Caveat

I put a caveat down a post or 2 ago.

I was talking about carrying my pistol and added a “where I CAN”.

Obviously I can’t carry concealed in the great state of Maryland. My regular readers understand that I don’t carry locally (all 3 of you). I don’t want anyone that happens across this site and doesn’t know the history of it and me to think I’m a scofflaw. And on the very unlikely chance one of those accidental eyes that flits through here is a member of a relevant law enforcement agency that looks askance on unpermitted carry in this state, well… I want to put their mind at ease.

Toenail

One thing about a cold winter...

You wear shoes and socks to keep your tootsie warm, and the need to trim the toenails can be overlooked for WAY too long.

That was some serious claw action I had goin on down there until about half and hour ago. I almost had to use the sheet metal shears.

Shopping

Went gun shopping yesterday after work. I shoulda gone to the range, but my next gun isn’t going to buy its ownself.

I don’t know, I don’t know…

It just ended up being a window shop lookie-loo

It’s ostensibly to get the S&W 640 snubby, but spring and summer is a long way off and pocket carry (caveat: where I CAN) isn’t an immediate concern. Maybe this is a 2 gun purchase year. I could something else NOW and in a month or so get the 640. It’ll still be bulky holster wear weather in a month, so, no super hurry.

But what to get?

Check the list. A S&W 617 would be nice for inexpensive plinking. Did I mention I got 2 more Ciener mags for my 1911 conversion kit, bringing the number up to 4? I go to the range with 2 guns, typically. I could have an all-.22 range session for cheap. Getting the 617 now would allow me to hunt for 640 that had no damned verklempt trigger lock

What else? I got a hair to get a second Colt Pocket Hammerless in .380. That would REPLACE the snubbie on the list and be my pocket carry gun. That’s the idea at least. No, the .380 caliber isn’t as good as +P .38 or .357, but it IS a pocket carry gun. Some guys carry a .25 caliber Beretta Jetfire. And do JUST fine with it.

[note, NOT a Colt Jetfire, but rather Beretta.]

Lots more folks carry a .380. Much better than a point-ted stick.

But why a second Pocket Hammerless? Just carry the one I got? Well, yeah… about that. The one I have is nice, and extra antique-ey, being made in the early 20’s, with the classic black fancy Colt grip panels. I’d rather carry one a bit more beat up, and maybe of 1940s vintage.

But why not one of the newer .380s? Not like there aren’t a crapload to choose from. Heck I wouldn’t care about the antique-ey value to one of them. Well yeah… about that. They all have a single flaw that makes them less than desirable to me. No place for a pinky finger. The Colt Pocket Hammerless is really the smallest gun that still allows my whole hand to hold it.

But don’t worry. There are argument AGAINST the Pocket Hammerless too. I don’t know if the safety is a dual safety, with a firing pin or hammer block as well as just stopping the trigger. I doubt it has this. Not that big a deal, there IS a grip safety on the pistol as well. And, naturally, the hammer is not exposed. It’s about as safe in my pocket as a Kel Tec, even though the Colt is a single-action. The problem is the safety is small, and on the wrong side of the gun. And so I carry it with one in the pipe? Seems I should.

I don’t have to worry about those things with a snubby. The only thing I worry about with them is the slow reload and the damned trigger lock on the frame. (I really hate the whole idea of that lock…)

Anyway, maybe I’ll do some more gun shopping today.

(and btw... BIG long conversation in Caleb's comments about my aversions to semi-auto .22s and why I have been looking at .22 revolvers. I've never known .22s semi-autos to be that reliable, but folks that know a smart piece more than me think my reluctance is all wet. That I should give semi's a second look. Ok, ok, I'll think more on it.)

Unforgiven

When the posse was meeting to discuss chasing the killers in Unforgiven, someone said that the man that sold ammo wouldn't sell anymore .30-30 shells on credit. They'd have to pay cash. I guess that was for their Spencer repeaters they talked about

The movie was set in 1880.

The thing is, .30-30, as we all know, wasn't around until 1895...

And the Spencer took a funny .56-56 cartridge. Rimfire, too. Now they might have had .44-40 in 1880, I guess. But not .30-30.

