Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
- 241
- 3
What is this place?
This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a
court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to
optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.
The weekly Culture War threads host the most
controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are
appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy;
if in doubt, post!
Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts.
You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.
Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
New post guidelines
If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it.
A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts
such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a
submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).
Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or
significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.
If in doubt, please post it!
Rules
- Courtesy
- Content
- Engagement
- When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
- Proactively provide evidence in proportion to how partisan and inflammatory your claim might be.
- Accept temporary bans as a time-out, and don't attempt to rejoin the conversation until it's lifted.
- Don't attempt to build consensus or enforce ideological conformity.
- Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
- The Wildcard Rule
- The Metarule
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
What were you using for ammo? If it was anywhere near in the ballpark of the age of the Luger, I'd look there first -- especially if as you mention 'hangfire'.
Other than that maybe the firing pin is clogged with strudel or something? This could cause a misfire but not a hangfire -- not exactly sure how this runs on a Luger, but cleaning the century's worth of gunk out of the bolt would be DIYable. Quite unlikely that there's anything broke that would require a gunsmith unless there's a very unusual amount of miles on the thing.
New ammo. Could be that it's dirty, but the action moves quite smoothly, so I assumed it was something else. I guess I'll have to take it apart to check whether there's actual damage. Hopefully I'm smart enough to put it back together properly.
Again the Luger mechanism is a bit quirky and I'm not super-familiar since they got banned for barrel length in Canada -- but if you are getting light strikes it will be that the firing pin area (under the bolt) is either dirty or has a broken spring.
To be clear, you did experience hangfire as in click . . . . . . bang? I've never heard of this being caused by anything but bad ammo; not firing at all otoh is probably firing pin related. What do the primers look like on the failed rounds? A light/zero indentation is clearly a problem with the gun.
Aren't all handguns banned in Canada now?
Kind of -- we can keep & shoot the ones we've got, but no (legal) buying/selling (other than to the US!) until Trudeau gets his ass handed to him in the next election.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link