Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Big Honking

Arsenal Firearms (thought it was EAA...  maybe they are related to each other) actually had multiple double 1911s to fondle at the NRAcon.  I had known they made one, but didn't know they were going for production runs.

It's about as big around as a Sig.  But I always thought of Sigs as fatter than they need to be.  There was a half dozen at this display.



Look at that double mainspring housing. 



Lots of parts on the gun look stock, but obviously others have to be made for the model.  Like that mainspring housing.  It looked like one piece, no welded seam I could see, but I could be wrong.  I think it's a pretty slick build.  I wonder what it feels like to shoot?  Sorta solves the whole "only got 7 rounds" but really, you only get 7 shots as both barrels go off at once.  Some slow primers would make that double bang feel weird I bet.  At least your 'double tap' time are simultaneous.  No split.

And check out my social finger in the first pic.  I was an actual ink-stained wretch...  


Tuesday, April 29, 2014

VZ grips, again

I have spent a lot of money on VZ Grips.  I'm a repeat offender.  And I bought a set at the NRA convention.  Save shipping that way.  My favorite texture is the smooth 320S.  It's called 'smooth' because it is smoother than their more textured micarta grips, but don't thing they are slick or slippery.  The grip in a wet oily hand is still very positive.

I would get the slim grips, but something I learned before my 1911 Gunsmith/Armorer class...  The regular non slim grips have a function.  They ride up high enough to provide some support with it's 'ear' to the plunger tube in the event it starts to get loose.  If it DOES ever get loose, you are in a world of hurt, as you won't be able to release the thumb safety.

Though maybe I am over thinking the panacea.  The plunger term still has room to get loose enough and lock up the thing.  It just has less chance of falling off the gun with the support from the scales.  At least it sounds like it often feels funny a bit before it fails.  Hopefully with enough time to diagnose and address the problem.   

Forgot to mention....  The smooth gips are less painful on the skin, if your holster leather doesn't shield you from it.  IWB holster.

Who Did I Meet...

At the NRA Annual Meeting?

Since my goal was to see old friends and meet new ones face to face, I had a succesful convention.  And I met LOTS of people...

I went up there with MBtGE...


 Old NFO

Ambulance Driver ~

One of the guys from Truth About Guns

Bubblehead Les and his Buddy from Battleboy Surplus

Dave and Maureen of That's Unpossible

Oleg

Mike Vanderbouegh, who is skinny now. Didn't recognize him! Just back from Nevada.  If he is ever in a mood to tell a story, listen to him.  He is a very talented story teller.

David Codrea

Tam

RobertaX

Kathy Jackson of Cornered Cat

Turk from Turonistan

Erin Pallette of Lurking Rythmically

Odd of Guns Cars & Tech

Stephen D'Andrill, fighting the good fight in NYC with Arbalest Quarrel 

Rick Rector of Legally Armed in Detroit

Jack Moody, home of pork-grillin'

Mad Saint Jack.

Awelowynt of Snooze Button Ronin

John of No Lawers, Only Guns and Money 

Linoge of Walls of the City, with the coolest C96 open carry holster... 

Dennis from Dragon Leatherworks was there with a Caiman holster that looked snazzy

JayG was there, working hard. Or hardly working

Daddy Bear and Daughter.

Travis of The One Eyed King and daughter Emma.

Gus Advocado and his sidekick Chris (Gus is an Air Assault Lawyer)

Matt from Straight Forward in a Crooked World plus his lovely wife and daughter

Bob Owens from Townhall 

Davy Hardy who Of Arms & The Law

Dr. Zheng, one of the makers of the Unimag

Bitter and Sebastian 

TWO writers from the Metrocon Fortnightly, National Review Charles C. W. Cooke (who assured me that licking a shaved man's head isn't a universal British habit)
and
Jim Geraghty

Midwest Chick of Non Original Rants

Mister B from Middle of the Right

Danno from SandCastle Scrolls and his boy The Smallest Conservative 

Rob from Polite Society Podcasts 

Too Old to Work Too Young to Retire 

Don Gwinn

Matt G of Better and Better

Masaad Ayoob

Keads of Another Day Another...

