What Caliber for...

What caliber for Hypno-Toad?





I'm thinking I better hurry up and get that .458. If these things come out of the Potomac this summer... It would make a Level 4 Zombie outbreak would seem like a walk in the park.

Drinkee drinkee

Sailor Curt noted in my comments when I mentioned a surly guy getting denied a pistol at the purveyor or fine firearm in beeYOOtiful downtown Glen Burni:

"'Oh and I had to wait for this guy to finish monopolizing the salesmen's time arguing that he should be allowed to buy a gun even with his DWI arrest or conviction.'

Gee, I wonder if he has a driver's license and is still allowed to buy alcohol?

Guy is busted for a crime that includes, as it's essential elements, the abuse of Automobiles and Alcohol.

As a result, he is forever prohibited from purchasing...a gun.

Makes perfect sense to me...how about you?"

Of all the listed reasons to be a prohibited person, the "are you a habitual drunkard or smoke too much weed?" one sticks in my craw as untenable. It's too subjective. The others get a person prohibited after objective points are reached in a long line of legal due process, but if you have 2 extra beers a week, you're out, refrain from those 2, and here's your boomstick? Odd. If I were king of the universe I'd try to figure out a way to make that prohibition more concrete, more binary. Maybe even do away with it all together as too silly to properly enforce. Certainly SOMETHING needs to be in place to keep addicts in line. But that would need to be hashed out. To be reasonable. 'Reasonable' is more toward the permissive side than what we have now, MAIG.

I should elaborate, most of you folks just have the ATF to deal with. Curt is in the much friendlier Virginia. I have Maryland State Police. It's THEM that would have denied the guy a pistol because of a DWI arrest. Not just a conviction, an arrest. Maryland Po-po are much more anal about the details for purchase and registration of controlled firearms. (You hear horror stories about ATF jumping on FFL dealers for paperwork issues? Maryland State Police are worse. WORSE! According to the gun stores.) Mr. "Glug-glug-honk-honk" guy at the store could have bought a pump shotgun without a hitch. The ATF would have accepted his DWI because he got the case thrown out, or so he said.

(Curt's comment is kinda funny too. 'Makes you think! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...')

Hey!

Hey, the sooper sekrit Bible verse code on my ACOG says "EZ25:17."

What verse is that?

And interesting... that gun of Jules is actually a 9mm that just looks like a standard 1911. At least a little. I didn't notice the extractor when I saw the film.

What Did You Say?

WHO won Kennedy's seat? Yeah, right. Pull the other one, it has bells on it. No way a non-Dem won it. This is one big practical joke.

Dang Dirty Hippies

Paul McCartney 'Head Lice' - watch more funny videos

Soap-dodging Boomers! If I never hear from them again it will be too soon. In 1970 was the culture so SATURATED by crappy stuff from 1930? No? Then why do we have to see and listen to the songs and crap from the Long-Hairs in 2010?

Maybe we should pass a Death With Dignity law that just applies to aging hippies? Hmmm....

MD Law

Well, well, well... A proposed Maryland law to accept the CCW permits of neighboring states. Intriguing. I'll have to write another letter to my representative.

If I'm not mistaken, I can get an out of state Virginia CCW. It's some hoops to jump through, but it is just hoops. It's a shall-issue state.

Do you think the MD legislature will notice that possibility and put the kibosh on non-resident Virginia permits in the unlikely event the law actually gets out of committee, gets to the floor, get's accepted by the other legislative house, and the liberal governor signs all this into law?

I laugh. It is a rueful laugh. But, miracles could happen. Look at Massachusettes.


h/t Snowflakes...

haiku

Daybreakers

So Daybreakers, the Vampire movie that's ostensibly about peak oil and other commie themes is really a Randian Atlas Shrugged parable, according to Day By Day Cartoon? Cool! {update: fixed! sorta...}

What about a Model 40

What about a Model 40 for my snubbie?

It's steel. (Lots of folks lived without stainless... I'd just get it Blue, not nickel or case color.)

It's got no trigger lock.

It's Centennial with that shrouded hammer.

It's classic, in the looks department.

It's not .357, but that might be ok... I was only planning to shoot .38 flavors for the most part.

Is that grip swap-out-able? That's not a grip safety is it? (Like a Lemon Squeezer) It's just an old style grip dingus to beef it up, right? Oh Gawd, it is a Lemon Squeezer. The descendant of the Safety Hammerless top break revolver from the 19th C. Some turn of the century advertisements showed 4 year old girls playing with the pistols. The firm trigger squeeze, hidden hammer, and firm grip safety supposedly were too much for a child's strength. I can't find the ad to show you, but if you showed it to a modern hoplophobe they'd faint dead away.






Anyway, nevermind on the 40.

