Spotsylvania handgun accident

Yes, the one I blogged about the other day. Some new information has come out, in that the victim was carrying his Glock tucked in his waistband without a holster. With the gun carried this way, there's nothing covering the trigger guard, which creates a dangerous situation in that something can inadvertently come into contact with the trigger and cause it to fire. A friend of the man said it's likely that he was carrying the gun loose in his pocket. I have a friend who carries a full up Glock 17 loose in his back pocket on occasion, and I've warned him about the dangers. I've offered him a holster of his choice from the many that I own, as well as instruction and ammo, but so far life has been too busy for it to happen. I'm going to push harder for a range trip now.

With a gun shoved into the front of the pants, discharging it can put a round through the femoral artery, which is the main strike against appendix carry. If carried in a serviceable, quality holster, and proper care is taken during re-holstering, this sort of accident is avoidable.

It's crushing to hear that this happened to an innocent man, in front of his kids, no doubt. My father-in-law called my wife when he found out because he thought it was me: I shop at that store with my four kids; I have a minivan, and I carry a gun. I'm thankful for the air in my lungs, and my prayers go out to the man's family.

Don't get your freak on

This garbage about stopping shooters from enjoying public land. . . . the Interior Department can shove this right up their interior.

I'm severely agitated over this because of the similar situation here in Virginia. This area used to be good-'ol-boy land: a place where my fellow hillbilly heathens and I gathered together to hunt, fish, shoot guns, shoot bows, and otherwise have a great time on God's green earth. That was back when the county's population was manageable. Now, my county and the surrounding ones are awash with yuppie families who moved down in droves from New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland to live in the "country," which has put the word "history" into "historic" Fredericksburg. Now you can't fire a slingshot or clap your hands too loud or one of these pathetic people will call the police out of fear.

I wish they would all leave.

My only hope is that I can convince my wife, our family, and several friends to move the hell out to a state where I can go for a walk without hearing the sound of traffic and sirens; where I can step out on my porch in my underwear and fire an overbored rifle at a distant crow without wondering how long it will take for the cops to show up to measure my backstop; where I can park my truck in the driveway knowing that at night, thieving little shits aren't going to syphon off all my gasoline before scattering a handful of trim nails under my tires; where it doesn't take me an hour to drive five miles to work or the grocery store.

Now you're telling me that the government wants to get involved in taking away the dwindling places where folks want to enjoy shooting? All because spineless hippies that are scared of their own shadow might "freak out" at the sound of gunfire?

There are plenty of places that these chicken-shits can go where shooting is already banned. Let them go there. The meek people who would use the government to intrude on peaceable folks, how about they go take a fucking shower instead of worrying their stinky little heads over hunters and shooters. How about a bill that makes the Interior Department send their high-falutin' asses right back where they came from? I don't like wimpy people around my kids; it creates a public disturbance. It's a social issue, get it?

Two can play at this game.

You can't convince me that they're seriously scared that an elk hunter might shoot their dog when these days urban folks are terrified that police will do the same thing when they raid their home looking for a pot plant. I guess these days there's no place safe for Cujo.

So, my question is: the hippies think they have a right to live in a place free from good folks who like shooting firearms? Good. I accept that, as long as they accept that shooters and hunters have a right to live in a place free from the sight of cowards out riding their high horse.

I think the next time I see someone who's fearfully looking at my openly carried Glock, I may have to whip out my cell phone and call the cops:

"The lady is obviously not of sound mind, officer; she looks like she might do something crazy any moment, like make terroristic threats or something. Oh, she just peed down her leg. Take her away, boys!"

Assault Thingy shootout

Jacksonville police said Monday that it was an AK-47 assault rifle in the hands of a man who was shot Sunday morning by an off-duty officer as he tried to rob a Family Dollar store.

The off-duty cop shot the scumbag with an AR15, thus ending the debate about which rifle is more awesomer. Good shoot!

Valley of the Jolly Green Giants

A MilitaryPhotos thread on US Air Force Pararescue and Special Operations. Those boys get it done!

Years ago I looked into Pararescue, because it's a cool job with lots of medical and specialized training, but I was far too broken physically to get in. I do appreciate those who made it, though!

Venison jerky

Years ago, my family would make venison jerky, which became somewhat of a problem because the more you make, the more you eat. It's not like defrosting half a tenderloin to cook for tomorrow's game; you make jerky in huge batches, and it sits there waiting to be snacked on. A friend at work makes jerky and brings it in every now and then, and it got me on the idea of making some.

Too bad there's a Game Stop or Home Despot in place of every deer stand I used to have. How many Game Stops does a town need, anyhow? If I did have the time to shoot and clean a deer, I don't have anywhere to hunt, which leads me to think that I need to not put so much effort into dodging them in my truck on the way to work.

Open carry is getting awesome

I don't know where this is at, but it's a good indication of what open carry used to look like.

A tragic handgun accident

Update: The man was carriygn the gun loose in his waistband.

Liz Scott said the victim was in the driver’s seat of a minivan when he apparently went to unbuckle his seat belt and hit the trigger of a Glock 40-caliber handgun. A bullet was fired into the victim’s hip. He looked at his wife, who had already returned to the van, and said, “I just shot myself.”

There has to be more to this story, but my heart goes out to the family of this man, who did not survive. The store in question is where we grocery shop, so I'm a little apprehensive to hear the name of the man that lost his life; there's a good chance I may have known him.