And Brownells' Larry Weeks

Heath and Amanda Showed

Now I gotta transfer all these to the blog roll - >

And I'm sure I forgot somebody....

Monday, April 28, 2014

Most Important Thing

The most important thing to bring to an NRA Annual Meeting?  Comfortable walking shoes.

Gunsmithing

Do I need to buy 50 receivers, then go through the learning process of building a 1911 out of them, with as much mentoring as I can steal from knowledgeable folks and only expect to make a decent one by number 48 or 49, throwing the rest away?  There is no real secret knowledge and magic to making a 1911 though propagating that notion is in the best interests of a 1911 gunsmith and custom builder.

Lots of guys build from one receiver and right out of the gate make something better than he can buy from a factory.  As or more reliable, as or more accurate...

I bet I am one of the first type of guys though...

Also, I saw a Caspian catalog for a Damascus Steel 1911 slide (and other parts) at the NRA Convention.  Purty.  I'm gonna get it!  Work on it.  Then I'll have something that costs $900 to throwaway when I mung it trying to gunsmith on it...

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Oleg!

Oleg reads my blog halfway kinda regular!  Hooray for me!  For some reason this gives me a thrill.

Hey!

Did you see me there?  Did I have fun?  I hope I didn't embarrass myself too badly.

I missed the Fun Show in Virginia

...this weekend.

But, I just got back from the NRA convention...  so... maybe better.  More later.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Glock H8r!

I'm one of those Glock haters. 

Well hate is a strong word.  I don't take to them.  When I started shooting and tried a plethora of firearms the model I shot the worst was the Glocks.

Everyone blames the grip angle.  Maybe that's it.  I dunno.  All I know is it made a target that didn't look too good in the first place, look worse.

Well, I've improved a bit, in shooting skill.  I still don't shoot the Glock well, but I shoot it better than before.  But there are other problems with the Glock.  The slide release is in the wrong place.  Unlike the 1911 where it is right there, perfect for a left trigger puller.  Sure, you can clamshell the Glock, but I like to have an option.

I noticed this because another buddy got a Glock 19 recently and it was used and it had a slightly different looking slide release that drew my attention. 

That's not the only pistol that has given me fits with it's OS.  The Sig250 was setup weird, too.  And unfriendly to lefties. 

Yup, the only thing wrong for lefties with a 1911 is the safety and the fact that slide release has a rounded end that sits proud on the right hand slab side of the receiver.  The slide release is otherwise perfect for the index finger, and mag release perfect for the social finger.  For us. 

Friday, April 25, 2014

Glock Vs.

We know Glock has a pretty dominating market share in US police departments.  Let me look it up, as I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I remember it being more than 50%.  (Glock claims 65%)

It makes me wonder, do they dominate the EU in the same way?  Or is Sig more popular across the pond?  Or more popular in some countries, but not others?  FN in Belgium, or are they just contrary and all carry Smith and Wesson...  I bet the Italians carry Berettas, the Swiss and Germans carry Sigs, the Austrians carry Glocks.  Let me google that for me...

Meh, initial google results are full of idiocy.  Surprise, surprise. "Glock Sig M&P Beretta" with no percentages, and for US departments only.  The best list was here, about 2/3s down, which bears out Glock-Sig-M&P-Beretta, in that order.  Nothing on Yoorip, tho. 

Every Brit TV show seems to show their constables with Sigs.  But that is hardly a scientific survey.

(Despite the fans of the 1911 liking the platform, I can totally understand why few police departments use it as an issue gun.  I can see what an department armorer's headache it would be just from taking the basic course.  If your precinct/department/county/whatever has a great armorer, knock yourself out.  Never let that guy retire or call in sick, tho.)

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Good News

Mystery Science Theater 3000 might come back...

Primo Pistols

One more thing about Hatfields Gunsmithing.  While he is an FFL, he doesn't have a lot of selection.  He sells guns but is not a gun store.  I doubt you could ever get a Taurus Judge there.  But you might get a VERY expensive 1911s. 

If you dropped off your 1911 for trigger work it will take a year and half to get it back because of the line ahead of you.

