7x57mm round developed rather higher pressures than the .30US, pressures that the Krag action weren’t up to.

If the U.S. was to match or (preferably) exceed the performance of the Spanish Mausers, a new design was required.

The New Rifle

The 1903 Springfield Rifle. I need one.

The genesis of the new Springfield rifle began with a prototype Model 1900 based on the M1893 Spanish Mauser.  This design was quickly rejected.  In 1901, a new prototype, the Model 1901, was produced; this version had a cock-on-open bolt, a Mauser-style magazine with a magazine cutoff, a 30-inch barrel and the sights from the Krag rifle.  With this version Springfield came closer to meeting the Army’s requirements, but it took two more years to finalize the design.

The result was the United States Rifle, Caliber .30, Model 1903, which became known as the “’03 Springfield.”  The new rifle had a 24” barrel, the Mauser-style staggered box magazine with a cutoff, new sights, a knurled knob on the striker to allow manual cocking and was adapted to feed with stripper clips.  The ’03 was so clearly patterned after the M98 Mauser that Mauser-Werke sued the U.S. government and was awarded $250,000 in royalties.  The 1903 also came originally with a rather fragile rod-type bayonet, which after protests by the Army and veterans of the Spanish-American was (not least of whom was one Theodore Roosevelt) was exchanged for a stouter blade-type bayonet.

It was the cartridge, however, and not the rifle that would prove to have lasting impact on the American shooting scene.

The New Cartridge

The .30-06 wasn’t the original cartridge for the new Springfield rifle.

The .30-03. These are collector’s items now.

One might note that the rifle is the Springfield 1903, while the cartridge is the Model of 1906.  There’s a three-year gap between rifle and cartridge, and that gap was filled with the .30-03.  Originally called the .30-45 for its 45-grain smokeless powder charge, the .30-03 fired a 220-grain round nose bullet at about 2,300 fps.  This was not a significant leap above the .30 US cartridge, and the new round’s tepid velocity resulted in a less-than-impressive trajectory.  The .30-03 round also developed high pressures and temperatures on firing to push that heavy bullet even to the modest velocity achieved, resulting in excessive barrel wear with the steels available at that time.  The 220-grain pill was not aerodynamic, which also had negative effects on performance at range.

So, in 1906, a new version was introduced.  The “Cartridge, Ball, caliber .30, Model of 1906”, which quickly became known as the .30-06, was based on the .30-03 but kicked things up several notches. The .30-03 case neck was shortened by .046 inches, a new cooler-burning powder was used along with a 150-grain spitzer (pointed) bullet.

Now the United States had a world-beater.  Existing Springfield rifles were ordered returned to the Springfield Armory to be refitted, which was accomplished simply by removing the barrels, turning off a portion at the chamber end, rethreading, refitting and rechambering.  The .30-06 was adopted not only for the various Browning machine guns and the Browning Automatic Rifle but also in the Pattern 17 Enfield that was built to equip troops deploying to France in the Great War.  And, of course, beginning in 1934, the .30-06 saw action in what George Patton described as the greatest battle implement ever devised by the mind of man:  The M1 Garand.

The new cartridge had a lot going for it.  The case design was near-perfect; the slight taper to the case made for reliable feeding, so much so that the design became the pattern for the .50 Browning Machine Gun case along with the 20mm and 30mm cannon cases.

Winchester quickly picked the cartridge up for the M1895 lever gun along with the Model 54 and later, the Model 70 bolt guns.  Remington chambered it for the Model 30 and later, the Model 721 bolt guns, along with the later 740 auto and 742 pump-action rifles.

The .30-06, Specified.

In fact, so many rifles in so many action types that the format of this article precludes listing them all here.  But it is said that more North American big game has been killed with the .30-06 round than with all others combined, and while the existence and popularity of the .30WCF makes me question this, I would easily agree that the .30-06 has been and remains the most popular centerfire rifle cartridge for North American big game.

Offspring

In both commercial and military use the .30-06 was a huge success.  But the superior design of the case, along with the post-war availability of cheap surplus brass, led to the development of a plethora of sporting cartridges based on the .30-06 case.

Full-length commercial offspring include:

  • .25-06 Remington
  • .270 Winchester
  • .280 Remington
  • .338-06 A-Square
  • .35 Whelen

The .30-06 case also became the foundation for the post-WW2 7.62 NATO round, adopted into commercial use as the .308 Winchester, along with its family of offshoots:

 

  • .243 Winchester
  • .260 Remington
  • 7mm-08 Remington
  • .338 Federal
  • .358 Winchester

And shall we mention wildcats?  From the .22-06 to the .400 Whelen and everywhere in between, the .30-06 case has inspired more tinkering than we could begin to describe here.

But it is said that a man may be judged by the caliber of his enemies, and so a rifle cartridge may be judged by the quality of its competition.

The Competition

In its heyday, the .30-06’s military competition included such rounds as the 7.7mm Arisaka, the 7mm and 8mm Mauser rounds, and the .303 British cartridge.  But in the civilian market, things were a bit more complicated.

Returning servicemen brought a fair number of captured Mausers and Arisakas with them; surplus sales resulted in more of these guns being imported.  Both the 7.7 Arisaka and the 8mm Mauser rounds yielded roughly .30-06 level performance, and so those cartridges were loaded by American ammunition manufacturers and saw some level of popularity, especially among budget-conscious shooters.

The real competition for the .30-06 came with the early 20th century advent of the belted magnums, based on the excellent .375 H&H case, and the mid-century advent of the various Eargesplitten Loudenboom rounds.  These cartridges, including my own favored .338 Winchester Magnum, did yield significantly more power than the .30-06, but that power came at a price; one either suffered increased recoil and report, or carried a significantly heavier rifle to deal with the kick.

While the magnums continue to be popular today, no other single round has really challenged the century-plus supremacy of the .30-06.

Today

Today, at 114 years of age, the .30-06 remains as it was, probably the most popular centerfire big-game cartridge in North America.  Properly loaded and handled, it can handle any game from woodchucks to moose; if one loses ammo to some mishap, you can get at least some kind of rounds in almost any Wal-Mart or hardware store from Fairbanks to Tallahassee.

All these factors combine to make the .30-06 Springfield a gold standard.  It was and is the standard by which all other centerfire big-game cartridge must be judged and is likely to remain so well into the 21st century.

About The Author

Animal

Animal

Semi-notorious local political gadfly and general pain in the ass. I’m firmly convinced that the Earth and all its inhabitants were placed here for my personal amusement and entertainment, and I comport myself accordingly. Vote Animal/STEVE SMITH 2024!