There is only one account that I know of a gun firing in a holster where the owner was not handling the gun, but it is very very rare that it happens that way. Usually the owner has the gun out of the holster, and a finger or foreign object finds its way into the trigger guard, which is exactly the conclusion that I came to when my wife read this article to me last night. It's not known at this time whether the gun was in a hip holster, or whether it was in a pocket holster. It does sound to me like the femoral artery was hit, which is why there are some who do not carry over their appendix. I've never thought that it matters much where you have your gun holstered if you have a AD/ND, anywhere can cause a fatality.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Today is a day to give thanks to our Veterans. Too bad there are people who have to be reminded to be respectful sometimes:



Y'all have a great day!

Video game blogging

Aaaaaaaand Battlefield 3 is. . . . .

Terrible.

This game sucks so bad I doubt I will even finish it. I just quit playing not only for the gheyness, but also because it's boring. I'm a first person shooter type of gamer, and I'm known for being able to love the bitter with the sweet, but this game is bad. I don't have many positives here, so I'll tell it like it is.

The storyline sucks. The structure is so rigid that if you stray too far looking for cover you will be DQ'd. Bad guys appear out of thin air; you can watch this happen so much that it becomes something you start counting, like a pet word or someone who knifehands when they talk. Oftentimes your weapon has zero effect, like there's a glitch that keeps the game from acknowledging your hits.

Worst of all, there's these little story/video clips in almost every mission where you are 98% detached from what is going on, but are obligated to hit a random button every five seconds or so to keep from getting your ass kicked by some Iranian or Russian dude. The developers couldn't figure out how to make your character fight like a real Marine, so they make you watch it happen, and if you don't realize what's going on you will get stabbed to death. They should have left that stuff out; or at the very least, if you're going to add a fighting part into the game, give me some real controls so I can fight. Don't make me watch ten seconds of a struggle, and then quickly flash the "B" button and expect me to pick up the signal that I'm supposed to be interacting.

The entire game is senseless like that. The execution of it is as bad as it gets. The graphics are good, and the weapons are pretty cool. The rest sucks. It's my opinion, but I note again that I am the guy who plays the devil's advocate and sees both sides of everything. This game is not worth your time.

ETA: I don't have the time to play multiplayer online, so I stick with the campaign. I can't speak for multiplayer, but I think the campaign is garbage.

ETA2: What this bloke said. And I'm not even done listening because the wife and kids want my time. Wives in general have no clue as to what video gaming is all about. But that's ok; you are loved just the same.

ETA3: Kids are in bed, so I gave it another shot. Now it's not just ghey, but it's preposterously ghey. There's a scene where an enemy jet is engaging your Recon team, and it must be hyper realistic because it doesn't matter what you do, that jet will kill you. It can apparently shoot through anything, so there's no point in hiding. The game is super scripted, which is not what I would have expected from Battlefield. Y'all are slipping!

Random thoughts about stick fighting

I see advertised time and time again in self defense schools about using a cane as a weapon, but I rarely see anyone using a cane these days. It doesn't make sense to me to learn tactics for a weapon that hardly anyone carries, but it did get me thinking. I see senior folks walking in subdivisions every morning, and most of them are carrying a good sized sturdy stick. This isn't something I see every once in awhile, either; literally I see some stick carrying old dude with an angry look on his face at least once a week, and I have to say that if I were a scumbag, it would be a deterrent. I'm a physically capable individual with no doubts that I could overcome someone twice my age if they were unarmed, but I would be hesitant enough to attack a potential Korean war veteran with a nasty case of untreated PTSD and a treated hickory stick.

So, what about stick tactics?

Happy Birthday, Marines!!

Errrrrr!

Appendix IWB on the cheap

I've been experimenting left and right with affordable ways to appendix carry a handgun, and I've had a decent amount of success. Here's some stuff I've been messing around with:



Click the pictures to make them bigger, and also feel free to browse my growing four+ year old collection of pictures at Photobucket.

The Bladetech Nano (top left) for my Glock 17 is a well made holster, and is suitable for AIWB carry if you're not too concerned with concealment. It's very thin, light, and the attachment loops are spread apart which keeps the profile thin for waistband comfort, but it also doesn't tuck the gun's grip in towards the abdomen. I've tried to modify it to make it conceal better, and I have one more idea, but so far I've struck out. I think it set me back about $35, and for that price it's a steal.



Next to a plain old Bladetech IWB holster that I've modified, you can see the difference in the belt loops and that there's less holster overall. Keeping those loops out to the side makes a big difference, as the amount of thickness stuffed in between your belt and jelly roll is minimal:



I've had great success with the Bladetech IWB, and I had to do some more modifications since my last post. I've now mounted the plug/spacer/old-rubber-piece-from-a-rifle's-buttstock directly to the holster, instead of to a strip of leather, and it works better, but the screws holding it on are dragging on the trigger guard. Back to the drawing board.



The DeSantis Sof-Tuck I got on sale at Midway for $15, and it's a very sturdy and well made holster. It is a bit thick, as the tuckable J-hook piece adds material between the gun and the waistband, but it does hold the Glock 26 well:



I recommend the baggie-over-the-gun-stuffed-in-the-holster trick to loosen it up a bit. I didn't get any concealment pictures of it with the Glock, but you did see the same holster a few days ago with a Kahr CW9.