And some of the custom guns built from the ground up are just sick.  A 22 round 9mm double stack that felt like buttah.  A long slide 1911 with a titanium frame that is light than a Commander.  Accuracy guarantees on 1911s that are as good as rifles.  $5000 plus, guns.  It's just nice to be able to inspect those. 

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Anti Gun Associates

Tell, what is wrong with background checks for every gun sale?  Well, this is what's wrong:




























It's because it's not about the background checks.  It's about control.  It's about putting down the foundation for eventual confiscation.

But hey, let's compromise.  It's all about the compromise.  How bout background checks OR the presentation of a valid CCW?  A CCW holder has had the background check already, so, no need.  And you can show that in a private sale and leave the poor overburdened gov't alone.  Or, when you get a background check it's good for a 3 months anywhere.  Another shop, a gunshow, a private seller.  You've gone 30 years without a conviction, what are the chances you caught a charge in the last month?

But no, that would create a situation where forms are not filled out and maybe filed in a database leading to defacto registration.  And registration, historically, always, ALWAYS, leads to confiscation.  Confiscation?  I thought the 'gun-safety' types that used to wear the label 'gun-controller' didn't want to round up innocent people's guns?  Well, you see, that's the point of compromise.

U Shaped

So, the gunsmith Sam Hatfield at Hatfields Gunsmithing is a big fan of the no-dot U-Shaped rear sight.  Pshaw, I thought.  How much better could it be?

Well, he had me try one and compare it to a 2 dot and 3 dot.  He might have a point...  It bears further investigation.  The idea is, without the distraction of the dots to the rear you can better concentrate on the front sight.  It's not normally an issue for me.  It turns out I naturally focus on the front sight.  Lucky me, it's the only break I've gotten with my pistol marksmanship.  But I am not going to shrug off something that makes me focus even faster.  And better. 

Further personal study needed.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Get Offa My Lawn

In the Washington Post advice column:

"Do we have to carry our 24-year-old daughter on our health insurance policy? She is employed and has two degrees. We informed her that we would be dropping her at the end of the year because it's costing us a fortune, and she told us today that we are required by law to cover her. We do not claim her on our taxes."

I'll take Punk Ingrates That Don't Know Their Place for $500, Alex.  The same question is in the Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse column.

I learned STUFF

So the armors class did what I wanted it to do.  I can take a 1911 down to parts and put it back to together and it still WORKS.  Detail-strip, as the kids say.  Everything but the staked down stuff like the plunger tube and the ejector.

I probably could done it myself, by looking at diagrams and watching youtube demos over and over, but because of the class and the little tips I learned, it's now easy.

The thing that intimidated me the most was disconnector/sear relationship.  But once you know...  You see you hold the comfortable bit of the disconnector in the left hand, pyramid up, and you hold the sear like a cup in the right, then you saddle up the dear on top of the disconnector.  Hold the 1911 by putting your pinky in the magwell so you can guide the two into the disconnector hole in the frame and Robert is your Mother's Brother.

Still can't follow that?  Do it once in the class and it's yours forever.

Props to Sam and Hatfields Gunsmithing.  The guy is good.  A good instructor.  If his area of expertise was the Napoleonic Wars I'd be thrilled to take that college level course.  Or if it was Botany 101.  And I'm not that interested in plants.  He's just a good instructor.

But man is the class dense with detail.  And it's almost impossible to take notes because you are working on a gun the whole time.  I'd almost want to take the Beginner course again to pick up and reinforce the info presented.  Maybe keep a few more details in my head. Gonna look into the intermediate class, too.


Monday, April 21, 2014

Experts Warn!


If you are ready for the Zombacalypse, the EMP blackout is about the same.  You worry less about bites, but the 'shamblors' are more formidably clever.

The Gray Man

So I pick up OldNFO's book on the top of the stack with a bit of trepidation.  Because, what if it is no good?  It's his first book, to my knowledge, and how many of those are really any good?  Especially nowaday with self publishing proliferating and easier.  There were plenty of BAD books back in the days where a handful of publishing houses controlled everything and people besides the writer had actually read the stuff and could jettison the dreck before the presses spun up and it was too late.  What are the chances nowadays?  What if he wrote in crayon?  I know the type of personnel that went through Pensacola Naval Air Schools Command, it'd be written in crayon if we were LUCKY.