287 Comments

  1. Charles Easterly

    Another excellent article, Animal.

    • DEG

      Seconded.

      • Pine_Tree

        um, thirded?

      • banginglc1

        Fourthded

      • Shirley Knott

        I take the fifth.

      • Rebel Scum

        Lucky number seven.

  2. Drake

    That Springfield with .30-06 was a long-range killer in the right hands.

    In hindsight, we still would have been better off switching over to the .276 Peterson that the M1 Garand was originally designed for – would have given our guys 10-round clips and a saved a lot of heartburn in latter military rifles – but I understand why they didn’t.

  3. DEG

    The 1903 also came originally with a rather fragile rod-type bayonet, which after protests by the Army and veterans of the Spanish-American was (not least of whom was one Theodore Roosevelt) was exchanged for a stouter blade-type bayonet.

    Many of those rod bayonet equipped rifles were converted. Some, for whatever reason, were not converted. One of them in June 2018 for a winning bid of $34,000. With Amoskeag’s buyer’s premium $39,100.

  4. Gustave Lytton

    I had a sporterized ’03. Loved cycling the action, but that steel buttplate was murder on the shoulder. And the sporter conversion removed much of the beauty of the rifle. I’d take another in stock config even if it was just a safe queen.

    • Jarflax

      I always wondered about the tendency to make military issue rifles that were actively painful to shoot. I know no one cares about Tommy Atkins, but is a recoil pad really more expensive than the wasted ammo from infantrymen who are flinching with every shot?

      • Don works from Home

        The problem might be durability in the field under all conditions. Until recently, coming up with some material around 100 Durometer that wouldn’t rot away after a year in the jungle and not chip into splinters after a month of Polish winter was essentially insurmountable (think about boot soles but then increase the durability length an order of magnitude).

        I respect whoever above wrote that the 30-06 is overpowered: 1,000 foot-pounds is all you need to do the job on a 200# mammal. Give me a reasonable round (so I can cook off 100 rounds a day forever) and let me keep a steel buttplate that I can slam into someone’s skull when I need to.

    • Animal

      I’ve messed with a couple of sporterized ’03s. Yeah, a good recoil pad can be very helpful.

  5. Rebel Scum

    you can get at least some kind of rounds in almost any Wal-Mart or hardware store from Fairbanks to Tallahassee.

    You could…before COVID-19.

    • kinnath

      For some strange reason, there seems to be a run on ammo.

      • Not Adahn

        Yep, targetsportsusa.com is out of anything in 9mm cheaper than $0.25/round.

    • banginglc1

      Didn’t Wal-Mart stop carrying this ammo anyways or was that only handgun rounds?

      • Not Adahn

        handgun and scary black rifle bullets

  6. Don works from Home

    The history of tech is fascinating. I read all this stuff in the seventies in gun mags, and it’s funny how much of it is still stuck in my noggin.

    Here’s where I get foggy: Seems like a “foot” is an ancient “standard.” An inch is a twelfth of a foot, kinda the width of a manly thumb. 30 cal is “three line,” which I think was a British specification. So .30 is 3/10 of 1/12 of someone’s foot because Americans use British notation of Roman standards (who were basically spear chuckers) by which to specify submittals from rifle manufacturers 2,000 years after the last caesar.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s only been 103 years since the last Caesar.

      And only 500 years since the last ‘Emperor of Rome’

      And only 1500 years since the fall of the western empire.

      • Don works from Home

        * laughs *

        you and your significant figures

      • Jarflax

        74 years since the last Caesar.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Pizza, pizza?

    • zwak

      I think three-line is Russian. Lini is the actual word

      /pedent

      • WTF

        “pedant”
        /pedant

      • zwak

        Mmmm… Hoisted by my own petard.

        /tard.

      • Don works from Home

        * slips on irony gloves *

        No offense taken; notice I enjoy UCS.

        Short personal history: there was a time when I had all the answers or could cipher them out in short order. Then comes some denouement: the old story about X is undone by a bit of conjecture or research; if that wasn’t true, wonder what other fibs I’ve been carrying around. The engineer in me always worked more on orders of magnitude anyway, but these social rounding errors just got to be too much of life. So it turns out that few presidents are elected by a majority (of people), that sharper knives dull more quicker, that hotter coffee cooks sooner, and most of the lane changes don’t get you across town any faster. So I lost a lot of my zeal for facts since so much doesn’t matter after all.

        Then it turns out that lots of things/words are just cognates, archetypes: Eskimos and Arabs have similar ideas on a lot of things; the wheel has been invented and named in many corners. “Line” appears in almost every European language; I know Mosin spoke Russian, but I don’t think they had the market cornered on lines or tenths either one, and, anyway, 1/280 of a cubit is a weird way to lay out a bullet, but I wouldn’t put it past the czars to do just that: you could be right. The Brits were better bureaucrats than folks further east, especially after Waterloo; notice that the Germans couldn’t decide if a line should be a tenth or a twelfth of an inch, whatever an inch was . . . another question entire.

        If you inherited half the whimsy I did, you will get to a point where the rhythm of life counts for more than half-pennies. And if you size enough motors, you’ll find almost no 3.14159HP entries in the catalog, so it’s a 2.5 or a 5 and move on. And if you’ve shot as many old rifles as I have, you’ll just muse over why they did it this way or that, which manufacturing tools were around, how they chose the wood for the stocks. . . . that stuff never gets old.

        I think ли́ния is tranliterated liniya, but, as a dude with a Scottish name, who cares how some bureaucrat writes it in his book, eh?

      • Suthenboy

        Interesting. You are where I landed a decade ago.

        Not long ago one of my wife’s friends asked me a question to which I answered “I dont know.”
        She was shocked and said “But I thought you know everything”

        “I do. Just not all at the same time.”

      • DEG

        Zwak is correct. “Three-line” is Russian. The Mosin-Nagant M1891’s designation is “3-line rifle M1891”

      • Don works from Home

        I know Mosin spoke Russian

        Not a hill I’d die on, but I rather suspect this (“line”) is just a general notion. For a given time, technologists tend to share argot; these guys would travel in the same circles, read the same academe, buy from the same suppliers, and answer the same specifications. Mosin did deliver a three line prototype, but the spec would have been written the same way by most countries from Istambul to London. Enfield won the three-line job in the UK at the same time: this notion and need were on the wind, not the sole province of czarist armorers. Again, it’s a tenth of an inch, and an inch wasn’t a regular czarist unit . . . whereas it was standard in the UK.