The Zack holster is still good to go. I've modified it a bit so that I can put the gun on and take it off the belt without unholstering the pistol. This is done as a margin of safety, as unholstering a gun and laying it on the car seat next to you while you jack around the front of your pants is not exactly the safest idea:



I've even modded it since that picture was taken by drilling new holes in the back of the belt clip, near the top, and running the cord through there. The gun sits at a perfect height in my waistband, doesn't move around, and is still tuckable for concealment if you so desire:




A word of caution here: because the Glock 26 has such a short slide, it can pop up out of your waistband if you have a spare tire around your guts. Since there isn't much slide down inside the pants, if you push your gut out while bending over down to the ground, there is enough leverage against the grip to potentially shove the whole piece out of your belt. I can make it do this, but I have to try to make it happen. It's a double edged sword -- the Glock 26 conceals so well in this holster because the grip is short and doesn't stick out, and the Glock 17 is way more secure because its longer slide gives opposing leverage preventing it from coming out, but it doesn't conceal as well because the grip is longer. I wear my pants low enough that the gun sits just below my gut, so in effect my jelly roll becomes a retention device, so I can make the Glock 26 work.

I also found an AIWB holster where I didn't expect it: inside my pocket. I was thinking about the Remora holsters the other day, which don't expose any clips or loops or such, and it struck me that the DeSantis Super Fly is basically the same thing, so I gave it a whirl:




I'm happy to report that it works perfectly. I left the detachable shield thingy on it to give more traction, and was careful when tucking it that I didn't jam my shirt up underneath of it, so that if I had to draw it it would yank the whole thing out. I did have all day comfort without any movement or loops showing, so there's another option for carry. I have one of these also for the Glock 26, and I'm going to give that a go to see if it will work.

So there it is. Cheap AIWB solutions. It's a dirty job, but someone has to throw themself onto the alter of concealment. Folks, it's not easy trying on holsters all day, taking pictures of your crotch in the dirty mirror in the kid's bathroom, but I do it for you, dear readers!

Lion, tiger, and bear medicine

On the left hand side of this article is a list of official reports from the Deputies that shot and killed all those animals in Ohio during the Exotic Animal Apocalypse. It's an extremely fascinating read. There were detectives shooting tigers with buckshot, and SRT guys shooting everything with M4s.

If I ever get to go on a safari to hunt the big five, I'll do my best to convince the government to let me take my AR instead of something larger than .375 caliber!

Hat Tip to Hell in a Handbasket.

Change

I was at my parent's house on Saturday to drop off my wife's new laptop for repair (who would have known that the device didn't want a glass of juice?), and I had about a fifteen minute window to shoot my pistol with my brother. The day before, I handed over my Glock 26 to my sister, who has struck a notion to start carrying something because of all the attempted abductions going on in the area (another one in my town yesterday), and also because some creepy scumbag tried to take one of her kids not quite a year ago, so I committed to leaving the Glock 17 in the house for the wife, and took up my beloved 1911.

The only holster that I own for my 1911 that works for AIWB is a crappy leather Bianchi that I had cut the thumb break off of some time ago. It's concealable, but was way too tight for a railed gun, so I had left it in the gun safe for a couple of weeks with the pistol wrapped in a plastic baggie to loosen it up. That worked out alright, but the huge metal clip had a tendency to let the holster come out during the draw still attached to the gun, which was happening on Saturday. It was all laughs though, as I had intentions of getting a suitable holster anyway -- I just needed an internet connection and one would be on its way.

That's when it happened.

I was doing one-shot draws from concealment against my PACT shot timer when I got a click instead of a bang. I had this happen to me a few times with this gun with the first rounds I ever put through it, but it never happened again since then. I found out only in recent weeks that Kimber 1911s are equipped with the Swartz firing pin safety system.

I hold a pistol with a ludicrously high grip; so high that I usually get slide bite from Glocks and whatnot, but I don't mind because the gun is really controllable with the bore closer to my hand. I would hold higher if it wouldn't bind the gun up -- I could even have slide rails built into my hand flesh to allow the slide something slick to run against. Where I run into trouble with 1911s is that my hand is sometimes up so high on the beavertail that I don't disengage the grip safety, so the hammer doesn't fall; and specifically with the above malfunction, I have enough pressure on the grip safety to allow the hammer to fall, but not enough to disengage the Swartz safety. And now I know why I sometimes get clicks instead of bangs.

I've never liked the grip safety on a 1911, but I have learned to deal with them well enough so far. At this point though I don't want to take the chance at having that happen at an inopportune time. And so after some thinking, and discussion with my brother who's advice has a great deal of weight with me, I've decided to sell off my 1911 and try my hand at something different. The main reason I shoot a 1911 so much is because of the grip angle, and thus my ability to naturally point it where I need it to go. I'm shooting my Glock 17 great, but I still hate the grip, and it's just a scootch larger than I would like to conceal, and I also wouldn't mind some extra safety available when holstering a loaded weapon that's pointed at my groin and femoral artery, so I want a gun with a hammer.

I need the capitol from my 1911 to expedite my next buy - a H&K P30. There's nothing wrong with my 1911, it's just that it doesn't suit my needs, and I intend to pick up another one day in the near future -- one that doesn't have a rail, but does have crappy sights, a spur hammer, no beavertail, in blued steel. The H&Ks latest offerings have a grip angle along the lines of the 1911, and I hear their triggers and sights are simply awful, so I'll be upgrading along the way. Fun times ahead. . .

Shooting while pregnant?

My wife and I have had discussions about this in the past, considering her being pregnant for pretty much five continuous years. Will it hurt the baby?

The only thing I thought about as far as being harmful to the baby was the noise. Unborn babies can hear voices (no, not the creepy kind!), such as the mother and father's, and can also hear music and stuff. No doubt the noisy blast from a firearm can cause damage, or at the very least scare the poor kid. For those reasons, my wife hasn't fired a gun in years (it breaks her heart. . .(not really)).