Anyway, so I pick up OldNFO's book, The Gray Man, with that frame of mind.  And sure enough... that phrase seems clunky, there's a typo, that's a tired cliche, there's another typo, kind of a weak opener...  I'm not even on page 7 and thinking this if going to be a slog.  Then I look up and it is chapter 10 and I have no idea where that time went.  Wow.  I never should have doubted.  I only put it down because it's a school night and I gotta get up early to make the donuts.  And I can't wait to take it up again.

I'm sure 'Fo himself will admit it's not literature.  Never meant to be.  But it does what you want it to.  Draws you in and engages you.  His action sequences are very good.  There is only the slightest distracting hiccups in the interpersonal stuff of the characters.  And the one girl with broken ribs and recovering from a collapsed lung does a little too much hugging.  I broke a rib once.  I'd be hesitant shaking someone's hand if it were me.

I'd have bought this book and enjoyed even if I DIDN'T know OldNFO.  Money well spent.  My trepidation was misplaced.  Mea Culpa.

Now this is a gunnie's delight, so it has that appeal to a certain subset that reads stuff like gun blogs.  I've never read the Jack Reacher stuff, so I don't know, but, I have a feeling NFO has and drew some inspiration from that corner.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Armorer Class

Oops, forgot to post.

Went to the 1911 armorer course yesterday knowing I knew nothing about building my own 1911.  I just knew that everything impacts everything else.  Change one thing and you might have to change EVERYTHING else.  Nearly.

The class was great, I learned a TON of stuff, and somehow now I feel like I know even less about building my own 1911...

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Metrocons and SWAT

The online presense of the metrocon fortnightly is noticing that there are way too many SWAT teams out there squaring off against non violent offenders or suspects.

If you are gonna arrest someone with a clean record for clamming next to navigable waterways you probably don't need to send the full breaching team with sniper overwatch on the run.  But hell, you paid them to do all that trainig and get all that equipment, might as well use em.  The family Corgi isn't gonna shoot itself.

Money quotes:

"Take the case of Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif., who was “visited” by a SWAT team from the U.S. Department of Education in June 2011. Agents battered down the door of his home at 6 a.m., dragged him outside in his boxer shorts, and handcuffed him as they put his three children (ages 3, 7, and 11) in a police car for two hours while they searched his home. The raid was allegedly intended to uncover information on Wright’s estranged wife, Michelle, who hadn’t been living with him and was suspected of college financial-aid fraud."

and

"The year before the raid on Wright, a SWAT team from the Food and Drug Administration raided the farm of Dan Allgyer of Lancaster, Pa. His crime was shipping unpasteurized milk across state lines to a cooperative of young women with children in Washington, D.C., called Grass Fed on the Hill. Raw milk can be sold in Pennsylvania, but it is illegal to transport it across state lines. The raid forced Allgyer to close down his business."

Do you need a SWAT team for those, or a single officer in a black and white? Maybe 2 officers?  Think of the saving in gasoline, alone.

---

Then there is this guy.  Dunno if he was SWATted for that, tho.  For a Twitter parody account.

And don't forget this one.  Gibson Guitars.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Con Comin'

Next week is the NRA convention.  Ima gunna be there.

I don't have much on the agenda of things I must do besides 1) get blog fodder and 2) sight Tam and RobertaX in the wild to add them to the bloggers-I-have-met list.  The rest I play by ear.

I expect to see multiple other folks I know already, look at the acres of stuff, and enjoy an adult beverage or two.  I've done this before, in Pittsburg.  Not my first rodeo.  But I'm not wizzened veteran at this, either.  Is there anything I must add to my dance card?

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Gabby



B H Liddell Hart's

Sherman biography.

Just finished it.  I had read his auto-biography years ago, but wanted to see what the early 20th Century thought of William Tecumsah.