Now, in the final scene, Eastwood, playing William Muny, Gunfighter, goes into Greeley Saloon and shoot the owner/pimp with a double barrel 12 gauge. Dead. The second barrel probably had a paper cartridge and got wet in the rain and misfired. Muny/Clint switches to the Schofield. And shoots 4 men with 4 or 5 shots. It's a .44 S&W pistol, generally. We don't know specifically, but that is the odds. NOT magnum. He then get's and loads the Spencer with those HUGE .56-56. Turns out at least TWO of the guys he shot with the pistol are hurt but not dead, and try to shoot back in their injured state. The rifle bullet does the coup de grace. Now, sure, it is Hollywood. Not known for their attendance to reality (the shotgun blows the guy down the room a bit, for instance. Even a 10 gauge?... no.) It goes to show that a pistol is a pistol, and a RIFLE is a RIFLE, no matter what Hollywood intended.

[It's a good movie, ignore my quibbles if it give the impression that the movie is less than exceptional. Why else would I re-watch it over and over?]

Another aside. I am a beer drinker. I like a cold beer. Now beer didn't do well in the wild west. Not enough local breweries and such. Beer is too perishable. Now, sure enough, Anheuser Busch did a good job shipping kegs around on ice... But if I was thrust into the life of a gun fighter, I'd be out of luck.

As the years went by I developed more of a taste for harder liquors I did not prefer in my youth. Particularly bourbon. As a wee bairn the 'sips' I got from my parents were Budweiser and Bourbon and water. Specifically Kentucky, Early Times. I appreciate Knob Creek now. Which is nice because there is a machine gun shoot there. Totally unintentional on my part.

But if I was back in time, I'd be ok, now, as long as I could find decent bourbon.

St Looey Shooty

Just heard a news report on the St Louis shooting. They said lots of stuff, but I am only commenting on the gun content.

Some guy went postal at his place of business and shot up the place.

We won't know the REAL details for some time. The news media is notoriously bad at getting the details right. For instance, the shooter is reported to have used, "An AK-47 and a .30 caliber handgun..."

Let's fisk, shall we?

With the poor record journalists have, that AK clone (it almost certainly wasn't an actual Kalashnikov) could just as easily be a pump shotgun.

...and .30 caliber handgun? Interesting. I wonder what that is? Could be another AK type, and it shoots a .30 round, metric it's 7.62x39mm:



Or maybe a variant of the C96 'Broomhandle' Mauser. THEY fired a 7.63 x 25 mm cartridge:



Or perhaps it was a great big revolver that shoots .30 carbine, like this discontinued Taurus:

But I half expect the new people got it wrong and the handgun is .38 or something. We shall see. In time.

Terrist

Whenever a Terrist tries something on an airplane (including this last time) it more often than not turns out that the guy was a single young male flying on a long trip with a one-way ticket paid for with cash and sans luggage.

Then someone suggests that maybe we shouldn't let young guys fly that pay for one way tickets with cash and also lack a suitcase. It's a regulation you can put in place just like that.

Scolds then shout, "that will NEVER work! The Terrists will just buy a round trip and pack a bag!"

Yeah, they might do that. Still. What would it hurt to maybe take a second look at all youthful males buying one way plane tickets with cash and seem lacking in Samsonite products? Make it a universal rule for a while. Just to see.

Cheap Kukri Review

So, I got 2 cheapy modern Kukri knives, somehow. I wanted them for machete purposes.

A Kukri is a Burmese-style fighting knife and these are in no way as good as a real one. And there are lots of fake ones out there that even look like real ones from a distance, but they are kinda cheesy knockoffs, too. The real McCoy is legendary, and you never wanted to face an angry Ghurka armed with one.

One is from Cold Steel, one is from Ka Bar. Well, the Ka Bar one isn't exactly a Kukri. I't is Kukri-esque. It's got a heavier front end, but the blade isn't canted forward. The Cold Steel is the classic Kukri shape. Ka Bar DOES make one in a classic shape.


