Stainless Revolvers

Well, Trollop has a lot of legal wrangling to do to affect her decampment to Bora Bora. As such, she was in town. When she wasn't spending her millions she opted to go on a shooting jag with me. On Saturday the 27th, March. (2 days after that last one...)

And ALL stainless steel Smith and Wesson revolver shooting day!

629, 686, 617, 640. Sorry about the pic. Cellphone camera. The barrel of the .44 is as long as the snubbie. That barrel, alone, might weigh as much as all of the 640.

[I screwed up. I MEANT to line them up, with an example of their ammo next to them. But if you look closely you can see the .22 617 is actually the second pistol. And the 686 .357 is below that. See it? Look at the cylinders.]

It had been a while for the Saucy Trollop. Her skills weren't as sharp as normal from lack of practice. I, as you know, have been to the range twice in the past 2 weeks.

Her shots are on the right 2 panels, mine on the left. All shots are 7 yards, give or take.

Here is the first. My first shots were on the top there, no splatter sticker. Lousy. Then below, and not much better. Trollop is shooting the lovely stuff single action on here side when she can. She doesn't like double action at all. And her first shot and last shot out of the .44 are always the best. Like she has to overcome the recoil shock and settle in. Then she does great.

Comparing the .357 magnum out of the snubbie 640, and the .44 magnum out of the big bruiser 629... I must say, the felt recoil is comparable. It might even be MORE painful with the snubbie. I can't imagine how hard it must hit in those super lightweight J-Frames. Snubbie from Hell indeed on the lightweights.

See those 2 holes below the splatter target near the bottom? Yeah, I'm sure those are lousy DA shots by me.

Ok, after warming up and not concentrating much on the first targets I shot the left of this...

Much better. The top left is all my single action with my 686. The bottom left is all double action with the 640. THAT's a bit more like it. Not too shabby at all. I chalk my improvement up to the the warmup and the previous and recent range sessions getting me into game shape.

Trollop is on the right, also getting better, but her arms were very tired at this point.

Hmmm... I wonder how well I'd do if I went twice a week for a good while? With just ONE gun to practice with each time...

And when I go to a training class I must remember to cram the days before so as not to embarrass myself as much in front of the class.

FMJ or...?

Another blog (referring to some forum discussion) brought up the choice of carrying some sort of jacketed hollow point (JHP) in your self defense conceal-carry semi-auto handgun, or selecting the feeding reliability of full metal jacketed rounds (FMJ).

Here is a picture to compare the two:


I shoot mostly FMJ rounds because they are cheaper. But sometimes the blasting ammo available is some form of jacketed hollow points and is as cheap as 'ball' ammo. They aren't price-premium variety like Federal Hydro-Shok, but they are hollow points. So I've shot hundreds of JHP rounds and thousands of FMJ rounds.

I've never had a feed problem with JHP that wasn't definitely attributed to the shooter. I did have one freakish eject stoppage malf that somehow jammed the spent casing in halfway out of the breech. That was with the .40, with FMJ.

I've never had the JHP rounds jam in feeding the Colt Pockethammerless, the Sig P229, or the 1911, because it was a hollow point round. One old gun, one modern gun, one old style but revamped modern feed ramp that differs from the old design. (I've even shot a wierd kind of truncated cone round in the 1911... no problems)

Perhaps 500 rounds or so is not a sufficiently large data set to get a good statistic.

Note I am not testing hollow points from the 70's or before. Every Jacketed Hollow Point round I've fired has been new factory manufacture. I understand that finding a box of older hollow point ammo might be a totally different, and perhaps frustrating, experience.

How often are your practice JHP rounds failing to feed in YOUR carry semi-auto?

Presuming identical failure rates ans eight between JHP and FMJ, is there any reason to carry FMJ for civilian CCW self-defense?

Test Drove the Snubbie

I took the new revolver to the range on the 25th.

Me likee.

Is good.

I was shooting off some bargain basement old mixed ammo. Pretty tarnished. Probably shouldn't have bought em, but this was a year ago. I was panicky over ammo. Three of them were duds, in fact. So I had to so that whole 'wait 30 seconds...' thing with the gun pointed downrange in case it went off late.

People say it's hard to shoot a .38 snubbie accurately. People are right. No harder than any other DA trigger.

Here are my first 15 shots, cold, with .38 special. 25 feet or so. Not bad. The miss over the shoulder was aiming for the head. I don't shoot that high when I miss unless I am aiming kinda high. You can see the 15th shot on the edge at the bottom. Almost....