The language is a little closer to Dicken than to a terse Hemingway.  It's a bit distracting, but not too bad.  Certainly obvious.  He must use the word 'thither' a hundred times...  As in thither and yon.  Sherman auto-biography is less flowery.

Hart was a Brit WWI vet that turned into a historian and military theorist and military correspondent after the war.  He was shaped by the static lines of the Great War and was looking to the past to get more of a maneuver warfare up and going again.  His publisher wanted him to go a US Civil War general and preferred Robert E Lee, but, Hart wanted Sherman.  Lee was certainly a masterful campaigner, but what Billy Sherman did was more original, he thought.

So what was so new about Sherman, according to Hart?  Well the generals of that war were obviously greatly influenced by what Napoleon accomplished.  But Sherman thought the text books in English got the point wrong about concentration of forces.  Doctrine concentrated forces too early.  Large armies marched in multiple columns, but then came together when getting close to an objective.  Sherman thought it better to keep them separate and to march in a way so the enemy didn't know what his objective was.  This kept the enemy unconcentrated and guessing.  Now Lee would try to gobble up one of these smaller wings piecemeal, if they had faced each other, but Sherman had that covered by marching light, and therefore fast.  Hard to get cornered that way.

By this stage of the war armies were putting up improvised trenches and battlements when they stopped, increasing their defensive power when technology had already gone a long way to give advantage to the defense.  When defense has the advantage you let the enemy come and break upon your line and you don't attack his line.  Instead you maneuver around, obliging him to withdraw or have his lines of communication cut.

Sherman was a thinker, while Grant fought instinctively and persistently.  Both styles were a novelty for Northern generals at the time, and why they stand out.  Sherman 'played' chess, while Grant was more of a 'checkers' man.

Another feature of Sherman's style was realizing the value of indirect support.  If your wing is pressured by the enemy you can deploy troops to support them directly.  Or you can use the same troops to engage another area, taking pressure of the first indirectly.  If you tie down Lee's army around Richmond, and Beauregard's army in Tennessee,  your army only has to contend with Johnston's forced around Goldsboro, if you expand that principle to the strategic level.

So indirect maneuver and indirect support.  His men loved him for it.  Less slaughter involved achieving victory, so while morale of the enemy plummeted his friends' soared.

B H Liddell Hart was also supposed to have shaped tank warfare pre-WWII with this study of maneuver warfare in history.  Maybe.  There is some argument about how influential he was.  Did Rommel and Guderian really pay much attention to Hart?  Maybe.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Bloomie $$$

Increasing the assault of civil rights to the tune of $50,000,000 extra.

The words that came out of his mouth:

“This is not a battle of dollars, this is a battle for the hearts and minds of America so that we can protect our children, protect innocent people,” former-mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

“We’re the only civilized country in the world that has this problem.”

“It isn’t gun control. This is simply making sure that people everybody agrees should not be allowed to buy a gun - criminals, minors, and people with psychiatric problems - make sure they can’t buy guns - nobody is going to take anyone’s gun away nobody is going to stop you from hunting, target practice or protecting yourself.”

He sure does lie a lot.

 

Goin' Postal!

Not the US Post Office is making a big ammo purchase!   First the weatherman, now the postman. 

I guess I better cut back on putting the garden house in the big blue mail box on the corner.  I might get a 1,200 feet per second delivery to my hinder.

Is the American people gonna have to do some pushback at places besides Nevada cattle ranches?  Perhaps.  Or perhaps the Postal Inspectors are out of ammo, and now that supply is better maybe prices are down, and they need to restock after a long ammo drought. 

I still don't like the optics of the feds buying more ammo for internal purposes.  That's OUR job.

Correlation, Causation...

Whatever.

As Tam says, I don't care if 150 million Americans murdered 150 million other Americans with a pistol last night.  A pistol JUST like one of mine.  I didn't.  So leave me out of it.


Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Combat Hog


When we prevail

And we will.  The victory will taste sweeter here in the Blue States, resisting gun control. 