        For me, to see it written in Russian (an idea I’ve been familiar with for four decades) doesn’t mean that was the only or first place the designation was us.

      • DEG

        I got curious and did a little poking.

        “liniya” (line) was an actual Russian unit at the time Sergei Mosin worked. It was a tenth of an inch.

        There used to be an English unit of a tenth of an inch called “line”. At the time Mosin worked, it would only have been used in the armaments industry due to foreign work as it was not part of the 1824 standardization of Imperial units.

    • Caput Lupinum

      The foot didn’t come from Rome, it was formed independently in several cultures and varied in length. People like measurements based off of the body. While not standardized, they are convenient both for ease of measurement or at least estimation and because a large amount of things everyday people are interested in measuring are generally things designed around dimensions that work well with the human body. Inches don’t come from thumbs though. Feet were generally divided into either 12 or 16 subunits, because those numbers are both highly divisible and make for easy fractional math in the days before slide rules and calculators.

  7. dbleagle

    Another great article and I concur with your opinion. The .30-06 is a great cartridge.

    I have two M1903’s. Both were handed down in my family. The first is a straight M1903A3. The second came from my great uncle to my dad and then to me. My great uncle was an infantry NCO between the world wars and he had his unit armorer turn standard weapon into a carbine on the old M22 match rifle stock. I killed my first Coues Whitetail and Javelina with it as a kid and still use it to hunt. I have added multiple elk, a moose, mucho deer, an antelope and several more javelina to my freezer with it.

    • DEG

      I have a straight-stock 1903A3 and a C-stock 1903.

      I also have two Garands. One has a Danish VAR barrel.

      The last rifle in .30-06 is a M1917.

      I saw a K-31 chambered in .30-06 on GunBroker once. From what I could find out, a handful of K-31 rifles were made to export to Swiss expat shooting clubs. Some which went to Mexico were chambered in .30-06. Because the cartridge is longer than a 7.5mm Swiss round, and the factory made as few changes as was necessary to accommodate the .30-06 round, the rifle is single shot with the magazine as a loading platform.

  8. Sean

    I own nothing in .30-06. ?

    Good article though.

    • Drake

      Same – although I had one in it’s offspring .308 – until that boat accident.

    • banginglc1

      I had a Remington 742 in .30-06, sold that and got Benelli R1 in the same. Too bad it went missing after the boating accident.

      • banginglc1

        I should clarify, the Remington 742 Jam-O-Matic as I’ve seen them often referred to, mine was worthy of the title.

  9. Charles Easterly

    Off topic: I just wanted to thank Sloop for the song selection this morning. I enjoy that song as much as I do this one .

    “No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful,
    Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful….”

  10. Timeloose

    I never owned a 30-06 until recently, but my favorite round is a 270 Win that was derived from it.

    The only 30-06 I own is a oddball rifle made by a company from Springfield CT called Kodiak. It’s a Remington 700 clone hunting rifle using old WW2 vintage Mauser actions. The company only existed for 5 years or so in the 1960’s.

  11. zwak

    The ballistic-coefficiant of 06 is… slightly less than optimal. For the most part, this matters not, but if you are looking for the purfect, UR cartrige it is a factor. This comes up in long range shooting, If I remember correctly, 7mm Mauser is right in the sweet spot for that. (edit; actually it is 7mm Rem Mag.)

    I have a .30-06 that I inherited from my FIL, a rather beautiful Mauser mark X, but have never gotten around to shooting it. Not sure why. Anyway, very good article. I enjoy these.

      • Ozymandias

        I have two friends who are world-class shooters and every time I see either of them we talk shooting. We missed each other at ShotShow, but we exchanged emails and he was raving about the 6mm round, having somewhat “moved on” from the 6.5mm Creedmoor. ” Six mill, now,” he said. “Flatter trajectory?” asked I. “Yep. Just better flight path through the air. Less susceptible to all of… those various other forces.”

        He should know because he used to shoot people for a living; I use him as my gold standard for what’s what in shooting. I check it against our other friend who is entirely a civilian shooter, no mil background at all, and they almost never disagree.

    • Suthenboy

      Why have a 308 when you can have a 30-06?

      • R C Dean

        Because my M1A won’t take .308?

        I thought .308 was basically 30-06 optimized for automatic actions.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Because .308 is entering the surplus renaissance that .30-06 was in?

      • Stillhunter

        Shorter action length for a faster cycling, more compact rifle and less weight, slightly less recoil, slightly less report, less powder per shot… all for a minimal practical reduction in performance at typical ranges. I own both, err I did before that boating accident…

  12. Drake

    I just got a summons for jury duty in May. We still going to have courts or just roving bands of vigilantes?

    • UnCivilServant

      Roving courts engaging in ad hoc tort cases.

      • robc

        The Moon in a Harsh Mistress?

      • Not Adahn

        If your harsh mistress is mooning you, she’s probably looking to switch roles.

    • robc

      tomayto/tomahto.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Thunderdome.

    • Fatty Bolger

      It’s gonna be kinda like this.

    • Nephilium

      In some good news, Cuyahoga County announced they’re setting up a phone line for people to call in to see if they need to show up for jury duty.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Huh? They don’t do that already?

      • Nephilium

        Nope. They forced everyone to come downtown and sit in the waiting room for a minimum of five days.

        With the current doom in Ohio, they finally decided this was a bad idea.

      • Ted S.

        Yeah, my county has been doing that for ages.

      • invisible finger

        I had jury duty in cook county last year. At the beginning of the day they show a propaganda video trying to make you think the whole thing is super important instead of the feeding trough it really is. They tell you there are “Over 5 million court cases in Cook County every year.”

        Being the one person in the room doing math, that comes to ONE court case for every county resident EVERY YEAR. And of course that’s the lawsuits that go to court, a subset of the lawsuits that get filed. Obviously not every court case goes to trial, and they gave no breakdown of civil versus criminal but it sure gives you an idea of how much Americans hate each other.

      • R C Dean

        that’s the lawsuits that go to court, a subset of the lawsuits that get filed

        Every lawsuit is filed with a court. Very few of them get to trial, though.

  13. PieInTheSky

    I don’t know much about guns and ammo but remembered randomly some forgotten weapons video which said the mechanism of the rifle was basically “delayed blowback” .30-06 and people found it funny and I did not get why. I think I googled at the time to find out “delayed blowback” is used for less powerful cartridges in general.