Except where I was aiming for the head, this yellow man got all center mass hits. Not GOOD center mass hits, but not ones he'd ignore. My shot placement is bad but not woeful. I'm not going to win any contests, but I am not accidentally shooting the crystal chandelier above.

I then shot with +p and .357 and got all to the lower right in the second target. The .357 is circled and the +p triangled.

WOW that is a significant oomph with the magnum. Not as bad as I feared. It helps that this gun is steel, and that is why I chose steel. It will be hard to wear this gun out...

I shot better as I got warmed up. Usually, my accuracy drops off as I get tired or rushed late in the session. All those misses were earlier cylinders. The close in stuff was late. The shoot n see in the top left was added for a final 6 bullets, all +p or .357 to see if my accuracy wasn't just limited .38 or my misses related to a flinch. Not great, but better.

The speed strip worked ok. Much better than the .22 speed strip. The short ejector does indeed not eject spent casings. I often had to pluck them out of the cylinders. I expected that behavior, and it is good to see it in action. Fast reloads may be problematic, even with a proper speed loader.

Like I said, some of the rounds were ANCIENT, so when I got home I did the Windex trick in case they were so old they were made with corrosive primers. Extra Breakfree after that. Cleaned up purty.

Besides being a good pocket CCW gun, I am using this as my awake house gun. It'll stay with me while at home or answering the door. I need to figure out a stash hole for it for when I go to work. When I get home I can grab and as soon as I am in the door a ways. Suggestions?

Also, this Uncle Mikes pocket holster doesn't grip the pistol. All it does is sit in the pocket sorta breaking up the outline of the pistol. That's all it's supposed to do, right?

Collapse

Hahahahahahahahahahaha. HAHAHAHAhahahahahaha.

What Gun For... Zed

Oooo, just saw a link to this over at the Dessert Defender. I gotta read him more often. He posts a lot. And doesn't use light colored text on a dark background, purposely designed to strain the readers eyes.

And article in a hunting magazine on which gun/caliber for zombie. In the comments section is the usual folderol of people thinking they'd prefer a shotgun. Silly corpse-snacks.

I LIKE the arrow gun. And the large cap mags. But the other? Not so much. They do recommend a Para .45, which, because it is .45 in roughly 1911 configuration, I have a sentimental attachment to. A 9mm is fine for zombie.

Here is the one area where Jeff Cooper was wrong. The 5.56 NATO is a nigh ideal round to retire shambling zombies, and the AR15 rifle is the ideal platform. Better than 7.62 NATO (which is accurate enough, but too much, and too heavy, gun). Better than 7.62x39 Warsaw Pact stuff (which is a good runner up to 5.56, but the platform is often not as accurate).



And what do I have? Foolish me, just the 7.62 NATO in the form of a Garand and an M1A. ~sigh~


But, like many gun selection exercises, the MOST important criteria is what YOU, personally, shoot best. Even .22LR is just FINE for Zed. And you can easily carry HUNDREDS of rounds for it in your pocket.




(Yay! Trinity as a 50's mom. The movie is really a gem.)

[update: I said 5.56 is nigh ideal for this specific task. It is not my preference but I like more utility out of my rifle. See comments]

Mortuos libera viventes

This guy thinks too hard. Probable burn out a bearing up there if he keeps it up.

WAY too hard.

Hope he is kept somewhere where he can't hurt himself or others. Or vote.

Here is one of his overwrought sentences:

The zombie is a polyvalent revenant, a bloating signifier that has given shape, alternately, to repressed memories of slavery’s horrors; white alienation from the darker Other; Cold War nightmares of mushroom clouds and megadeaths; the post-traumatic fallout of the AIDS pandemic; and free-floating anxieties about viral plagues and bioengineered outbreaks (as in 28 Days Later and Left 4 Dead, troubled dreams for an age of Avian flu and H1N1, when viruses leap the species barrier and spread, via jet travel, into global pandemics seemingly overnight. Which may be why the Infected, as they’re called in both the film and the game, move at terrifying, jump-cut speed, unlike their lumbering, stuporous predecessors.)

Polyvalent? Dude. Get a new hobby. That paragraph was ONE sentence.

But there is a nugget or two in there. But you have discard a lot of toxic tailings to get to it.

At least he admits he's talking out of his ass in the comments section. If he was serious, I'd worry.

Smart Apartment

You'll definitely have the tactical advantage in your domicile if you adopt some of the features agent 86 has put in. JayG reminded me of the possibilities you get for situational surprise on your home turf. Without these, a patient home invader/prowler might wait in a shadowy part of your living room to get the drop on you, so maybe discretion is the better part of valor to let hole up near your bedroom area than to go house clearing. Beside, the cops you called via 911 LOVE to do that house clearing and you don't want to take that fun away from them. Be sure they know not to shoot you.