The legislature here in Maryland has adjourned with none of the gun banny type laws being pushed forward.  Too busy doing other silly lefty things like raising the minimum wage for everyone (unless you work for tips, or the company you work for is a small business, or it's an amusement part, so... just Wal Mart, I guess.)  Too busy, plus, gun control isn't the voter-pleaser they thought it might be here in the Old Line State.

They are going to be forced to change and I will enjoy their sweet sweet tears when they do.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Easter is Coming

How many peeps will stop a bullet?


Buy A Gun Day

Is tomorrow.  You are supposed to use you tax refund to get a new gatt of some sort.

Or, you are like me and less enthused this time around.  Mainly because while I got $200 some back from the State, I have to pay $300 some to the Feds.  But I do like the way I have my witholdings dialed in to about neutral.  I don't want Uncle Sucker to be holding MY money and not paying me interest for the loan.  I also don't want to have to write a four figure check to him, too. 

Speaking of finances, I DO keep a grand in cash in the house, hidden.  Just in case, as an E-Fund.  If I had to bug out I'd take that with me.  And I take it to gun shows and such in case some rifle shouts my name.  I don't want TOO much cash outside of a savings account or what have you, nor too little.  $1000 is about right.  No, I'm not telling you the super secret hiding place.  But hell, there are many.  Pockets of old coats.  In a ziplock bag duct taped behind the sink.  Behind a picture.  It's not any of them.

If I did have gun buying money, what would I buy?  Hmmm...  Winchester 88.   What else?  Hmmm...  Nothing on the list speaks to me.

I did opt to go to a gunsmith class later this week...  Well, armorer class.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Election

I better start beating the drum now.  Remember how outraged you were?  You gotta remember that.  You gotta convince or con or turnout other people.  (Convince the neutrals, con the gun banners into not voting, and get your allies out to the polls.)

Con the banners?  Isn't that underhanded.  It's politics, not beanbag.  Don't do anything illegal, naturally.  That's what the other side does, but maybe discourage an idiot neighbor that'll never vote for freedom.  "Oh, voting doesn't matter, why bother.  It's Maryland, a Dem is gonna win, and I got better things to do on my Tuesday in November"

Though I totally could vote illegally.  For Archie.  This is Maryland, if you break out ID at the polls the poll workers act like Vampires confronted with a crucifix.  You only have to know a name, address, and birthday to vote as somebody.  I know all those.  And I DARE them to say I wasn't born in 1927....

I would never commit that felony.  I like living OUTSIDE of prison.  Even a miniscule risk is too much, plus it is wrong.  I have more integrity than that.  Cheating is what the bad guys do, so this arm will remain tied behind my back in this fight.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Learn Something New Every Day

Hmmm, makes sense that 80% 1911 lowers would be available.  So this over on the Firearm Blog.  

I hadn't thought about it though.  It makes sense.  And now I have a long term goal...

To be able to make my very own 1911 (that works.)

Friday, April 11, 2014

Mixed Feelings


At Ft Hood Obama Vow to Keep Firarms Out of the Hand of the Mentally Ill.

On the one hand, good.  I have advocated for mental health reforms.  If all the energy that went into unconstitutional rights violations went into fixing that, we'd have been better off.

On the other hand...  It will lead to injustices.  People's rights stripped away in a non-adjudicated manner.  It'll sweep up people not deserving to be swept up.

And I certainly don't trust the Obama administration run a new system like this.  Even if written by the NRA/ILA, this administration seems less concerned with the whole Rule of Law concept, and would interpret it to suit themselves and strip folks of their civil rights.

Good Presidential quote:  "In our open society, and in vast bases like this, we can never eliminate every risk, but as a nation we can do more to help council those with mental health issues..."

Bad Presidential quote: "...to keep firearms out of the hands of those who are having such deep difficulties."  Yes.  But there is many a slip between the cup and the lip.  

Thursday, April 10, 2014

salt


Hello, Charlie

I saw Charlie's Angels for the first time this week.  The 2000 Diaz, Liu, Barrymore version.  It was on a commercial free channel that Comcast gave me to not jump ship on their services all together, so, I figure, what the hey.

Meh.