  14. Fourscore

    As always a great article, Animal. I had a Western Field (made by Mossberg), I shot several deer with it. It was a right hand and I’m not, I gave it to my son. I loved the gun, the recoil wasn’t oppressive with all the clothes I wear in deer season, had some cosmetic issues from the previous owner but was exactly good for its intended purpose. My son will never wear it out.

    About 60 years ago my friends and neighbors loaned me a Garand for a couple years but updated that later with an M-14. I enjoyed that too.

  15. Rebel Scum

    Fuck. Off. Commie.

    On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) called for the nationalization of certain parts of the supply chain, and stated that “we’re getting close to a reality where the government has to ensure that the food supply, that it is not only available, but that it’s equitably distributed.”

    De Blasio said, “We’re going to need the supply chain nationalized in some form. Right now, there’s no effort to make sure that ventilators, surgical masks, even down to hand sanitizer, all these products should be put on a 24/7 production cycle. Whatever factories anywhere can make them should be cranking them out. They should be distributed according to federal priority, as you would in a war.”

    War is the health of the state.

    • Rhywun

      “No effort”. Yup, sure. It’s amazing we all don’t just starve to death without Bill pulling the levers.

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        Of course MSNBC added their “without evidence” disclaimer to his statement, right?

    • Suthenboy

      I sure wish I could meet that guy in person.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      This is the same asshole who didn’t want to shut the schools down.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Everyone is trotting our their hobby horse.

      Even me. I’d like to see the state suspend the state and local bans on self serve gas, one time use plastic bags (that while can let coronavirus live longer than paper surface, it can also be wiped down and is a barrier to the contents inside), polystyrene food containers (which helps to keep food at a safe temperature during delivery), and individually wrapped flatware/straws. But no, can’t relax the fascist rules that would actually reduce risk for people.

      Same with the county roadside crew I saw working yesterday. Don’t let the inadvisability of clumping a dozen or more random people together inside the transport box stop the county’s free labor program.

    • R C Dean

      Now, let’s think this through.

      I think nationalizing the food supply and having it distributed by the government would lead to more lamp-posts being decorated with pubsecs than anything else they could do.

      What I’m saying is, there’s a silver lining.

      • leon

        After seeing what is happening with the Coronavirus panic, i have no hope that any government officials or politicians could be held accountable for seizing power.

  16. Suthenboy

    Huh. Someone called me yesterday asking if I had any 30-40 Krag ammo. I had two boxes but no longer have a Krag rifle so I gave them to him.

    These stories read well but history is a bit messier. There are a few of you who have experience with the military so you will know what Nelson (a navy man himself) meant when he said “The goddamned navy”. He had to fight tooth and nail to force them to switch from bronze to iron cannons.

    “Every now and then you have to shoot an admiral in order to encourage the others” – Voltaire

    In other news these damned dogs are going to be the death of me. Last night the new puppy peed on the tile floor. I got up in the middle of the night to pee myself stepped in it and did a Chevy Chase slip and fall. I landed on my face. Ugh. Apparently it jarred me so bad that I went back to bed and bled all over the sheets without knowing it. I have a black eye, cut eyebrow and split lip. I look like I was in a bad bar fight. This morning my vision was double and I still have a terrible headache. Wife was nagging me to go have someone look at me….for what? What are they gonna do?

    • Tres Cool

      They’d determine how bad that concussion is. And give you COVID-19.

      • Rhywun

        I was going to say “Cough on you?” but I thought it would be inappropriate in these dark times.

      • Drake

        It’s what plants crave.

    • AlexinCT

      Jeebuz man. Sorry to hear this Suthen. Hope you get this to not cause you a slew of problems in these troubling times.

    • Sean

      Sorry to hear about the slip & fall.

      Did you piss off a gypsy at some point?

      • Suthenboy

        This made me laugh. It hurts to laugh.

      • Tres Cool

        Did you piss off a̶ ̶g̶y̶p̶s̶y̶ gravity at some point?

        FIFY

      • Fourscore

        Suthen, the bad news is you’re going to the dogs. First the big dog takes you down, now the little guy has learned how to do it.

        Sorry to hear about the mischief the guy gave you, hope you’re feeling better.

        I always got double vision and had to drive home from the bar with one eye closed. The way they make the lines in the road these days are awful.

      • Ted S.

        A set of identical twins walks into a bar. One of the drunks at the bar sees them and does a double take. “Don’t worry,” says one of the twins, “we’re identical twins.”

        “That’s a relief,” the drunk replies. “For a minute there, I thought I was seeing four of everything!”

    • Gustave Lytton

      Dammit suthen, you seem to have the worst luck with dogs lately.

      • Suthenboy

        No shit. Not really luck though….like most misery it is self-inflicted.

    • PieInTheSky

      have you considered cats instead? Hope you are not hurt bad

      • Gender Traitor

        A cat may not bother with the pee (if you’re lucky) – it’ll just rub up against your ankles while you’re trying to walk until it trips you (and then act like it’s your fault.)

        Also what Tulip said below – get checked out. IANAD, but double vision & headache don’t sound good.

      • Suthenboy

        We have an outside cat….it came with the house. We named it ‘Front Porch Cat’
        It is the worst get under your feet cat I have ever seen. It drives me nuts.

      • invisible finger

        What’s good for the cat is good for the dogs.

    • Tulip

      You should go in. They could help you if there’s bleeding in the brain. Don’t Fuck with head injuries. Really.

    • DEG

      Sorry.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      (Bury the lede, why don’t ya?)

      GO!!

    • R C Dean

      “Every now and then you have to shoot an admiral in order to encourage the others” – Voltaire

      I thought it was Napoleon, and hanging admirals.

      Wife was nagging me to go have someone look at me….for what? What are they gonna do?

      They’re going to image the inside of your head to see if you have a bleed (and I bet you do, based on your description). Then they will monitor to see if the bleed is controlled. If it is, you go home. If its not, then they will proceed to save your life, or a big chunk of your brain, with some combination of drugs and surgery.

      Of course, the longer you put it off, the less they can do to help, if help is needed.

  17. Mad Scientist

    I had no idea that thirty aught six meant .30 caliber, 1906 spec. Thanks, Animal!

    • Shirley Knott

      Likewise. And I grew up in a gun-crazed household with a father who collected ammo.

  18. OBJ FRANKELSON

    Didn’t Springfield/the U.S. Army have to settle a patent lawsuit regarding the design of the ’03 Springfield with Mauser/Federal Republic of Germany after the second big one?