Fame!

Look at me! I'm famous.

I wanna live forever
I gonna learn how to fly, HIGH.

I feel it coming together
People will see me and cry, FAME

I'm gonna make it to heaven
Light up the sky like a flame, FAME

I'm gonna live forever
Baby remember my name... remember remember remember, FAME

Well. Sorta. Ok, it's like getting your picture in the Penny-Saver, the part devoted to here. Sebastian and Caleb, THEY are famous.

National Review

The folks at my favorite Metrocon publication, National Review, are defending their old friend and colleague David Frum. And some not. (I wrote this before the "some nots" showed up...)

Frum took a turn toward concilliation in the last presidential election. Extolling the virtues of the moderate, and that the GOP needs to be more like the Democrats to win more elections. He still does. He thinks opposing the Health Care monstrosity was a disaster for the GOP. Calling it 'Waterloo.'

I think of it as standing by conservative principles, or forcing the wobblies to stand by actual principles for once.

I have loved some of Frum's writings in the past. His concise little treatise on what money does is nigh ideal for the economic laymen, distilling the issue right on down to column length what takes a few chapter in college Economic texts. And it clarifies the implications of a change that the Gold Bug types don't acknowledge. RTWT.

Frum was a speech writer for W. Leading-light conservative intellectual.

But I have a prediction. Frum will be writing speeches for a Liberal Democrat presidential candidate in 2016. I've seen this before. Chrysalis. He'll just keep shifting left. Many of his friends will be disappointed. Leftists will cackle with glee.

But it won't mean anything for gun rights, vis a vis Frum.

Range Report

I mentioned I was itchy to get to the range last Friday. I shouldn't have bothered.

I still have the same 'ol problems I always have. Thinking back, though, I think I feel better about more individual shots now than I did at the beginning. And I know when I am doing everything right as the shot goes off and know that that shot I just sent downrange will be placed well enough.

Anyway, like I mentioned, I just brought the .40 Sig 229 SAS DAK and shot at 21-25 feet with Georgia Arms reloaded ammo. (I'll have the new Smith on the next report...)

ALL my handguns make my trigger finger sore. Right at the corner of the fingernail, the corner closest to the ground. It's the recoil, I am almost positive. The frame of the trigger guard is touching it.

I tried to see if my finger wanted to slide across the face of the trigger, ala 'rowing the boat' but didn't notice it even wanting to do that. I did pay attention to my natural finger tip placement. It wants to be on the tip side of that last distal joint.

Why do my hands always seem to grow weak walking into a gun range? It's like I can NOT grip any tighter. A tight grip helps dampen the squeeze effect my shooting hand's no trigger fingers on the grip, and other things, and makes me more accurate. It also helps maintain the grip after explosive recoil so you don't have to re-adjust after every shot. Yet my support hand's 'thumbs forward' thumb always seems to fall out of place at each shot. Dangit!

(Is all this self-criticism minutiae too much Inside-Baseball? It's sort of why I started this blog, as a N00b. Paying attention and trying to self diagnose my numerous flaws. I certainly don't have natural talent, nor enough time money and discipline to turn myself into a world class shooter of any stripe. But I do want to get better. So I hash it out as best I can, here, on the screen. When I started blogging I asked myself "Do you have anything to write about that will last more than a month or two?" and I answered, "Sure! I can write about how dumb and clueless I am. I have 100 years of material for THAT." It's my niche...)

Here's the first target of the session. Counterclockwise starting with the upper right:



Here's the second:
The bad stuff? I don't even know what is going on with the bad shots, at this point. The good stuff is inspired. For me. I just need to make those more frequent.

I developed a NEW flaw. I hope to have quashed it in the crib before it grew up and was able to take me. I was raising the pistol up into position on the target and pressing the trigger. But I hadn't fully arrested the upward movement when the shot went off. The holes are the high ones. DON'T do that. See, it's right there upper right target, upper right corner:



Lots of weird flyers. Too rush rush, me. As usual. Luckily I am less embarrassed by a bullseye in a lower target while aiming at the upper. Mistakes that bad get hidden in the clutter. One not lost in the clutter is that bottom right target. Decent shot. But I wasn't aiming anywhere NEAR that.

And I say mistakes... Even the bad shots, if I was shooting at a bad guy, the worst shot hit's his appendix or liver instead of the middle of his sternum. Not ideal, but better than nothing.

I did NOT visualize that the target was a zombie shuffling toward me. I will have to try that again next time.

