Walking alone on the shore by the ocean,
Where waves are unfurling like cold dragon's wings,
Driftwood comes floating in shapes grim and distorted;
With bellowing surf the deep ocean sings.

'Neath a small yellow moon, above cold briney spray
Are black silhouettes that facelessly flutter,
Keeping their secrets, betraying no aims;
Silently fly with not a peep nor a mutter.

And the small yellow moon is briefly occulted
By great vasty wings that encompass the sky;
Eclipsing the stars and sleeking the water--
As suddenly gone, and the surf breathes a sigh.

And o'er all, the music of wind and the water
Whispering secrets too subtle to hear,
But understood only by strange intuition:
Too eldritch for joy, more awesome than fear.

Wand'ring in silence through grey-litten dreamlands
Brought on by reading an abhorréd tome;
Then, timidly, sunlight leaks through the shutters,
Ending the vision and bringing me home.

---

Inspired by a dream which included many other details that I hope someday to work into a story.

If you care to read a different story I once wrote about nightgaunts, you may go to What Is Within You....

This is not meant to be a comprehensive post about various 9x18mm pistols.  It's just something I thought I'd throw together for those few readers of this blog who are less familiar with firearms than I am, inspired by some things seen at the gun show today.

Just because someone puts a tag on a pistol that says "Makarov," and it shoots 9x18mm ammunition, that does not mean it's actually a Makarov.  Here is a picture of my Bulgarian Makarov which has Pearce replacement grips.  The Makarov has a single grip screw in the back of the grips.


Note the elegant sweep of the frame leading up to the end of the barrel, the large oval base of the safety, the flat bottom of the magazine, and the more prominent sights.  Okay, it's hard to see what I mean about the sights.  Here's another Bulgie Mak which also has replacement grips.


Note also the round, serrated, but still somewhat difficult to access magazine release at the bottom right.  Some Makarov owners will slip a metal key ring loop on the release to make access easier.  Also note the large and easy to access slide release just above and to the right of the trigger.


This, on the other hand, is a FEG (Hungarian) PA-63.  Note the curved bottom of the magazine, the less prominent sights, and the magazine release is completely different.  Where is it, anyway?  That button at the top of the grips?  I'm not sure, but a quick study of these two photos will show that it is obviously not a Makarov.  Also note the safety has a different shape, and the grip screw on the side of the grips.  Where is the slide release?


This is a Polish P-64.  On this one, note the very inelegant shape of the frame, the different shape of the safety, the curved extension of the magazine (and where is the mag release, again?), the grip screw on the side of the grips, the almost nonexistent sights, and a different hammer.  All things that obviously set it apart from the Makarov.  Note also the original stampings of "9MM" and "P-64," and that it looks like someone else later laser-etched the words "MAKAROV" and "X18" onto the slide.  And once more, where is the slide release?

I write this post because today I saw more than one instance at the gun show where the tag attached to the pistol stated "MAKAROV," when it is obvious to anyone who owns one that they are not.  The two examples I've shown here are not the only ones, they are just the ones I most frequently encounter.

These guns use 9x18mm ammo, just like the Makarov.  However, there are no interchangeable parts, and that includes the magazines.  These guns may be perfectly good guns.  I don't have any personal experience with them, so I can't say.  But if you are looking for a Makarov, you should know that these are not Makarovs just because they use the same ammo and a seller says they are.

All but the first picture are from makarov.com, where you can find plenty of information about Makarovs and other pistols that use 9x18mm ammunition.

Sometimes I can figure out how to backwards engineer things.  Note the cool new satirical ribbon in the top right corner.  I still need to tweak the image itself to get it just right, but at least I know that it works.  It's just a matter of polishing up the image and re-uploading it.  I'll probably have to come up with some other ribbons too, just for kicks.

If I read the news correctly, Eponym has upgraded my package to 5 gigs bandwidth per month, but at no increase in price for me.  New members will have to pay $5 more per month for the same package, however, because earlier members such as myself are grandfathered in at the old price.  So I shouldn't have any more end-of-month bandwidth outages.  (Famous last words).

My old bandwidth limit was 2 gigs, so 5 gigs should put me well out of the danger zone for a long time to come.

Thanks, Eponym!

Or, downs and ups at the gun show.  As soon as I walked in, I spotted a Model 1894C Marlin carbine in .357.  The price was right.  I gave it a look over and decided to buy it.

But, the guy's machine that he tried scanning my card with wouldn't work.  After several tries, we gave up.

Feeling very frustrated I continued to walk the floor.  The Puma rifles that I had seen before were not to be found.  Then I came across another dealer with several rifles from EMF.  One of them caught my eye, both because of its case-hardened finish and because of its price.  I checked it out.  He told me it was the last of its kind that he had, because from now on they are going to be putting safeties on them.  Who needs a safety on a replica of an 1892 Winchester?  I handed him the card and he processed it the old-fashioned way, with one of those handheld card kerchunkers with carbon paper.  By the time I got home I had an email waiting from Paypal that the charge had gone through as it was supposed to.  I don't know what was wrong with that other guy's scanner.

I'm not so sorry that I couldn't get the Marlin.  It had only the minimum legal length barrel, and the barrel was ported!  Porting on a .357 carbine?  After thinking about it, maybe that wasn't what I wanted after all.

The EMF rifle has a 20" barrel.  They don't have pictures of it on their website anymore because it has been removed from production and they haven't started actually putting out the new version with safety yet.  But it's a replica 1892 Winchester.  Has a saddle ring.  Total price right at $460.

And since it's my wife's birthday today, we bought her a fancy candle from the wife of the man I bought the gun from.  She threw in an extra small candle for free since I had bought a gun.  My son picked out the candles.

The dealer is Jerry McDaniel of The Outdoor Shop from Kirbyville, Texas (no website).  He told me he does the gun show circuit only during October through May.  He sells mainly cowboy action guns.

I'll have pictures of the rifle and a range report A.S.A.P.

Other good news:  the folks who sell those great candied jalapenos are back!!!  I only wish I had had a few more dollars cash to buy a jar of them.  I'll get some next time.

ADDENDUM:  The more I think about that ported Marlin, the more I think someone goofed when they ported it.  It only had a 16 1/2" barrel, and with all that porting on it, the barrel length was essentially reduced to 15 inches.