Friluftsliv - An Outdoor Lifestyle

Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature's sources never fail. - John Muir, Our National Parks

The Civilization Affliction

The Ever-Growing Urban Sprawl

I occasionally find myself growing depressed and my thoughts shrinking into the shadowy recesses of my mind. This darkness that grinds away at my sanity is often precipitated by the unending enterprise that is my career, my wife's career, my child's school and extracurricular activities, and general interaction with people (especially when behind the wheel). Otherwise known as civilization.

All the technology and the industry and their by-product, pollution, be it noise, air, light, water, or otherwise, drains me of vigor and humor and makes me dream of homicide and destruction. The most insidious quality about the poison that is civilization is its capacity to sneak up on me and erode my well-being at such a gradual pace that I do not realize the injury until it has bored a deep wound into my psyche.

Once I have diagnosed my malady, I know exactly which remedy to prescribe: a dose of wilderness. When I reconnect with nature by camping, hiking, or just simply sitting on a log surrounded by the serenity of the forest, my mind and body are rejuvenated. The process is much like molting; just as the snake sheds its scaly skin, I slough off the bitter husk of civilization.

If it were possible to untangle myself from the greasy tendrils of civilization, I would leave it all behind and find a nice piece of wilderness to permanently call my home, my own Walden Pond. Until that dream can be fulfilled, I will just be content with integrating nature into my life whenever and wherever I can. Bike in the local state park. Camp in the national forest. Take vacations to wild places.

Of Fjords & Friluftsliv

Geiranger Fjord, Norway

Nordmenn (that's Norwegians for the rest of us) have a word for this sort of communion with nature: friluftsliv. Friluftsliv, which is pronounced free-loofts-liv, translates to open air life, or outdoor living, but is one of those terms that really is much more complex than its translantion... much like schadenfreude or zeitgeist.

The generic meaning of friluftsliv is more about living in a manner that is spent appreciating and experiencing nature. What specifically that experience and appreciation takes form as is different for everyone, with traditions varying from family to family. It also seems to be unconcerned with accomplishment. Reaching the summit of a difficult climb is less important than feeling the texture of the mountain. Nature is not something to be conquered, but something to embrace, to become a part of.

Friluftsliv is even a course Norwegian students can take in school and one can even receive a degree[1] in it from Volda University. While friluftsliv is entrenched in Norwegian culture today and their Nordic outdoorsman (and Viking) heritage certainly made it its mark on their Scandinavian DNA, the concept is rather recent in their history.

The culture of friluftsliv was nurtured by the Outdoor Recreation Act of 1957 [2] wherein the ancient Nordic tradition of allemannsretten was made law. Allemannsretten loosely translates to "freedom to roam" but can be read literally as "all men's right." This tradition-made-law allows anyone access and passage to private uncultivated land (or even cultivated land during winter months) and the right to camp for two days (only on uncultivated property) as long as reasonable rules are abided by.

Allowing anyone to roam the wilderness has helped Norway develop a culture of nature in a nation where everyone can see the mountain, forest, and ocean with little effort. Perhaps friluftsliv is the secret to Norway's consistent appearance at the top of the World Happiness Report [3] and Human Development Index [4].

No Trespassing

Violators Will Be Shot, Survivors Will Be Shot Again

Practicing the Nordic tradition of allemannsretten in American would prove difficult at best and fatal at worst. American culture seems predominantly more about taking than sharing; drive through any rural area and you will surely be greeted by "no trespassing" signs on every other tree or fence post.

This cultural DNA can no doubt be attributed to Manifest Destiny [5] and the Right of Discovery [6][7] before it that many Christian Europeans declared when establishing colonies in the already populated Americas. After a few centuries of warring with the indigenous peoples and with each other, a sense of territorial defense was ingrained into our society.

I'm not saying this is good or bad, just that it is different from Norwegian sentiments. Besides, I can certainly appreciate wanting to keep Americans out of my backyard. However, American cultural mores like our preference for large personal space and keeping property private make another American cultural touchstone even more important.

America's Best Idea

Roosevelt Arch at Yellowstone National Park

Wallace Stegner, and American historian, author, and environmentalist, once said national parks were "the best idea we ever had." His words would later be immortalized in Ken Burn's impressive documentary, The National Parks: America's Best Idea [8]. I am inclined to agree with Mr. Stegner. America has created a priceless legacy by protecting some of our wildest places and most breathtaking vistas and making them publicly accessible.