    • Animal

      Yup. There was an undisclosed settlement ordered to be paid to Mauser, $250k of which was paid when WW1 broke out. Right around that point the Springfield folks said “f**k that!” No more was paid. But the 03 is clearly a 98 Mauser clone with a couple of US Army-required modifications, namely the cocking knob and magazine cutoff.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      News you can use

    • Drake

      When I’m out in public and trying to remember not to touch my face, I feel like I’m playing some kind of college drinking game and will have to do another shot each time I forget.

      • Urthona

        I just gave up on not touching my face a long time ago. Impossible.

        Also, I know it’s considering morally and ethically wrong or some shit… but I kinda really want to get coronavirus. Just kick this things ass and walk around being all immune from then on.

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      Can I still touch other peoples’ faces?

      /Joe Biden

    • Q Continuum

      “At publishing time, Thunberg had been tossed out into the dumpster behind the Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she found David Hogg and dozens of other kids the Dems had exploited for their political agenda until they outlived their usefulness.”

      Oh shit that’s classic.

    • invisible finger

      Global warming would have killed off the coronavirus already had the goddamned left not meddled.

  19. Pine_Tree

    When explaining gun-related things to folks who don’t know much about them, one of the most interesting things to me is pointing out things like the real meaning of the “06”, or (more obviously) the 1911. A lot of people don’t get that these designs were pretty much perfected more than a century ago, and I just think it’s cool from an Engineering standpoint. Heck, even a 9mm is from back then.

    • Don works from Home

      Garand
      Mosin
      Kalashnikov
      Browning
      Schneider

      amazing what you can do with a slide rule and a french curve and some fresh air

      • leon

        Well we could have Fresh Air if trump hadn’t ruined it by killing us all with coronavirus. This is why we must sieze the means of production like De Blasio is saying.

      • JD is Unemployed

        Don’t forget that he destroyed the EPA and gave to it a CAPITALIST!

    • Gustave Lytton

      The last frame of the B-52 fleet came off the production line before Kennedy was shot. The current plan will have them flying for close to a 100 years.

      • leon

        100 Years off of that crappy Loveshack song?

      • pistoffnick

        I generally subscribe to the “there-is-no-bad-music” theory.



        Then I remember that song

      • Rhywun

        I like a lot of B-52s and even I hate that song.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Rhy, my condolences about Maggie. Did you get an answer yet?

        My mom had a 13-year-old cat with similar symptoms; turned out to be fluid buildup from metastatic cancer (I forget details).

      • Rhywun

        Thanks. No news yet. Honestly not sure if I’ll hear anything further. “Fluid” was mentioned among other possible anomalies.

      • DEG

        Rhywun, sorry.

      • Sensei

        Yeah, sorry to read about that in the old threads.

        These markets and working at home have caused my Glib time to severely decrease.

      • Shirley Knott

        So sorry for you and for Maggie.

      • JD is Unemployed

        I always wanted one of them. If I had a big ‘ol ranch I’d like to just have one parked out there, rigged up properly so as to be a useable structure.

      • JD is Unemployed

        Presumably if I had that sort of money I might be able to get the B-52s to come and play in it, too.

      • Gadfly

        The real question is if they are so good, why don’t they make more of them?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      This video brought to you by week 18 of the quarantine.

    • PieInTheSky

      <a href is rather OT

    • Drake

      Orange Man wins again!

      • ChipsnSalsa

        no spoilers

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      Some WordPress plug in doesn’t like certain symbols in the URL. Ampersand and plus are both no-nos.

      • JD is Unemployed

        I sometimes stick an &t= on my youtube links and it doesn’t seem to mind that.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Interesting, it’s an Eyepiece bug on the no page refresh comment submission feature.

      • JD is Unemployed

        One thing I generally do with muh links is to delete the ‘target’ tag and get rid of any spaces betwixt the closing ” of the URL or title and the closing triangular bracket of the open tag. I don’t now all the technical terms but I don’t know if I can do those fancy “code” tags here to demonstrate what that should look like.

  20. Gojira

    You know I gotta say, I think these articles are the single most interesting “regularly recurring feature” (for lack of a better label) that this site runs. I genuinely love reading these and am in awe of Animal’s knowledge. I mean I thought I knew a fair amount about firearms, their history, etc., but hot damn.

    • Tundra

      I only know the basics, but these are fascinating to me. The design and manufacture of freedom machines always turns me on.

      Thanks, Animal!

  21. Warty

    Two things.

    1: .30-’06 is pointlessly overpowered. The US would have been much better served by simply adopting the 7×57.
    2: Developing the 1903 in-house at Springfield was silly, since it does nothing particularly better than any post-1893 Mauser (MUH MAGAZINE CUTOFF). It would have been better to license Mauser production from DWM.
    C: You don’t have a 1903???? LOSERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

    • Suthenboy

      Good grief. I am no fan of the AR platform. No piston and gas blowing directly on the bolt? Really? 50 shots and it is red hot and all gummed up.
      M1A1 or mini 14.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’ve been drooling over a Ruger 5853 (Mini 14 with 18.5 inch barrel and 20 round capacity)

      • Drake

        I spent a decent chunk of my 20’s strapped to an M-16 and I wasn’t a big fan. I think an evil Drill Instructor designed that direct-impingement shit as an excuse to make recruits try to scrub carbon out of an impossibly small chamber all day. There are plenty of alternatives with pistons these days.

      • AlmightyJB

        I’ve shot literally 300 + rounds from my A2 in an afternoon with zero issues. On multiple occasions.

      • Drake

        Me too. I’ve also failed to get three shots in a row off without a jam at a range in Saudi Arabia.

      • Plinker762

        I’ll often rapid fire 3 mags from an AR, one after the other, with no issues. My personal experience has be much better with AR-15s than a Mini-14s. I prefer a M1 Carbine over the Mini

  22. Don works from Home

    @NateSilver538 Biden generally hasn’t done super well in our post-debate polls. This was his highest-rated debate of the cycle. I’m not really sure what the path is for Sanders to come back. It was already thin and it probably depended on Biden bellyflopping last night, and that didn’t happen.

    This is classic falling in line. They say Republicans fall in line, but everyone wants to be a winner: Dems are bandwagoning.

    • Urthona

      Even the conservatives are admitting it too. Without an audience, it was Biden’s best debate. Bernie was extremely flustered without his dumbass cheering section.