King of Battle

Check out Michael Yon's nighttime artillery pictures.



Why doesn't this man have 8 or 9 Pulitzers?

Reporters

Snowflakes has a post about why it is bad to talk to news media reporters if you are a gunstore owner. And the gunstore is the local-to-me.

It's about that dang idjit basketball player. ~sigh~

The reporter is not your friend. Especially if that reporter is from the Post, and especially if the subject matter is about a rich guy in big legal trouble with a gun.

Parts Sold On Spec

So, while gunshopping, I notice a doohickey on the wall. It’s the tube cap for a Remington 1100. But it has a spot for attaching a sling swivel. One of the things my Remington Model 11 is missing is some way to attach a sling. Perfect remedy for my situation! If it fits. Note the differences in model numbering…

So I ask.

The question is kicked up to the gunsmith. He dunno. It might.

So, the gunstore says, “Tell you what, take it home and check it out on your shotgun. If it fits, come back and pay for it. If it doesn’t fit, just bring it back. It’s not like you’ll never come back to this gunstore. Plus I know your name and where you live because you’ve bought boomsticks here, so…”

Fair enough. What a nice way to treat their customers. (The implied semi-threat was made in jest and you could detect that nuance if you were there listening to it.) I DO like the way they treat me there, and the ascerbic wit of the staff that knows me, and that I can take ascerbic wit, it's a feature, not a bug.

Oh, and it doesn’t fit. Returning the part now. Ah well.

.458

Another reason for me to consider a AR.

Get a .458 upper and you have a fine and dandy deer gun. AND moose gun. Probably grizzly, too. I hadn't considered that possibility before, but plenty of people before me have. I love the info flow on the internet. How did people get all this info before? The local hunt club, gun periodicals, and your gun store isn't enough. For instance: Tam made a comment, "I'm pretty sure that the safety in the 1903, like most JMB designs, blocks the sear." How in hell did people pick up that little bit of information pre-internet? You'd have to hang with a gunsmith a good while or read a LOT of gunsmith books to retain that tidbit. You don't pick that detail up just social shuckin and jivin in your local gunstore. But because Tam did hang with the right people, and read the right books, she knew it. Because of the internet, now I and all my readers know it.


Anyway.

The dang things are SO modular. I'm talking about AR pattern rifles. You can get one up for Social Uses, and now you can get that .458 thumper for your hunting needs, and a .22 conversion for cheap practice and small game. With a shotgun and a major caliber pistol, you'd be done on your gun acquisitions. Now all you'd have to do would be to get good at shooting them.

I'm wondering what Colonel Cooper would think of the .458. That man was VERY particular about his big rifle rounds. He'd be fine with the projectile, but I don't know if he'd be happy with the fps velocity. But 2000 fps (with some loads) is close to what I think he'd like, though I may remember him saying 2500 is preferrable... The thought of the Colonel hunting Cape Buffalo with a red-dot scoped AR that shot something comparable to the .45-70 is entertaining. It might be just dandy for the Professional Hunter's backup gun to support his paying customer. 9 of those .458s in a 30 round magazine and semi-auto... Plenty of gun for emergencies when the lion is almost in the party, or the buff is charging.

woohoo

Remember how I threatened to let my fingers do the walking? Well it paid off. Bart's in beeYOOtiful downtown Glen Burni Murlin had what I wanted, sure enough...

A 6" barrel 10 shot Smith and Wesson model 617. It matches my 686. Except it fires more and smaller/cheaper boolits.


Bart's was high on my list of shooty joints to check because of the nice way they treated the Saucy Trollop when she did a transfer of her Fohty Fo. They had a nice Colt Sidewinder and a 617 back then, but they had both long since sold.

I was less hopeful because I had seen them come and go through that same store. And how often does lightning strike the same spot?

I must be living right.

Well, not right enough. I missed a signature on one of the forms and have to go back today, but in a week, that revolver will be in my hot little hands. Oh and I had to wait for this guy to finish monopolizing the salesmen's time arguing that he should be allowed to buy a gun even with his DWI arrest or conviction. Dude, they said no. They just can't. Go away. Yeah, speak to your lawyer.

Anyway.

Speedloaders for this model? Yeah. No. Gonna have to use something else if I want to load it fast. (well, maybeeeeee...)

And now I have some more breathing room in selecting a snubbie.

Snub Selection

Oooo! Tam in my comments said:

"Personally? I think the J-frame .357s are some of the dumbest guns tom come down the pike in decades, but that's just me."

And I repeat them here in case she doesn't revisit the comment.

What WOULD you recommend, Tam, in lieu of a .357 J Frame? I'm pretty sure my only hard and fast requirement is that the future snubbie I get be made of steel. I chose the 640 because of the steel, and that, if it was rugged enough to take .357, it will be more than rugged enough to shoot the .38 I'd use 99% of the time with it.