Unlike Norway, where everyone seems to have a mountain-rimmed fjord in their backyard, the various biomes of America are spread far and wide, increasing the hardship to get out and experience various parts of nature. However, our wild places are no less spectacular and are more diverse: from tropical wetlands to high deserts and from temperate rainforests to snowy peaks. America has it covered.

It is a challenging task to describe my love for these wild places that have been set aside for everyone's enjoyment. National (and state) parks promote the American version of friluftsliv and I am grateful for the accessibility. I hope they stand strong as unmovable objects against the unstoppable force that is the inevitable march of civilization because I desperately require them for healthy escapes.

References

[1] Friluftsliv Bachelor Degree at Volda University
[2] Outdoor Recreation Act of 1957
[3] Columbia University Earth Institute's World Happiness Report
[4] United Nation's Human Development Index (Wikipedia synopsis)
[5] Manifest Destiny
[6] Papal Doctrine of Discovery
[7] SCOTUS Discovery Doctrine
[8] The National Parks: America's Best Idea on PBS

Basic Firearm Nomenclature

I have to admit that I am a pedant. Being somewhat overzealous about correcting small and large infractions of grammar and spelling is one of my character flaws. This stodgy behavior carries over into the realm of firearms when people use terminology wrong. Regardless of where you stand on the inaccurate use of firearm nomenclature, it definitely separates the educated from the uneducated. Therefore, if one wishes to sound knowledgeable about the topic of firearms, one should understand the vocabulary.

Clip or Magazine?

This is probably my biggest peeve. Calling a magazine a clip. When used in fiction by persons who are supposed to be familiar with firearms, I immediately flip the table and exit stage right. A magazine is a device that stores ammunition and feeds the cartridges into a repeating firearm. They are responsible for making the stored cartridges available to the action to be loaded into the chamber.

Using a clip to load the integral magazine of an SKS

There are many different types of magazines and most of them use a spring and follower (often incorporating a partial shape of the cartridge the corresponding firearm is chambered) to move the cartridges into position for the action. In the case of many air guns, gravity is used to position ball ammunition into place from the ammunition reservoir.

Glock Magazine Diagram

Magazines

Magazines come in many types and may be detachable or integral (fixed). Some magazines may be loaded with clips, either by inserting a clip of ammunition into the magazine or via a speed loading device.

AR-15 Box Magzine

Box

Box magazines are the most common type found in rifles and pistols today. The detachable box magazines are found in almost all autoloading pistols (the C-96 Broomhandle Mauser being an exception) and modern service-style rifles. Fixed or integral box magazines are usually found in bolt-action rifles and older design service-style rifles (many SKS rifles and the venerable M1 Garand, which also used clips to load the magazine). There are a couple of variations on the vertical box magazine worth mentioning: casket and horizontal box magazines.

The casket gets its name from the shape, where the part that feeds inside the magazine well is thinner than the rest of the body which utilizes a quad-stack design to considerably increase capacity. The FN P-90 personal defense weapon uses a horizontal feed box magazine, but this author thinks vertical and horizontal is a misnomer.

Technically, some rifles accept so-called vertical box magazines in a horizontal position (such as the famous WWII British Sten) and even on top (similar to the FN P-90, except the magazine is still vertical). I personally believe the terminology on how cartridges feed out of the magazine should be linear or perpendicular while vertical and horizontal should be used for magazine orientation while bottom, side, or top can be used to describe where on the firearm a magazine is accepted. But again, that's the pedant in me.

Beta Saddle Drum Magazine

Drum

Drum magazines differ from box magazines in that they store ammunition in a cylindrical fashion. Standard drum magazines store the cartridges parallel to the axis of feed rotation. All drum magazines I'm aware of are detachable and the firearms they attach to often accept box magazines. The advantage of drum (and rotary) magazines is their capacity to length ratio. Their disadvantages are their weight and occasional awkwardness. Not to mention the often time-consuming process of loading (many need to be disassembled, loaded, reassembled, and finally wound). But hey, you wanted the capacity so you don't need to reload, right?

Drum magazines also have several variations: helical, pan, saddle, and snail drum magazines. Helical magazines widen the drum so that cartridges follow a spiral path and thus extends the capacity, Pan magazines store the cartridges perpendicular to the axis of feed rotation, are usually top-mounted, and can sometimes accept clips (such as the Imperial Japanese Army Type 89 machine gun). Saddle drum split the ammunition into two drums on either side of the magazine well, thus reducing the overall height, but making the magazine significantly wider. Snail magazines look like have of a saddle drum and can feel very lopsided.