I didn't even think about any of the other things that might be harmful. With that information especially, my advice is to not do it. I found that article on ARFCOM from this thread on the subject.

And knowing is half the battle. . . . (that brings you back, doesn't it?)

Fast follow-up shot

With a little more control, this girl could be on to something with the new .500 S&W double-tap technique for dangerous game.

Survey says. . . . . .

YES!! Women should carry handguns for personal defense!

Oh, what do I win?!?!

If ARFCOM ran a Deadliest Warrior episode

Could a modern day Marine Expeditionary Unit, sent back in time, destroy the Roman Empire? Someone asked the question, and ARFCOM answered. From my unofficial tally, it's about two-to-one odds against the Marines for some of the dumbest arguments imaginable. It really got me thinking though about if ARFCOM ran a giant episode of Deadliest Warrior. There would be a complete list to the cartridge of all the shit an outfitted MEU has at its disposal, from M9s to M1A1 Abrams main gun rounds, against all the cleverness (snicker!) and weapons a 2,000 year old civilization had:

(In an overly enthusiastic, raspy voice) - Marines, the Deadliest Warriors of the modern age attack with bloodthirsty hunger wielding weapons of terrifying awesomeness and DEEEEEEEATH!

(Geek voice) - "Here we have a modern fighting force with modern weaponry. The Marines, while honorable, courageous, and committed to accomplishing their mission, often forget their sole purpose in life of killing everything they see and get sidetracked due to raging hormones and desire for strong drink. Some of the weapons the Marines will be using on the show are:"
(Raspy voice)
The M16 A4 rifle!
The M9 pistol!
The M240Bravo machine gun!
The M249 Squad Automatic Weapon!
The MK19 machine gun firing 40mm grenades of DEATH!!
The LAV-25 Amphibious Assault Vehicle with 25mm automatic gun!!
The M777 Howitzer firing 155mm high explosive rounds!! OF DEATH!!
The Bell AH1Whiskey SuperCobra!!! IT'S AIRBORNE DEATH!!!

(Raspy fake voice again) - "But the Romans strike back with a deadly arsenal of their own!!!!"

(Geek voice) - "The Romans were like smart and shit, and were known to change their tactics to win decisively against other large, primitive and starving forces fighting in massed clusters with weapons made from bronze. Here are some of the things our Romans will be using against the Marines on the show:"
(Raspy voice)
The Gladius! Three feet of low carbon steeeeel!
The Javelin!! Five feet of wooden DEATH!!!
The Shield!! Thick wood and bronze protected a Roman warrior FROM DEATH!
Whores! Slutty assassins who woo warriors!! TO DEATH!!
Chlamydia! Burning penal discharge of DEATH!!
Syphilis! The rashy kiss of crotchety DEATH!
Sour Wine! OF DEATH!!


(Geeky Canadian voice) - "I think the Romans are going to win this one. They were unbelievably clever, definitely enough to defeat the Marines' two millenia of technology, tactics, and complete knowledge of history. Aaaaand, nobody has ever thought of Marines being clever enough to adopt their strategy to defeat a numerically superior force. Also, a Marine Expeditionary Unit has a finite amount of ammunition on board, estimated at about one and a half million small arms rounds and hundreds of thousands of high explosive rounds, as well as a supply of batteries and fuel for only a month of operations. Once those run out, they're fucked."

(Other Geek voice) - "Yeah, you make a good point about the Marines having a limited supply of ammunition. But the Romans though had an infinite number of warriors who were not only super skilled with close range weapons made of primitive steel, but they were also like mad smart, too! They had so many warriors that they would never run out. When four Marine Corps M1A1 tanks annihilate a one hundred thousand strong army with all their leadership in a ten minute engagement, Rome would simply send in a hundred thousand more. The beauty is that Roman warriors don't even need training; they just wander out of the morning fog and stand ready in formation."

(Geeky Naval Special Warfare guy) - "I'm going to go with the Marines on this one. The Roman army, while admittedly super clever with their aquaducts and all, would not operate all that well as a fighting unit once all their generals and leadership were assassinated silently in their beds at night by green faced Marines with night vision goggles and suppressed rifles. And considering the devastation that a 155mm artillery barrage has against a force wearing body armor dispersed amongst rocks and cover, much less a formation of malnourished troops shoulder to shoulder in an open field wearing leather and wood, I'd say that if there even was a head on battle, it would be over in two minutes. One or two battles per region and that whole area would fall, which would destabilize the empire, and then the Marines would own all the harlots and booze they wanted."

(Geeky guy) - "Hmmmmm. Good points all around; it looks like it's going to be a tough call. But once we get all the data loaded into our sim, it will give us the answer."

(Raspy voice) - "Representing the Roman army are two Greek cooks from Manhattan, both direct descendants from warriors who fought in the Roman army."

(Greek cook) - "We're gonna kick their asses! Romans had gleaming muscles and thick chest hair under all their ridiculously effective armor, and had trained from before birth to wield a sword! No contest."

(Raspy voice) -"Representing the Marine Expeditionary Unit are two Marine Corps war veterans who, as Force Recon Snipers, killed thousands and thousands of terrorists across the globe using the devestating power of combined arms!"

(Marine, with a huge dip in his mouth) - "This is a fucking joke, right? I mean, we aren't talking about a MEU occupying a large land area or conquering every last city; all we need to do is slaughter a few hundred thousand Romans and the empire will break up. We'll take Rome on the first night!"