Not a lotta gun play in the movie, and what there was was ineffectual.  They wanted the ladies to concentrate on taking out the bad guys with the Chop Socky.  Lots of wire-suspended judo kicks to the head.

Example of the ineffectual gun work...  Drew Barrymore dodges a bullet fired from 15 feet away out of a SA revolver.  Which I guess is sorta possible.  In that the shooter can miss from that distance.

Also, the Heavy, played by Crispin Glover (MacFly!) does something common in many Hollywood movies.  Which means it's a common tactic, now, for the rest of the world.  He mag dumps a Luger over the shoulder at his pursuers.  Sorta like laying down suppressing fire so the rest of his squad can maneuver on the enemy's flank.  I guess.  Except he is alone.  He wants to use all that sound and fury to allow him to escape, but then doesn't escape.  A martial arts battle breaks out.  Then he escapes.  Sheesh.  Take your time and actually hit one or two or three of the women chasing you.  Might make it easier on ya, buddy.  You weren't scared or stressed, so you might have been perfectly good with the fine motor skills required.  Oh, and carry a spare magazine, perhaps? 

Some days I think it is hardly worth it to study Hollywood productions for tactical tips...


Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Maybe this is why

They don't want to let Brits have guns about, wot?




Four Rules Mnemonic

There was a clever mnemonic someone came up with a few months ago for the 4 Rules of Gun Safety.  Or maybe it was an acronym...  It was clever and simple and one I was gonna use it on new shooters.  It was so good there was no way to forget it.

I forgot it.

Anyone got any clever 4-Rule mnemonic?  Sumthin clever?

---

UPDATE:

Lucky Strikes Means Fine Tobacco

L.S./M.F.T.

Loaded (stupid!). Muzzle. Finger. Target.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Gunsmithing Dremel

My old Dremel tool went Tango Uniform years ago, and I have a gunsmith/armorer class in a coupla weeks.  I better get a new one to grind on receivers and barrel ramps and such...

What?  You sorta are sposed to do that, right?   This beat up old Singer brand 1911 is gonna need a lotta grinding.

Correlation

Is not causation....  But the studies that indicate it might be keep piling up.


Good.

Maryland, even Democrat Maryland, is going to be forced to put up shall issue CCW.  Sooner rather than later. 

"What, State Senator?  Why are your for more crime?  Vote for CCW!"

Monday, April 7, 2014

need to add

Stand Monday blog fodder drought

I do need to add some links.  Or at least make them on the more prominent list.  Monster Hunter International has been languishing on the tertiary link list. 


Todd Green Pistol Training site.  I read it often enough, might as well make the link more convenient

And Modern Service Weapons, now that the 1911 is fading into the rearview mirror.


Sunday, April 6, 2014

NRA slow

The NRA still isn't 'hep' and 'with it' when it comes to online communication.  If I were them I'd have a social media monitoring presence 24/7, too.

But it took them 15 days to respond to my email of "Hey, my NRA ballot never came..." and by the time they did get around to talking to me the deadline was passed. 

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Yeah, sure, why not

The trend back to 9mm recently continues.  More ammo on board, ya know.  Don't want to find yourself in a pickle for the inability to shoot back.  Sound consideration.

I am waiting for this to start getting innovated.  A modern Sungaard.

That gun has 2 double stack magazines for a total of 50 rounds in the gun.  And that was back in the dark ages, before the Great War.

Now we just have to do something like that at Glock.  Maybe in a .380.  THIS old gun used teeny 6.5mm cartridges.  That's like .25ACP.  And you'll have a time getting today's CCW carriers to go to .25ACP.  But the 6.5 cartridges had an overall length of 23mm.  .380 is 25mm, so doable...

I dunno if you could stack .380 50 rounds high, but you can certainly get a lot in there.   

Friday, April 4, 2014

Fort Hood 2

Noticed I waited until today to comment on the shooting?  I was waiting for some of the facts to shake out and be, you know, actual facts.