Rotary Magazine

Rotary

Rotary magazines are well-known for their use in the popular Ruger 10/22 rimfire rifle. They differ from box magazine in their use of a torsion spring actuated sprocket. They also tend to have a lower capacity than box magazines but may also be detachable or integral.

SRM 1016 Detachable Tubular Magazine

Tubular

Tubular magazine are popular on pump and lever action shotguns and rifles. They are often fixed, but some recent innovative shotguns, such as the SRM 1216, provide a detachable magazine.

Magazine & Clip Differences

Clips

Clips simply store multiple cartridges of ammunition together as a unit. What separates clips from magazines is the lack of a feeding mechanism. There are several types of clips.

Stripper Clips

Charger

Often called a stripper clip in reference to action one takes to charge a magazine with it. Stripper clips are often used with speed loader tools on modern magazines but the process for charging the magazine involves aligning the clip pushing down on the cartridges to load the magazine, thus stripping the clip of rounds.

En Bloc Clips

En Bloc

The en bloc clip is used to charge fixed magazines in older service rifles such as the M1 Garand and Mauser. Unlike a charger clip, the entire clip is placed inside the magazine and is often ejected (or able to be pushed out by a new clip) once all the ammunition is spent.

Moon Clips

Moon

Moon clips are used to speed load and extract revolvers and are ring shaped, like the moon. Since they also come in semi-circular versions there are also half-moon clips (which usually require two to fully reload).

Cartridge Diagram

Bullet or Cartridge?

Incorrect usage of the term bullet may be even more common than clip, but it doesn't quite set off my pedantic rage (as much). A bullet is merely the projectile that is propelled from the business end of a firearm. Before being fired, yet after being seated, and while in a packaged form that can be called ammunition that is loaded into a magazine or stored on a clip, a bullet is part of a larger assembly called a cartridge or round.

A cartridge consists of many components other than the bullet including the case (which when empty is often called brass), a powder charge, and a primer. It's an important distinction, because if you purchase a box of bullets, you better have a loading press.

Assault Rifle or Semi-Automatic Rifle?

An assault rifle is different from a sporting or semi-automatic rifle in the fact that it must be capable of selective fire (which also separates assault rifles from the even more menacing machine gun). Selective fire means that it can operate in at least one semi-automatic mode and one automatic mode (either burst, full, or both). It must also have a detachable magazine.

Some other features are used (such as being an individual weapon instead of crew-served, effective range, and intermediate cartridge power) to distinguish it from other military firearms such as a battle or sniper rifle.

It's a common misconception that the AR in AR-15 stands for Assault Rifle, but it does not. Instead, it stands for ArmaLite Rifle, the company that originally developed it. I think most people who misuse assault rifle really want to say assault weapon because they are referring to United States legal definitions of weapons that were originally regulated by the NFA[1] in response to the Prohibition-era gangland crime and the iconic Thompson sub-machine gun, known colloquially as the Tommy Gun.

Assault weapons, as defined by the now expired Federal AWB[2] must be a semi-automatic firearm that accepts a detachable magazine and two or more of the following features (however individual states may have expanded definitions):

• bayonet mount
• flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor
• folding or telescoping stock
• grenade launcher
• pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon

Accidental Discharge or Negligent Discharge?

An accidental discharge is the unexpected and undesirable discharge (firing) of a firearm caused by circumstances beyond the control of the handler, This terminology misuse is often employed by those who were mishandling firearms in order to smokescreen their negligence. If the firearm safety rules are being followed, there hopefully will not be any injury. Unfortunately, unplanned firearm discharges are most often negligent discharges and are caused by failing to observe the firearm safety rules.

Silencer or Suppressor?

I have yet to hear a firearm (as in a weapon that launches a projectile via explosive force) that was completely silenced. The correct nomenclature is suppressor, as it merely reduces decibels, but even the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms uses the silencer misnomer on their official forms and documents[3].

.The 45 Colt (left) & the .45 Schofield (right)

.45 Long Colt or .45 Colt?

For the cowboy action shooters out there, the iconic pistol cartridge that won the west is technically just .45 Colt as there is not, nor has there ever been a .45 Short Colt. However, there is a historical context in that the .45 Colt was often referred to the Long Colt in order to differentiate it from the other popular .45 caliber cartridge of the era, the .45 Schofield (which was shorter).

References

[1] National Firearms Act of 1936
[2] Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994
[3] ATF's Silencer FAQ