ETA: (Raspy voice) -- "WHO! IS! DEADLIEST!!!"

Yes, I have a wild imagination floating around in all this bitterness.

Gun P0rn: Wheel guns are real guns

There's two pages of revolver pics here so far to wet your whistle, and thirty seven pages here if you're the kind of fellow who gets a little damp around the brow area from the sight of wheeled blue steel.

An aptly named county for such a Sheriff

Wright said,"Liberals call me and tell me the chain-gang form of justice isn't working. Well, let me inform you, your form of justice isn't working either."

He said Lance should not have had the right or opportunity to "violate a good, upstanding woman."

***

Wright said, "It's too bad someone with a concealed weapons permit didn't walk by. That would fix it." He said people are tired of doing the right thing and criminals
getting away with their actions.

He said several times, "I want you to get a concealed weapons permit."

It's a start. There's plenty more where that came from, from a Sheriff that seems to have his heart and mind in the right place. He seems to genuinely understand that his town will be a better, safer place if the good folks at large are able to stop scumbags with something that works much faster than a cell phone.

I understand his anger, too; there have been two more attempted abductions in my AO since my last post on the matter, and police don't believe any of them are related. That would mean there are lots of twisted creepys running around, not one. This place is saturated with wonderful kids that need to be protected, and hopefully the community is up to the task.

I suck at Family Feud

Wife, playing Family Feud on her iphone: "What is something China is known for?"
Me, without hesitation and while still typing the last post: "Genocide."
Wife: "Nope. Two answers were the Great Wall and Communism. They gave 'great food' and 'Chinese New Year.'"

My Asian history is a little hazy, but didn't China work hundreds of thousands, if not millions of workers to death building their Great Wall? Apparently 100 people surveyed and I are not on the same page.

Get to the most important part!

A lazer that can pull apart the fabric of space? Woopedee Dooooooo! What a waste. Who the hell cares about destroying anything in space; there aren't any zombies, ninjas, Nazis, or giant insects that I know of. All I want to know is how long before I can mount one on an M4?

Hand cannon gun p0rn!

Five Six shots, five six kills. . . . ?

ETA: Confirmed it's a six shooter!!!

Small pistol AIWB

A couple of weeks ago my brother showed me his Kahr CW9 in its new DeSantis Sof-Tuck, and I tried it out to see how it would fare carried AWIB. I did a hasty shirt tuck, and then my brother took some pictures:




It sure is purdy! Comfy, too!

I could carry that thing all day like that with no problem. In the first picture you can spot the J-hook, and the slight bulge under my belt. Again, I just jammed the front of my shirt into my britches rather quickly for the picture; I'm sure I could do a better job of hiding it if I tried a little harder. Also, the CW9 shot great. I only put a few rounds through it, but it's certainly more shootable than my P3AT.

As an added bonus, I thought I'd include this picture as evidence of why you shouldn't shoot CB Long rounds out of your 10/22:



Oooops.

Immediately after that picture was taken, my brother then noted something I did not know: in order to punch a cleaning rod OUT of the barrel of a Ruger 10/22, you have to remove the barrel. That's not an option here because the barrel is fit so tight into the receiver that I don't think I can ever take it off. I don't know about you, but when I learned to clean a gun -- any gun -- I was taught that it's best to push the dirt and fouling and stuff from the breach end out of the muzzle, and not the other way around. I've also learned that you can count on engineers at Ruger to design shit like they're retarded, so this doesn't surprise me. The only other option is to drill a hole in the back of the receiver so that you can take the bolt out and get a cleaning rod in there, which is what I did.

Awesome job, Ruger. You build a rifle that has to have a hole drilled in it to clean. Morons.

That song is playing in my head again

It's the song they call Tinnitus, played by a band called IneverworehearingprotectionwhenIwasyoung. It goes like this: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

When I was a kid, all I did was shoot guns. All day. I had several counties of woods and fields to wander and hunt, and that was what interested me. Even before I could drive I was competent with big magnum rifles and handguns, and had taken down countless deer with a 7mm Magnum and a .300 Winchester Magnum I borrowed one hunting season. When I was in High School, while all the cool kids were out getting liquored up and partying, I would be proned out on mom's dining room table with a Marlin Glenfield Model 25 sniping crows in the back yard out the back door. It made me a decent marksman, but it also gave me substantial hearing damage.

Back then hearing protection came in the form of foam plugs, or dad's cigarette butts. Either way, to keep the song from playing after you broke a shot you had to completely block out ambient sounds, which was not desirable if you wanted to also be able to hear your quarry. Spending so much time in the woods, I never wore hearing protection at all for more than half my life; and because of that I have recurring tinnitus.

It happens randomly several times a month and usually goes away within an hour or two. Not this weekend, though; I woke up Saturday morning and my left ear was ringing so bad that it made my hearing in both ears almost non-existent, and continues now as I write this post. My wife came home from work and was wondering why the hell I had the TV blaring so loud. I could barely hear it, like I was underwater. My kids would be talking to me not two feet away and I just couldn't make out what they were saying. It gets really bad like this several times a year, and can take a week or two to go away.

In my youth, I knew damn well I was damaging my ears with all the gunfire, but I didn't care because I thought I was tough. Now I see what a moron I was, and I wish I could go back in time and kick my own arrogant ass, then sport the dollar or so for some ear plugs. Idiot. I'm right handed, which means my right ear is turned slightly away from the muzzle when I shoot, so it's the better ear of the two. Both ears are bad enough that I had to get a waiver to get into the Marine Corps and Army National Guard because of a wide range of sounds that I could no longer detect, which shouldn't be the case for anyone under 60 years of age.