You've Got Mail

My County, Montgomery, and the neighboring metropolis known as the District of Columbia, forbid the subjects that reside in their fiefdoms from ordering ammunition from going catalog supply concerns.

I can’t order 50 rounds of .38 for home delivery.

The vast majority of the rest of the nation has no such restriction. Including all the people allowed to order ammo in the rest of my state. (Except maybe Baltimore… but I’m not sure…)

And I live kinda close to DC, so I have to travel the furthest, maybe, to get a house that can accept a package that has bullets in it.

Needless to say, this is inconvenient for me.

And it appears nefarious!

Here I am, looking like I am trying to skirt the law, setting up mail drops at friends and acquaintence’s houses, and having surreptitious packages delivered to remote-to-me jusridictions that I then have to pay the homeowner for, in cash. (I can’t use my credit card online to have something shipped to an address not the same as my billing address without jumping through MORE hoops. I tried that with computer equipment and it was a hassle, even.) All this dark enterprise is missing is passwords and countersigns.

And its not even black market. Not really even light gray.

It’s not illegal. Just inconvenient.

And that’s the purpose of the law. Oh sure, the county powers that instituted it CLAIMED it was for safety. All that ‘explosive’ intermingling with mail like enterprises… Ignoring the millions of rounds delivered with no mishap. No the real purpose of the law is to inconvenience folk. To make people less capable to be interested in shooting because of the hassle involved. The same with LOTS of anti-firearms legislation. It’s all of a kind.

Those powers that be in my county are of the lefty persuasion, universally. And leftists are well known for their anti-civil-rights stance when it comes to ordinary people desiring to defend themselves from thugs or bullies.

It was a little law they were allowed to do without stepping on the State’s toes. The State Legislature isn’t AS lefty, politically, as my County, and reserve the right to be in charge of the state’s gun policies. The County argues this is a front stoop neighborhood safety policy. Or that is the word on the street.

All these restriction on ammo delivery are especially noticed now, where brick and mortar purveyors are still pretty sparse in their inventories, I have no recourse to get something simple like .38 Special. Except the aforementioned willingness to seek legal alternatives and home delivery, but just not MY home delivery.

I haven't checked, but I bet delivery of powder and primers are verboten, too.

Question...

What are YOU buying for Buy a Gun Day on April 15th?

Found One

FOUND a Smith and Wesson model 640-1 without a trigger lock. Thank you gunbroker! Finally. Well, it wasn't THAT long a wait. It just seemed like it.

Here is a pic from the auction, and it is even nicer in real life:


See that rust on the edge of the frame there? That's dark oil/grease.

This counts as my Buy A Gun Day, gun (that website is goin a little overboard... more than it needs to). And is one more that I wanted to buy in a year, but... why not.

Nothing pressing on the Master List now. Watch, now a Chiappa Rhino will fall into my lap and will have a PERFECT feeling trigger...

And we'll see if this gun is too heavy for me. Golly, I hope not. I'd really rather not go down the Elsie Pee route.

I might get a stripped AR lower receiver, just to have for later. It's easy to store. The things are practically a fungible commodity. I've talked about this too much recently.

Oooo, I maybe want to think about replacement grips.

And some Gold Dot ammo, or similar, designed for snubbies. Traditional is SWCHP lead.

Best part is, I have a CCW pistol that is small, and summer appropriate. It's not the ideal round with only +p .38 (it can take .357, but I doubt I will use that) but it's certainly no slouch. The alternative gun in theis class for me is a .380, and .38 is better than that. I can carry this around the homestead, for when the doorbell rings at 2AM or what have you.

And it came is much better condition than I deserve. I've been lucky with the quality/condition of my used guns.

It came with a high quality holster. For right handers. But the gunstore owner admired it, and is right handed, AND has his own j-frame... so I traded the holster in for store credit.



Oh, and I read in the latest American Rifleman, that the Chiappa Rhino I was so interested in has an aluminum frame. One of my requirements was all steel, so it's probably best I didn't wait around for a Rhino.

Update:
Carrying it in my loosest pants pocket. It is noticeable, weight wise, but not as bad as I feared. My trousers ain't pulled down. I got it in an Uncle Mikes pocket holster, as that was what RobertaX recommended, and it was cheap. I have 6 spare cartridges on Bianchi speed strip in the other pocket because that is what JayG recommended. As you can see it has that sticky-ish black rubber grip, and I can see why people will go to smaller grips as it peeks out of that pocket a bit in these pants. You can tell I have something in my pocket, but not that it's a gun. "Is that a pistol in your pocket or.... " "NEVERMIND!"