Nice!

From Shorpy.

A nice Browning Auto-5/Reminton Model 11...

Taken in Westmoreland Hills Maryland.


From when DC and Maryland were more gun friendly. My Dad would be born, in DC, 10 months after this picture was taken. 40 years after this photo was taken, I would be born in a hospital less than 2 miles from that spot. And 80 years after, the people of DC would be 'allowed' to keep firearms in their homes again.

~

Also. "Hello, little girlie! Let me set you up with a girl-size shotgun that shoots a light little .410 or 28 gauge. Anything bigger than that will be too much gun for such a delicate little thing like you."

"No thanks! I'll just stick with my 12. The one I outshoot everyone within 100 miles with."

Shopping Bust

So, the guns I want? Nope. Bupkis.

My gunstores supplier/s is/are bupkis.

There is a 617 at Atlantic Guns up the street, but I don't like the way they ignore customers there. Nice selection of double shotguns there, I must admit. And a plethora of FAL... if you are into that... I'm getting distracted! The 617. Yeah, no idea what they wanted for it as the tag was turned around in the case. (What, are they ASHAMED of their pricing?) No idea if it is the preferred 10 shot version. I know it was only a 4" barrel, and I WANT 6".

Anyway, save that for later consideration. But probably not.

I'll have to let my fingers do the walking to check a few more stores out.

MY gunstore, Engage Armament, did have a 642, with no trigger lock. Not exactly what I prefer in a snubbie, as it is of alloy construction and not rated .357. I'll have to think on it.

In the meantime... phone calls.

I'd like to avoid gun auction transfer fees if I can help it.

Ooo, the range. I'll hit the range tomorrow, see if they have anything I want in the display cases for sale. Doubt it. But you never know.

Patience is the watch word.

St Looey Shooty Re-Dooey

Well, the New York Times actually had a halfway decent, halfway unbiased, sum up on that St Louis Shooting I referenced the other day. More details.

"He took with him one assault rifle, one shotgun and two handguns, the police said, after finding the second handgun on the scene, along with a fanny pack full of ammunition. A fifth gun was found near the guard shack in the parking lot, where Mr. Hendron first opened fire on his co-workers."

The scumbag murdered 3 people, injured 5 others, and then took the cowards way out. He'd have saved a lot of anguish if he had just re-ordered his activities, shooting himself in the head first, before going to work to cause mayhem. (...well, shooting himself first would have obviated the need and ability to do the rest... but that would have been a better outcome, no?)

He apparently perceived that his employer was doing him wrong. He felt cheated by them and was taking them to court to address these perceived wrongs. I guess he couldn't wait for the judicial process to complete. Ass.

Anyway, no mention on any .30 caliber handgun, which was my original interest... The probable mis-reporting I heard on ABCnews radio. I guess the "assault rifle" the Times misnamed could have been an AK clone. I can almost guarantee it wasn't an actual assault rifle (and able to shoot like a machine gun) or the paper would have noted the shooter had an NFA tax stamp. They DID mention he had a hunting license, as they said, "was married with a 20-year-old son and had a hunting license, according to public records." A crazed madman can be just as deadly with any old rifle, but an organization like the Times has to play along with the anti-gun tune and vilify Sport Utility Rifles whenever feasible. It's my quibble with the story. Never forget, a murderous punk killed those 3 people at that transformer fabrication plant, not an Assault Rifle or Assault Weapon or AK or EVIL black rifle or whatever you want to call it. You want less tragedy? Get the murderous punks off the streets, not the firearms.

But it also is apparent that this killer was just an ordinary guy the day before. No one had him pegged as a bad guy until this incident. To facilitate his impact it looks like he chose a shift change for his mayhem, where he'd have a lot of people around to shoot at. And he is reported to have fired, "well over 100 rounds throughout the complex." We are lucky there weren't many more victims. Apparently he just snapped. I'd call him a poor bastard and have a lot more sympathy for him if hadn't hurt anyone. I don't know why there is something in human nature that sometimes willfully conflates minor tragedies into major ones. It makes me not like people very much.

I've found no other, more detailed, follow up references. Yet.

Traffic

(I was checking blog traffic. I've been hovering around 300 visits a day, give or take. Unless TamBreda link to me. On those days I approach 1000 visits. My worst day in the past month was still 200 visits, and that was December 25th. I wonder what happened that day to gimp my readership?)

Man Tweeting Zombacalypse

What did I tell you people?

This poor bastard seems to be stuck in some closed off urban area. RoMERO teams must not have been able to safely contain this to a block or two.

[Does that blog post title sound kinda dirty to you?]