NPR, the morning after the shoot, reports 2011 Iraqi War US army vet self reporting TBI (traumatic brain injury) while overseas.  Truck driving was his MOS.  Armed with a .45.  No specifics other than handgun.  Was stopped from shooting other folks when confronted with an armed female security guard.  Suicided in front of said security guard.  (Spree killers do tend to stop killing when confronted, and the spree ends with a gun firing, either a gun that just arrived to the scene, or the shooters')

Those are the details as of Thursday Morning. ---

But it's Friday Morning now, getting on to 48 hours.  What details have changed?  Well, 'suspect had known mental health issues' seems to be a catch phrase.  But isn't it always with this sort of thing.  If they spent one quarter of the time they spend now, trying to ban guns, on improving the mental health system in this country.

A later detail: "It was the Ambien!"  Anecdotally, I have never heard someone talk about taking Ambien without talking about freaky side-effects. Like that means anything, though.  It does mean it'd take a lot of convincing to get me to try Ambien if I needed a sleep aid.

He was a Slipknot fan.  Ok, that should have nothing to do with anything.  But it's typical of what you get 24 hours after an event.

Smith and Wesson.  Dunno if a M&P or 1911.

There is still the confusion of the timeline.  Was it over all quicklike, or did it all take several long minutes?

---

Colonel Bateman has what he thinks is the solution.  Boycott places that don't ban guns.  Good luck with that, 'colonel'.  That's the sort of tactic that may backfire on you and your buddy, Mike Bloomberg.  Gonna boycott Woolworths, next, for letting African Americans eat at their lunch counter? Bateman thinks Starbucks banned guns from its stores.  Odd fella.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Why no lube?

Or solvent?  In my range bag?

Well, I'll tell you...  I have a phobia about all kinds of leakages.  Roof.  Radiator.  Box of wine.  Personal 4th point of contact.  Other people's 4th point of contact.  Commuter mug.  And solvent from a container of gun cleaner is another.

Anyone know a full proof tiny container (spark plug size) I could add to a cleaning kit?  One I can trust more than I can trust myself after eating a sleeve of those fat-free Pringles with Olestra or whatever?  Leak proof.  Nigh unbreakable.

(Something about the lil bottle with the HK cleaning kit or the M14 cleaning kit...  I just don't trust them.  They seem too fragile and flimsy.  Like they were produced by the lowest bidder.)

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Cooties

Ooo, I wanna SEE this zombie movie.

 No trailer yet.

The survivor are teachers in the teacher's lounge, and the zed are elementary school kids.  So, pretty much how it already is.  Elijah Wood and Rainn Wilson




Plot Summary: In "Cooties," a substitute teacher at a new school experiences the worst first day imaginable when he discovers that an outbreak of a mysterious virus is transforming the students into rampaging tykes. The film hilariously illustrates that sometimes kids can literally turn into little monsters.



Tuesday, April 1, 2014

6,220

FBI stats

6,220 people were homicided with a pistol.  In 2011.

2 thousand something by other firearm type or a firearm not specified.  But we'll handwave that away as if it didn't matter because that total is almost the same as people murdered by either knives or blunt object.  This is not even counting people killing people with their bare hands.   I am sure Handgun Control Inc (old name for the Brady's) will agree and recognize handgun murders as the greater scourge.

Wow, 6,220 is a lot less killing than the 30,000 number they often seem to cite.  Hmmm, it's as if they were trying to over-inflate their numbers to gain more legislative sympathy....  Seems manipulative.

Now here would be an interesting thing to know, but perhaps difficult to discern.   How many of those 6,220 murderer/murder-victim pairs was it where both individuals had more than a few criminal convictions on their rap sheets?  The general public cares a little less when hardened criminals kill hardened criminals.  In fact you get a lot less recidivism that way.  And what's it matter how criminals off other criminals, means-wise, right?

But it's hard to get the stats on whether the murderer had a record (other than the fact he should, soon... he just murdered somebody...).  That person might not even be in custody, yet, after all.  But the vicitm's, that we can find out.  And would be worth finding out.  Think it's more than half?  Good chance...

So, half is 3,110.  One murder by handgun in 100,000, for the population of the U.S.  Makes us as safe as them fancy Yoorip countries that the Democrats want us to be more like.  Like Luxenburgundia. And all without a gun ban or nuthin.