      Also, to be fair, Biden is “debating” a geriatric communist with about a 65 IQ.

  23. Nephilium

    Gods save me from non-technical managers making snap decisions about technical matters.

    • Suthenboy

      How many products have I seen like that, I cant even count them. A fantastic idea until the suit with an MBA gets hold of it.
      Re-sealable food packages….but who can actually open them? I end up cutting the tops off and repackaging the cheese/meat in a zip-lock.

      • Nephilium

        This is for things that go a bit beyond that. Company I support has had dozens of different people all sending in requests that are counter to what other people in their own department have sent in. Panic and firing off snap e-mails is not a way to manage or make decisions.

      • Tundra

        Especially today. This has to chill a little bit before anything productive will happen.

      • Nephilium

        Yeah. Now the managers who kept making changes without telling anyone are finding out that if you don’t tell the people who update shit when you make changes, the shit won’t work.

  24. robc

    I am now work from home until the end of March.

    • invisible finger

      I thought you were BFH for a long time anyway.
      (brew from home)

    • Akira

      Our IT guy got called in this weekend for a confidential project – programming 100 new laptops that the company ordered (the only way I heard is that his sister-in-law is friends with my girlfriend). I’m thinking they might roll out a WFH plan soon.

      • Nephilium

        Wouldn’t surprise me. I’d be more surprised if they tried to keep it a secret. I keep getting brought into emergency calls to discuss WFH options for different groups.

  25. Suthenboy

    I am pretty certain that both Biden and Bernie have IQ’s south of 80.

    Well, look at the time. It is time for my daily rootbeer float.

  26. JaimeRoberto Delecto

    Went pig hunting with my .30-06 last week. Not concerned about the lack of meat in the grocery store.

    • Suthenboy

      Hogs have been showing up around here lately. I was going to get one but then I thought what in hell would I do with it? Wife and I just dont eat that much anymore.
      Mac’s fresh market has pork roast on sale for 34c per pound. I dont have to smell like a horse, get blood on me or smell guts and it is already in a nifty package.

      I have gotten to the point where I understand what my grandfather meant when he would tell people “Yes, I have a fantastic fishing spot. I catch them down at the Piggly Wiggly with a silver hook.”

      • AlmightyJB

        Its terrible when hooking a fish interrupts the fishing:)

      • pistoffnick

        $0.34/lb is a good deal. I’m lucky if I can find $1.50/lb up here and I’m not all that far from Iowa, the pork raising capitol of the US

    • JD is Unemployed

      I think they had Russian help.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        I think you’re on to something!

    • Suthenboy

      I don’t know how to respond to that.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        The correct response is:

        #QuackAttack

      • robc

        I would have guessed you were Team Galactic.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        I like green. I like ducks.

      • Jarflax

        I’m not watching it. Last time I watched one of those videos I ended up wasting 2 hours.

    • robc

      Watched that this morning. Orange rocked that comeback.

      • robc

        Although not sure how it lost its huge lead to begin with.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Fuck the O’Rangers.

      • robc

        This morning was my first race, I am a hardcore O’Ranger fan for life now!

      • Heroic Mulatto

        BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

      • Heroic Mulatto

        I’ve hated the O’Rangers since the 2016 Marblelympics. They’re like the Patriots of marble sports.

      • Q Continuum

        Balls of Chaos 4 lyf.

    • The Hyperbole

      TPTB should contact that guy and see if Glibs can sponsor a team. I’mean FIRE and IJ are good causes and all but having our own marble would be a much better use of the donations IMHO.

      • Not Adahn

        Only if it can be made of real marble. And by marble I mean ivory.

    • Ozymandias

      So I don’t need to be embarrassed that I watched all of that, right? And what does it say about me that all I could think was… “Damn. That’s a great setup.”
      I can stare at those things in the airport for hours.

  27. AlmightyJB

    Can’t argue with 30-06 being the gold standard. My only addendum to that is that the 308 has less kick for a fairly small drop in ballistic performance. Add that to the much larger 308 gun market, and multiple platform availability, I would say 308 is still worth considering between the two. If you had to choose:)

    • Plinker762

      30-06 is better for heavier bullets due to case capacity

      • Don works from Home

        Absolutely true at the extreme: 30-06 is more flexible.

        But I think 762NATO brings a few more foot*pounds in Uncle Sam trim.

        In a bolt, yes: 30-06 can move mountains.

        In a semi or selective carbine when you’re humping the ammo to hunt two-leggers, I think I’m pulling a 308 out of the rack.

      • Suthenboy

        That is exactly why the 308 was adopted, then the 223. You can carry more ammo.

    • Suthenboy

      Everything you need to know about 30-06

      https://archive.org/details/Hatchers_Notebook/mode/2up

      How it came about and why it is what it is. There is a huge amount of interesting info on general ballistics as well.
      Well worth the time it takes to read.

      • AlmightyJB

        Cool. Thx!

  28. AlmightyJB

    Great article btw!

  29. Don works from Home

    Six days WFH with nothing in the inbox.

    How long they gonna pay for this?

    • Nephilium

      If you want, I can forward you all my e-mails.

      • Don works from Home

        * wipes away tear *

        I knew I could depend on you!

  30. Suthenboy

    Chuck-e-cheese is closed for 30 days. Movie theaters too. I dont know what else is closing.
    This is horseshit. We have had a dozen apocalypses in my lifetime. H1N1, swine flu, bird flu, hell, I cant even remember the names of them all and none of them had this kind of reaction.
    I think the media whipped this panic up to torpedo the economy so they can get rid of Trump.

    • Don works from Home

      The people least able to stave off a loss of cashflow are also the least likely to vote. I don’t think it moves the needle; I’m trying to think of a purple state is might flip and why/how.

      • leon

        It certainly won’t change anyone who had already made up their mind

      • Suthenboy

        I have a relative that is, she thinks, a closet commie. She is giddy over the idea that this is what will finally bring down Donnie Twoscoops. It is disgusting. I told her on the phone a few days ago “Trump is going to be re-elected like the sun is going to come up. Hillary Clinton is NEVER going to be president. ”
        I could hear the air go out of her over the phone. She knows it is true but she had not heard it flatly said out loud before.

      • Don works from Home

        I don’t doubt it

        But the media didn’t move the needle: she was already going to vote against OrangeMan.

    • PieInTheSky

      what about the turtle flu?

      • invisible finger

        enough of that strawman

      • Suthenboy

        Was that a thing? I cant remember all of them.
        I. guess because we think of everything in terms of our own life….a birth, a plot, an ending….that we have an inborn idea of apocalypse. It is ridiculous really.