I'm pleased. And had no buyers remorse with this one.

Variable Lethality

I don't like "non-lethal" "less than lethal" or now "variable lethal" firearms.

Now from the people that brought you Tick-Me-Elmo!:

The Lund Variable Velocity Weapons System by Lund Technologies. And Spiegel! Chicago, 60609.

It's got an on-boad range finder and will lessen projectile velocity, already slowish, at closer, more dangerous to the recipient, ranges. Compressed air propellant. Development stages, not ready for deployment yet.

First, only cops would use them. While most cops never abuse stuff/people, some cops will and do, and they have enough things to abuse the citizenry with NOW. I don't want to give them MORE tools to violate folks with. AND, I bet they'd not trust me with such a weapon, so again, why should I trust them? (not that's I'd have much use for such a thing. I'm not in the law and order bidness, so the only purpose I'd have for such a monstrosity is to torture someone with it. And I don't want to do that.) There is nothing a cop should get that the people they police don't also have. They are cops upholding the law, and they have to play fair, not soldiers fighting for victory, where cheating for advantage is a virtue. A cop IS a civilian, despite the attitude of some. If they insist on acting like soldiers they should be under posse comitatus, I say.

Second, no matter your intentions on lethality, no matter how clever you are with your technology, it will fail to be non-lethal. And someone will die. Killed by someone that didn't intend to kill. By people more likely to deploy such a weapon. And with the perfect alibi if they had original nefarious intentions, and avoid standing by their mistake if un-nefarious, "Don't fire me Sarge! I didn't MEAN to kill 'em!"

All this applies to tazers, tazer-shotguns (!!!! Imagine the mistake to pull the trigger on the wrong shotgun !!!!), microwave cookers, sonic guns, and other new cop toys. I am not pleased about the concept.


[Note: I said nothing about the Healthcare Hoo-Haw. Reason? I couldn't work in the gun content. I'm trying to stay on topic with at least one of the day's posts, and I had nuthin'.]

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Here's How They've Wounded Us

Tam would freely admit she is a collector of guns. She can go to a gunshow and pickup something cool, agree on the price, wait for 15 minutes as the paperwork gets hashed out, and then leave with piece in her pocket. A handgun. She is in Indiana (or, previously, Tennessee, and I think she bought guns in Georgia too.)

My Buddy The Gun Enthusiast can do that too. He's a different sort of accumulator from Tam, but he's still collector in his own right. He has a CCW permit in Virginia. Which means he can do that more than one time a month unlike the rest of the people in the state. (this is changing, now)

I cannot do this in Maryland. You have to wait 7 days before you can take possession while the state police sit on your application. So big gunshows don't happen in Maryland because this is too much a hassle for out of state sellers. The hassle can be overcome by motivated sorts that want a transaction to go through, but in reality it is too inconvenient.

End result... Why be a gun collector while living in Maryland. Or New Jersey, Minnesota, Rhode Island, &c. The gun culture in these places is gimped.

Of course the laws related to waiting periods makes no sense to its stated purpose. It's to ensure a criminal the Feds didn't notice don't get through the State cordon, to allow angry folks to calm down and repent their murderous intentions. But the State authorities already have me in the system, so they know instantly I have a pistol or three already. Shoot, my state knows the model and serial number of my pistols. If I intended mayhem why would I need the new pistol? Just let me walk home with it.

Yes. The gun culture in these places is gimped. And that was their intention from the start. Busybodies.

And Speaking of...

And speaking of headphone cans. Try not to shoot yourself in the cans.

Headphone Cans

Someone suggested in my comments I get hearing protection cans/muffs that are electronic.

I'm way ahead of you. I own this model.


They take 2 AAA batteries. And I like it very much.

What they do is amplify quiet sounds, like voices in whisper, but also loud talking a little. And they damped very loud sounds. Like a shot. This is an obvious on the range, as you can hear your shooting partner talk, but I also made great use of them hunting. The helped keep my ears warm and amplified the footsteps of wildlife. And of course, that one blast of the shotgun was muffled and didn't bother my hearing.

MBtGE has a pair with IED lights. GREAT for finding your deer stand at o'dark thirty. I only have so many hands for carrying stuff. I'd rather hold the long gun with 2 hands than try to carry it, a flashlight, AND a folding chair.

What I don't have, and a commenter suggested, is a pair of them. One for me, one for teaching a n00bie. Much easier to instruct when you can both hear each other.

wine

Mob Guns

Purty! MobGun.com. They have a buncha models but... for me...

Want!:

Only a coupla grand if you see it on GunBroker. And they set the reserve lower than the retail price of two and a half, large.