These days there are electronic hearing protectors that amplify ambient sounds, but cut out the gunfire. When you shoot, instead of the muffled "pop" that you hear with foam plugs, the electronic muffs let you hear the shot as if it was normal, but your ears are spared only the most damaging pitch. On top of that, they're affordable, so there's no reason in the world not to buy a pair and use them, even in the woods while you're hunting. I noticed that with my cheapo pair of Peltor tactical muffs, I can hear distant sounds clearly as if I were there that I cannot hear without them. They'd be a huge advantage in the woods while hunting, and would also keep the worst of the gunfire from making your ears play that song that you cannot get out of your head, ever.

Horse-playing with your food

I concede that this story is a bit on the strange side, but folks have a right to play with their food any way they chose. The comments at the bottom of the story -- "I'd like to meat her." -- and the ones at ARFCOM -- "I want you inside me." -- are hilarious, though my sense of humor is probably faaaaar more twisted than the average Joe.

Double facepalm

I found two news articles about enacting gun laws in Nevada in the wake of the Carson City shooting last month, and both of them made my jaw drop. You have to be an airhead to write or say some of this stuff, and I thought I would fisk both articles this morning.

First up is this one, and this just begs to be pointed out:

"Nevada National Guard Sgt. Caitlin Kelley, one of the victims in the IHOP attack, responded to the shooting by calling for a ban on assault weapons, which can be purchased without a background check at many gun shows or through private sellers."

It would be better written if it said that most common firearms can be purchased privately, but are mostly subjected to a background check at gunshows. That would at least not be misleading or disingenuous, unlike this:

“I can’t imagine why we are even selling assault weapons to civilians,” said Kelley, who was shot in the foot and still uses a wheelchair. “There’s no reason for an AK-47 or an M-16 or an M-4 to be in a civilian’s home.”

AK-47s, M16s, and M4s are very very rare in the US. The weapon in question was illegally converted to full auto by a man who could have cared less for any law barring him from a tool to kill people; the response to this apparently is to have one of the victims of the shooting tell everyone that psychopathic killers shouldn't be allowed to buy automatic rifles.

Washoe County Sheriff Mike Haley agreed, saying: “I don’t see any logic to having assault weapons available to the public.” But he said banning such weapons would spark a sharp response by gun-rights advocates.

You correctly answered your own question there, chief. Way to go. The "logic" to having rifles available to the public is that the public wants rifles; and for every one scumbag that uses one for harm, hundreds of thousands or more peaceable men and women put them to good use. Because they are desired by far more good people than bad, they are available; and I reckon they will stay available for a long while to the good folks in Nevada.

Going now into a full blown lie:

Semi-automatic assault weapons can easily be converted into automatic weapons — which are the same thing as machine guns — with a simple kit available online or at gun shows, officials said.

Nope. Wrong. Erroneous. How this garbage keeps getting written is beyond me, but to clear things up, you cannot buy "simple kits" online or at gunshows, or anywhere besides criminals to make rifles fire automatically. You can purchase the fire control components to make an AR rifle fire automatically, but they're heavily regulated by the ATF, and so is the receiver that those fire control parts go into. The number of these receivers is finite, and the price to own one is high. I have seen booths at gunshows that will gladly sell you an automatic weapon, legally, which will set you back at least $10,000 for a cheap one, and you will have months and months of paperwork to do before you can own it. You can manufacture your own full automatic weapon in your basement out of scrap metal if you are mechanically inclined, or if you have access to metalworking equipment you could likewise turn some rifles into machine guns. You can also buy all the parts you would need to make a bomb from your local Home Despot, and assembling one would be way less effort than making a semi-auto AK into an automatic weapon, and the killing potential would be much higher. Chew on that for awhile.

This line was my first facepalm:

What happened at the IHOP “was as close to a war as most people will ever come, and they were helpless to defend against it,” Haley said. “But because of our love affair with weapons, we are subjecting the public to this type of violence. If this is going to change, the public has to stand up and demand change.”

This may sound cold, but being "helpless to defend" yourself is a personal choice. Sadly, the National Guard has largely taken away that personal choice by disarming Soldiers who, by their very title, are charged with guarding our nation. I'd say a lunatic shooting civilians with a rifle in an IHOP is threat to [the Nation] that could have been stopped had these Soldiers been armed, or by some yahoo eating breakfast who happened to be armed to protect his or her gift of life. How are you supposed to defend your people if you are not armed? How can you swear an oath to defend a nation and then be totally unprepared at keeping your charge? Does the public really believe that the National Guard is only supposed to shoot foreign enemies on some other soil? How the Sheriff can profess the above and then in the same breath advocate taking away the very tools to allow defense against it is bizarre.

If you really want to do a double facepalm like I did this morning, look no further than the comments to this story. It boggles the mind. A quick Google search then yielded this article that has almost the same shitty verbiage as the first, but with some extra pizaaaaaz!

"I think it's a good question to ask: Why does a typical citizen need to have an assault weapon?" he said. "I think we're at the point where we have to have that discussion. Can we protect citizens without impacting other people's rights?"

Go right ahead and have that discussion, because it's not going to go the way that you want it to go. I have to point out that a man's rights have absolutely nothing at all to do with protecting citizens, and are not measured by need. You have rights; either use them or don't, but get it out of your head that you can protect people by dishonoring them with a violation their rights.

Hey lookie! This article has lies, too:

Seven states have assault weapons bans: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Virginia.