        A few years ago an uncle asked me “Life, What does it all mean?”
        I said why do you think life has to have a meaning? The universe doesn’t give a shit about that.

        When my son was in grade school he was studying the solar system. To give him an idea of scale I used a yoga ball (3ft diameter) as the sun and paced off 97 feet. He stood by the sun and I held up a 17 caliber (0.177 inches) BB. That is aproximatly the scale of the size/distance relationship of the sun and earth. At that distance you cant even see the BB from the sun. Our planet is a speck of dust that the sun cant even see. I have no idea why people think their own ass is the center of the universe and the reason for everything.

      • PieInTheSky

        that was from a tv show called parks and recreation.

    • Fatty Bolger

      There was an article on Yahoo headlined “The case for shuttering the economy to battle coronavirus”. This was my favorite comment:

      Chuck 12 hours ago
      While everyone is talking about shutting everything down, let’s suspend elections for a year and see how fast coronavirus becomes a thing of the past

    • Tres Cool

      I see this more of a ‘dry-run’ to see how far they can push things in the interest of ‘public health’ for when the times comes actual martial law is imposed.

      /goes to get more tin-foil

      • Mojeaux

        martial law

        I told Mr. Mojeaux last night that this is going to come to martial law.

        Never mind what it’s going to do to the economy.

      • Tres Cool

        I’d share my Reynolds Wrap with you but, ya know……social distancing

      • Gustave Lytton

        Well, no shit it’s probably going to end up with martial law.

        And the economy is going to struggle under any scenario. It’s been a house of cards for a while.

      • Tres Cool

        Some Glib remarked that months ago some other Glib mentioned that the plan to get Trump out was to burn the whole thing down.
        I don’t think its that far-fetched at this point.

        Look at the national response to an infection that, in 85% of the cases, is a cold or mild flu.

      • Tres Cool

        Now that’s gonna be stuck in my head for the rest of the afternoon. Thanks, a-hole.

      • Nephilium

        I’ve had it running through my head for the past couple weeks. I figure it’s good to spread the love every once in a while.

      • PieInTheSky

        When I was a younger man there was a silly tv show with a portly chineese gentleman called Martial Law

      • R C Dean

        That is certainly consistent with what Our Masters are doing. I doubt most of them are that smart, but it will have the same effect.

        The Repubs are lining up behind a bill that will destroy small businesses – an expansion of FMLA to every business in the country, with a requirement that sick leave of more than 14 days (I think) be paid. Indefinitely, as near as I can tell.

        Oh, if you are smaller than 50 employees, you can apply for an exemption. Which will probably be granted/denied within a few years after you go bankrupt.

      • leon

        Fuck the GOP

      • Don works from Home

        FoxNews hires Yang, Buttigieg, and Matthews to explain new program while Limbaugh roars his approval.

      • leon

        Society conserved again!

        AND BY CONSERVED GOP MEAN…

  31. Sean

    Sgammo.com has stopped taking new orders because they’ve been swamped. ?

    • kinnath

      Yup. Saw that. Target Sport USA is out of stock on almost everything.

      Cheaper than Dirt has ammo in stock but it is no longer cheaper than dirt. Price gouging for the win!

      I still ordered some.

    • Akira

      That blows… I ordered 1000 rounds each of 9mm and 7.62×39 from Sportsman’s Guide (doesn’t look like they’ve shut off orders yet).

  32. banginglc1

    Well, they’ve done it. They got my lady-friend all freaked out over the virus. Actual numbers are not helping. She’s freaking out because her daughter is immunocompromised. After all my research, it doesn’t appear that a single child has died from it, immunocompromised or not. But, they’ve freaked her out enough that I can’t overcome it with logic anymore.

    Thanks government/media/TOP MEN!

    • PieInTheSky

      So question: how worse, if any, would you say it would need to be to warrant the government actions you see

      • banginglc1

        That’s a good question. In my dream world there are no government schools and very few government employees. So no government action would be needed at all. But, We don’t live in my dream world.

        I think businesses should make the decision, not any of the government action I see. I keep hearing they want to flatten the curve. But if we isolate too much there is no curve, it stays flat. Then in 3 weeks when people can’t stand being cooped up any longer, they are going to go out anyways. When they do, cases will skyrocket. I really believe we’re just pushing the crisis back at this point, not stopping it or spreading it out like they *say* they want.

      • banginglc1

        Further, this is a dream scenario for authoritarians.

        If the virus does stay contained, they can say how well their policies worked, even if it just died due to proper sanitation and spring weather. If it doesn’t and my scenario above happens, they’ll tell us how much worse it would have been if we hadn’t done so much containment.

      • invisible finger

        As I said earlier, they only want to flatten the curve because most governments have limited the number of hospitals and doctors that are allowed to exist.

      • PieInTheSky

        So in libertopia there would be no measures in an epidemic beyond what each HOA would decide

      • Gustave Lytton

        I doubt we’re anywhere near to flattening the curve at this point that it will be down to flat or close to it. Probably about 2 weeks, maybe a little more, behind Italy and the number of people who aren’t taking this seriously (not the panic stock up on whatever, but actually modifying their behavior by improving personal hygiene and reducing social contact of themselves and their families) is still pretty high.

        If it was to that point, there would be a possibility of achieving containment rather than just mitigation.

      • R C Dean

        It looks like it took around 90 – 120 days to peak in China*, and a good chunk of their countermeasures were useless at best. I still think the way to bet is that this is a pretty ordinary infectious disease in terms of transmissibility, and on the higher end of flu season mortality.

        IOW – approximately zero special countermeasures would have been fine. Countries who underinvested in their health care systems would fail the stress test, but they were going to fail a stress test sooner or later anyway. The US has not underinvested in its health care system (CON can produce a very localized shortage, at times, but nothing more than that), and will be fine, except for the damage done by the panic.

        *Caveat: Chinese data

      • Gustave Lytton

        I do hope you’re right. All the same, take care of your employees so if it should SHTF here, they’re protected.

      • Suthenboy

        I would say none. Katrina convinced me, because I saw it up close and very personal, that government always makes things worse. When the shit hits the fan and things need to be actually done the best thing the government can do it get the hell out of the way.

        “Every situation is made infinitely worse by the arrival of a policeman.” – Mark Twain
        Things haven’t changed much since his day.