I wouldn't hesitate to buy another from Ka Bar, even though it is at twice the price. The edge came sharper out of the box, and, more importantly, the blade is twice as thick. It's thicker than a silver dollar at the spine. It's give the blade a lot more stiffness and weight for proper chopping. Though I can use the the Cold Steel for stuff where knicks to the blade are more likely. I'll care les about the Cold Steel, but if I can only take one short machete style knife afield it will be the Ka Bar.

I'm sort of curious about the Ka Bar Kukri now.

What do I need a machete for? Well, for clearing out a deer stand it's nice. And when you butcher a deer a chop to the pelvis to split it in 2 is good. As is chopping off the feet.

Don't get me wrong about the Cold Steel one. I've seen MUCH chinsier machetes. Cold Steel's version is halfway decent, and at least it isn't as thin as some of the one that look like they are made out of HVAC ducting sheet metal. The handle isn't as nice to grip as the Ka Bar but it's better than most others.

Word

You know what's a new word that everyone seems to be using all of a sudden? Trope

I, too, am guilty of this recent faddish overuse.

It's what 'awesome' was to 1981. Or 'paradigm' to 1991.

Could it be? This word I keep using? It doesn't mean what I think it means?

Inconceivable!

What Caliber for Whitetail?

I was thinkin'...

Now .30-30 has probably dropped more deer in this country than any other caliber. Followed closely by .30-06, or, north of the border, .303.

But I was watching Winchester '73 with Jimmy Stewart and that got me a pondering: What bullet did hunters use most commonly over 115 years ago to hunt whitetail sized game?

The Winchester model 1973 shot .44-40 and .38-40 as well as smaller rounds. I don't know if those would be ideal for hunting, but they'd just might do the job. Folks hunted deer in Indiana with .357 this year, using 1894C's. So those smallish rounds are doable for deer, certainly, but were they DONE? The rounds are big pistol cartridges and would have been black powder back then, so I don't know if they'd have the 'oomph'.


.45-70 was the military round at the time, pre Krag, and it could certainly bring down a deer. Heck it was used on buffalo on the plains. The .45-70 and the .50-70 were natural buffalo rounds post muzzle loader era, and the .30-40 Krag will do fine for deer based on the number of sporterized versions out there in gunstores for sale, but I'm interested in what hunters shot BEFORE the Krag came out. That window between the Grant Administration and the McKinley Administration. (ooo, the first pres without facial hair in some time...) I'm wondering if .45-70 was considered 'too much gun' by contemporaries and what a deer hunter would have used. Before Grant, some muzzle-loading caliber of shotgun would have been the hunting ammo of choice.

Was there anything between the .44-40 and the .45-70? .30-30 was first out in 1895, and that would do, but it didn't have time to become the most widely/commonly used round in the window of time I am considering.

What think you? Am I overlooking something? Or was it all buckshot.

Hunting was less the pleasant pasttime it is today than it was a means to put meat on the table for the family, I'm certain.

[aaaaaaaand, just after I wrote this I noticed Tam's reference to an earlier post she wrote in her year end recap. Pretty cool stuff, but the whitetail question isn't quite answered. I thought the serendipity cool, tho.]

Stoopid Tea Baggers!

Obama is not coming after your guns! Duh. Can't you cousin humping gun clinging rednecks read?

Well except:

"As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons," Holder told reporters.

the president said during a press conference in Mexico City in April that he has "not backed off at all from my belief that the assault weapons ban makes sense."

Yeah, can the anti-gun leftists drop that position about Obama never intending to go after guns, now?

Cool!

Vintage gun ads that you can buy.

What?

You're trying to tell me this isn't REAL?! But I've been training so hard. I've given Master Bunqeau so much of my money in tuition. He PROMISED!

National Review Nod

Another reference from National Review on CCW and 2nd Amendment. Hooray, Metrocon attention.

RFB

h/t Uncle for the link to this review...

Of the Kel Tec RFB

Kel Tec is known for decent inexpensive pistols and carbines. A little cheap-looking and mostly plastic.

And then they came up with the RFB, a bullpup major caliber rifle with some novel innovations, and now I don't know what to think of them. It's like they are pursuing a military contract.

I'd have to hold and use the RFB to properly judge fit and finish. A lot of the proof is in the trigger feel. Can't judge that via a 3rd party. But if those factors are good, what is Kel Tec doing making such a great rifle.