Not in Virginia; although if Old Dominion Dems have their way, they would scoop them up in a heartbeat, which is why it's been noted that we won't be seeing many of them winning elections in the near future.

Despite being diagnosed as schizophrenic, Sencion legally purchased the weapon from a private seller in California.

But you just said that these weapons have been banned in California! How can you say that they've been banned there, and then say that he legally bought them there? Great editing! These articles are the only reason why I bother to read the news.

Tuesday morning weirdness roundup

It's a couple of years old, but check out this 230 lb. wolf that was killed in Alberta. Yikes. Something like that roaming around where I live would get shot to death in a heartbeat.

And in VA news:

A 15 year old is being charged with a felony for pepper spraying a fellow student in school. First, what's the point in charging a minor with a felony such as this? Trying for the death penalty? And "malicious assault with a caustic substance"? Does that mean that a cop can be charged with that if they use their pepper spray without proper cause? Just wondering.

A man tackles a home intruder, causing scumbag's handgun to fall to the ground. I thought that only happened in movies. Good thing scumbags don't often use holsters. Also, how is it that felons keep getting ahold of handguns?

Two attempted kidnappings of young girls in Spotsylvania in a week. Both of these men hopped out of their vehicles and chased the girls for a little ways through their subdivisions. These sickos should be advised that many folks around here have not forgotten the last demented shitbag that terrorized the county, and don't take too kindly to weirdos chasing our youth with box cutters. It will not happen here again.

To boldly go where no handloader has gone before

Last night I was talking ballistics gibberish with a dear friend of mine and fellow reloading addict, when I got the notion to give Reloder 17 another try in .264 LBC. From all I've read, that gun powder won't work in the 6.5 Grendel/.264 LBC cartridge because, it's argued, there isn't enough room in that little case for enough of the powder to push a 123 grain bullet. Well, I think that there is.

Consulting Quickload-the-Wise about this, it warns me of all sorts of impending doom if I try to do what I'm about to do, but I've been there before when I was shooting 208 grain AMAX bullets out of a .308 AR with RL-17 -- I'm not skeer'd. I've found that I can game a certain charge weight of powder and a certain length for loads by plugging in actual data from shooting previously, and it's been very consistent so far. Using a drop tube last night, I easily fit a great deal of RL-17 under a 123 grain AMAX with just a pop or two of crunched powder, and the bullet seated to magazine length. Good to go. Now I just need to try it out.

This is why I can't have nice things

What I initially thought were marks from a kid's washable marker turned out be deep gouges from who knows what after closer inspection under better light.

GGGGGGGRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrr. . . .

Whomever coined the phrase "the pitter patter of little feet" with the notion of well behaved darlings frolicking around the house must have been high. My house is awash with the sounds of AAHHHHHGGGGG!!! THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUD-THUMP THUD-THUMP THUD-THUMP WHUMP-THUD-THUMP WHUMP-THUD-THUMP WUMP-THUD-THUMP AAAAAAHHHH WEEEEE AAAHHHGG!!! -- followed by the unmistakable sound of some object being smashed/thrown against the wall/hurled down the stairs.

My poor Oakley's. Its Achilles Heel was exploited by one of my children, whom I have to give some credit to for being able to destroy a pair of sunglasses that are basically indestructible. Then again, my father has told me more than once that when I was a kid, "[I] could fuck up an anvil with a rubber hammer."

The apples don't fall far from the tree.

Arming up for the Exotic Animal Apocalypse

I hadn't paid any attention to the exotic animals running loose around Ohio until yesterday afternoon when I walked in the door. My wife, whom I love more than life itself, was watching the news and they were showing the 18 Bengal tigers and at least one African lion that were killed by various police units in the area, which got me thinking about whether or not this incident will spark new dialog in proper weaponry to deal with the next Exotic Animal Apocalypse.

Think about it. Gunnies the world over constantly prepare for the fictional zombie threat -- which really is just a humorous way of preparing for the end of the world -- and bicker and argue about what firearms would be the best tool to have to efficiently dispatch them; in the wake of this exotic animal roundup I can picture such arguments taking place at my local Ganderous Mountainous. Cops may just start keeping a 45-70 Marlin in the trunk next to their AR that they're probably never going to use, and I bet savy armchair warriors are going to start doing the same.

People generally pay a shit-ton for the chance to fly to another continent and hunt these animals. I wonder if the cops that shot them will have the option to keep what they killed; it would be a shame to incinerate them. I'm sure that the techniques and shot placement(s) were not up to Craig Boddington's standards, but there's little to be said about it considering that the police were properly armed for lighter and thinner skinned animals when they were asked to respond without preparation.

And while we're on the subject, good on them for their bravery. Think about being a cop accustomed to responding day after day to domestic violence calls, shoplifters, and a drunk who parked his car at speed into the first floor of a retirement home, and then getting the call to take down dozens of 400 lb lions and tigers armed with a pistol or 5.56mm rifle. Sounds terrifying to me. One cop even killed a black bear with one shot from his issued weapon. Good shooting!

About those gun free zones. . . .

It's nearing the end of October, and police in Alexandria, Virginia are investigating a death that just may be the city's first murder this year. Alexandria isn't as gun friendly as, say, Floyd county, but it isn't a Gun Free Zone. If you want one of those, you can drive just a couple of miles North across the Potomac river and live in a city with 93 murders so far this year.

If you think making it illegal to own and/or carry a firearm will make anyone safe, you should consider this.

Pain is not always weakness leaving the body

This past Monday was day one of me getting back into weight training after almost a year and a half hiatus. Despite me dropping a third off the weight I normally lift and only doing three sets, all I managed to do was hurt myself. Badly.