      • Tres Cool

        + Cajun Navy

    • R C Dean

      her daughter is immunocompromised

      This is the new fad “look-at-me” thing in the neurotic mommy world. We hear this a lot, allofasudden, and about 90+% of the time the li’l snowflake isn’t the least bit immunocompromised. Its mostly a combination of neurotic every-sniffle-is-a-fatal-disease, and a way to get special accommodations.

      There are a few immunocompromised kids out there, but not many. Frankly, a fair number who are truly immunocompromized die pretty young.

      • banginglc1

        To be fair, her daughter is immunocompromised and IS going to die young, Most likely from an infection. She’s got recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, and a severe form at that.

      • R C Dean

        recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa

        That’s legit, no question.

        And it sucks, about as hard as can be.

  33. RAHeinlein

    Tundra: Just catching-up on the links after bugging-out of Chicago this morning. So happy to hear your son is headed home – what a relief for your family!

    • Tundra

      Thank you. It’s been a challenging few days, but we’re getting closer. Should be landing in Detroit shortly. Then one more leg here.

      Is yours home?

  34. Mojeaux

    I am working from home until the end of March also.

    • Ted S.

      I thought you always worked from home.

      • Mojeaux

        Right, so…business as usual. This past week was awful and this weekend (particularly yesterday) was brutal. There is no such thing as a weekend or a day off for me.

    • Gender Traitor

      Ooh! Lucky y-….. Hey! Wait a minute!

      • Mojeaux

        Exactly. :/

  35. Rebel Scum

    Apparently the office/company plan, should it become necessary, is to have people work from home. But we would have to take our work computers/monitors and set them up at home because of all the programs we have to use. I am not sure how everything will work regarding our network/server/licenses. They think this is easier than remote desktop. Maybe it is. Personally I wouldn’t mind being able to stay in bed until 7 and go to work in my underwear. I already use the smallest bedroom in the house as my home office.

    • PieInTheSky

      i have my laptop and my own monitor. I could have taken the work monitor but no point in that.

      • Rebel Scum

        I have twin monitors at work that are way better than the one I have at home.

    • Nephilium

      Depends on how the VPN and systems are set up. If it wasn’t built for WFH, expect a rough ride.

  36. PieInTheSky

    Canadia closed it’s borders. My colleague decided against his US holiday, I am not sure ROmania is on the no entry to US list, but I have a feeling getting past customs would be a bitch anyway. It is difficult as it is, I understand.

    • leon

      What are they gonna do? Throw syrup at you?

      Seriously though it is funny how all these places are jumping on closing their borders, when that is the exact opposite of what the enlightened western nations have been preaching for the last 10 years. Denmark closed theirs and they are part of the freaking EU.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Not just Denmark. Germany, Austria, and a number of others have curtailed open borders.

    • Q Continuum

      “After Cooper announced his plans, Steve Smith, who owns the bar with Kid Rock’s name on it”

      STEVE SMITH ALWAYS OPEN FOR BUSINESS

      • Gender Traitor

        I think you mean “YOU ALWAYS OPEN FOR BUSINESS FROM STEVE SMITH!”

      • Rhywun

        BUSINESS IN FRONT, PARTY IN REAR

    • Suthenboy

      The more I hear about this hysteria and it being used as an excuse for authoritarian bullshit the madder I get.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Take a Valium then because it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

      • Q Continuum

        No kidding. I couldn’t be less concerned about the virus. What I am concerned about is just how easily the populace was whipped up into a state of complete hysteria over nothing and how willing, eager even, they are to throw away their rights to appease the angry gods.

      • leon

        We need to find a place out west where we can all gather and form our own township, with a specific glib charter. It shat start with “FUCK OF SLAVER”

      • Sean

        Can we start tossing virgins into volcanoes yet?

      • Tres Cool

        Toss the virgins but spare the sluts. Sluts…..know stuff.

      • leon

        Me too, I went on a huge rant last night, and my wife told me i needed to calm down before we got to the in-laws house.

      • banginglc1

        That’s where I got myself in trouble today.

      • Nephilium

        Hah! I can’t see the girlfriend’s family. They’re high risk, and I just recently traveled!

        The universe is DOOMED! Different link, for variety.

      • Suthenboy

        And I was a grumpy son of a bitch to start with.

      • Sean

        https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/pennsylvania/gov-wolf-orders-all-non-essential-businesses-in-the-state/article_9ac17b18-67ad-11ea-b945-3ff4194e7698.html

        HARRISBURG, Pa. – Gov. Tom Wolf ordered all non-essential stores, restaurants, bars, and programs for seniors in Pennsylvania to close for two weeks over coronavirus concerns.

        Essential services, like grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations, will remain open. Trash collection will continue and and medical facilities will remain open, Wolf said.

        Restaurants will be takeout only.

        ? ?

      • Q Continuum

        fapfapfapfapfapfapfap

        /statists

      • Plinker762

        Who defines non-essential?

      • Rhywun

        I’m trying to figure out if liquor stores here will close.

      • Timeloose

        WTF does this mean. We don’t just have bars, restaurants, and yoga studios in this state. I work at a manufacturing plant, we can’t shut down for 2 weeks without some sort of preparation.

      • R C Dean

        And all over something that looks like, realistically, a bad second flu season.

        A bug with a lower mortality rate than SARS or H1N1.

        No telling how many people in the US have already had it and wrote it off as a bad cold, which is how it presents in the vast, vast majority of people.

    • Gender Traitor

      The day’s not over.

    • Q Continuum

      The day’s not over.

    • Jarflax

      Day’s young

      • The Hyperbole

        Also unless Don is either The Hat or The Hair he hasn’t heard everything that Trump said today.

      • Don works from Home

        two world-class health officials at his elbow

        ” I spoke with my son and he says ‘it’s bad’ ”

        Now that the Middle East is all squared away * claps dust off hands *

    • Suthenboy

      Dont worry, the Dems are making up for it with lunacy in abundance.

  37. Ozymandias

    Hey, let me inject some sunshine into your doom and gloom, Judge Nap style.

    What if people don’t obey all of these insane orders and… just keep living their lives? And… what if nothing horrible happens?

    In the rapid news-cycle of our lifetime, we have watched the complete implosion of the credibility of all of the major media outlets, print and television. Just think about that for a minute. Radio is largely satellite now; terrestrial radio that matters (if at all ) is pop music and AM talk.

    I wonder what happens if all of this screeching at all quarters is still going on and in a few months there’s really no noticeable impact. What happens then? Just a thought.