While shopping for my M1A I considered waiting for this model to check it out before deciding, but I just couldn't wait. Naturally the forward ejection of brass appealed to me, the left hander. I gotta hand it to Kel Tec, though. I think they deserve a bravo for this rifle.

(commercial disclosure: Kel Tec did not pay me for this review but if they sent me a free RFB I'd be happy to keep it and write another review of it that I am SURE would be glowing)

If you don't want that Ford...

How about a VW?

Nice urban Zombacalypse Jetta.

Zombie Vehicle

Found another ideal Zombocalypse vehicle.



The turrets are for fire suppression hoses, but I'm assuming any self respecting gun enthusiast will have swapped those out for belt fed remote mini-guns.

Seats 2, one driver, one gunner.

Guns in DC

So, homicide in the city that anchors my major metropolitan area, Washington DC, are at the lowest levels since 1964. Yes, the 'Murder Capital of the World' that city of less than half a million that saw more than a murder a day in the 1980s is now almost pleasant in comparison.

After Christmas I heard of a player of our local basketball team, the Washington Wizards, got in trouble with the team and the league when it was discovered he had 2 unloaded pistols locked in a case in his locker.

[BTW: The recently dearly departed changed the team name to 'Wizards' from 'Bullets' in the early 90's. Musta been pressured by the Brady's back then during the height of their power. Trying to change the national culture, them. Bullets is too violent a name, dontcha know, especially for a city beset with gun crime.]

Anyway, I thought that outrageous, but understandable. Despite the Heller decision being ABOUT guns in the District of Columbia, the new gun laws that 'allows' firearms to once again legally exist in DC haven't really gelled. Yes, still haven't. And when they do gel they certainly will make no allowances for much carry of any sort of firearm outside the home except under specific rigid conditions. House to car, car to gun range outside the city, then back again. With no pitstops at a drive thru even to get a cup of coffee. Much less a pitstop at a place of business to conduct said business while the guns are safely store away. Even if that place of business is a professional sports arena. Even if you have a buncha political pull because you are a rich and famous athlete. So, worse than New York City, where rich and famous athletes only get in trouble if they have a Negligent Discharge. Little hope for regular folks.

So, outraged I was.

But apparently my deduction of the situation was in error and I hadn't heard the whole story...

It wasn't just an innocent storage of secured firearms issue. Apparently two players had WORDS. And those two may or may not have both pulled out a gat to continue said words, but at a higher level. And that circumstance has the team and the league a bit understandably upset. That's different. The story goes from victimized responsible party to 2 irresponsible parties being stupid and violating a whole host of laws. Laws in the District, but also laws that would be in place in Juno Alaska. Even gun friendly municipalities frown on the resolution of arguments over gambling debts via Mexican Standoff.

But, again, true facts seem to be pretty scarce on the ground about this incident. I look forward to more details getting divulge as time continues apace.

Of course, all upstanding gun owner all over the country condemn such improper gun handling as a matter of course. If the facts and motivations and sentiment known so far are true in this case, these 2 chuckleheads are not to be emulated. Sort of a Goofus example to some unseen Gallant. Gallant would be carrying in a legal venue and not drawing his hogleg over heated words.

[update: and a few hours after I wrote this post on Saturday I saw Uncle's link to it.]

Newt

Saw SIH refer to Anarchangel which has a David Horowitz Restoration footage of Newt Gingrich suggesting it might be a good idea to maybe watch Newt talk.

I disagree. It should be a requirement you watch it. Watch it. And I, like Snowflake and Angel, am not 100% on board with what Newt did in 90's.

NRA in WWI

H/T Snowflake... (and then Arms and the Law obviously)

I LOVE stuff like this. History. Rifle Vs. Volley Doctrine. Free Citizen-Soldier Vs. Peasant/Subject. Thinking and Individual Initiative, Vs. Mindless Automatons that follow orders and do and die.

10/22 mags

MBtGE shoot 10/22s at times, but has been vexed with after market mags that are either unreliable or WAY too expensive. He'd probably be happiest if Ruger made 20 or 25 round factory magazines, but they don't.

I wonder if he's tried Black Dog, and I wonder how well they perform.