Tuesday night I woke up and my arms were aching painfully, with my left arm seized up at the elbow from tightness and inflammation. Wednesday night was the same thing with my right arm, and the pain was severe enough to keep me awake for half the night. In the wee hours of the morning the whole week, including this morning, it took substantial effort for me to put my cup of coffee to my my lips; my arms just won't bend. It takes an hour or two of me working them to get them functional enough to drive to work, and I'm downing Motrin to keep the inflammation down.

Lesson learned: take it easy on the weights when you've been out of the game for awhile.

I'm giving myself the weekend also to recover, and hopefully I'll get a do-over on Monday. Military presses will be with the bar only! I've been wanting desperately to do some shooting, and I've been offered to do a review on ammo that I just haven't been able to get to, but since I've been sick for two weeks now and I'm physically unable to scratch my own back at the moment, it looks like I'll have to wait til' next weekend.

Only you can prevent sawzall violence

EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — Police in Everett, Wash., say a woman is accused of cutting her sleeping husband's neck and shoulder with a power saw.

The story doesn't mention it, but it's apparent that there was no background check conducted on the purchaser of the saw. Anyone can just walk into a Harbor Freight and buy a truckload of these reciprocating saws and slash their husbands. It's best for the children that we enact a law to restrict the purchase of power tools to licensed construction workers so we can avoid this senseless violence forever.

State of the CTone Address: Whatcha been up to?

Ohhh, about 320 lbs., from the looks of it:




As you can tell from my blog content lately, I've been otherwise engaged with things. Cute, needy, and extremely high strung things; they're lots of fun. I've been sick as a dog for over a week now, along with my youngest -- this was a gift that all in my family have shared -- today makes me think that the end of the sickness may be further off than I had thought. It sucks when little kids get sick because they don't understand why they feel terrible.

I didn't get any shooty in this weekend due to sickness, pumpkin patches, the need to have essentials like groceries and diapers (lots and lots of diapers), church, and good friends, but maybe next weekend will be different. In the spring I have high hopes to get into IDPA, and I strongly intend to drag both of my brothers into the mix with me as well. I don't get to spend nearly as much time with my siblings as I want, so that's something I'm going to make time for from now on.

I noticed this weekend the Pocket Carry Competition Association, which seems like an excellent idea, but sadly they don't actually allow drawing from the pocket. Something to do with lawyers or some shit. Because of that I'll have to decline PCCA; but browsing the IDPA rule book hasn't shown any AIWB disqualifiers, so all this time drawing and dry firing with magazine changes at the Huron poster that Mike W. and Nancy gave me will be well spent (no offense to Hurons. I mean well).

I have another Bladetech holster on the way that is better suited for AIWB carry, and also two of each of the Vicker's slide release and Vicker's magazine release so that the Glock 17 and 26 will be the same. My practice sessions have shown that my stupid-high death grip of doom causes me to ride the Glock brand extended slide release with both my strong hand thumb and the palm of my support hand, which makes me have feeding problems and the slide often fails to lock back on an empty mag. The Vicker's parts should remedy that. As far as AIWB carry, it's by far the most concealable way to carry a handgun; and if you have a hankerin' to carry a full sized pistol, you can do that with ease. Try it!

The Mk12 is rarin' to go with some fire formed brass loads that I did up last week; I'll have to do a write up on that sometime as trying to get accuracy from new brass is usually problematic. The 10/22 is ready for action as well, and I'm already on the hook for a range report with pictures when I get that going. With the cost of centerfire ammo being what it is these days, rimfire guns are becoming more and more popular. The potential for lots of affordable shooting in field positions that the 10/22 provides will certainly make me a better shot; with that I often wonder about what would happen if I had the chance to go shot-for-shot with the 12 year old version of myself, and who would win.

I managed to clean out my weight room this weekend, so hopefully the beer gut that I've earned over the last year and a half since I stopped weight training will start to disappear. I'm also looking forward to all the Whey protein shakes with peanut butter that come with lifting! Saaahweeet! With less love-handle hanging over the belt, I'll have more room to hang all sorts of do-good gadgetry and tactical lights for my wife to roll her eyes at me over, and that translates into equipment reviews.

Lastly, I owe some emails and action items to some folks out there. I'm getting to it; please be patient with me!

Free M1 Garands!

They may need a little TLC, but with a great deal of work one of these could be yours!

Now you tell me

Back in June I posted a range report where the 230 grain Winchester Ranger-T +Ps were way too hot for my 1911, and I had an unpleasant shooting session over 70 rounds where I ended up with a sore hand and lots of jams. Well, it turns out that my bitching was warranted, as I came across this thread today from 2009 detailing stoppages and premature wear from the RA45TP in duty weapons; mostly 1911s. To be fair, the commentors with 1911s report that the 230 grain HST +P ammo is too hot as well, which just reinforces my belief that +P ammo in .45 ACP in a 1911 is not needed. Hmmmff!

Ruger 10/22 build

My camera didn't load all the pictures I had, so you won't get to see the barrel bedding part. I'll have to post that another day, but in the meantime I thought I'd show the progress that I have.

The only major component I've added thus far is a barrel made by the hands of Tony Kidd. They come highly recommended on every gun board that I've visited, so I ordered an 18" bead blasted barrel and set about installing it. Here's a picture of the gun with the stock skinny barrel, with the Kidd barrel next to it:



The barrel came in a plastic tube with two rubber grommets on it to keep it centered. One of the first obstacles to overcome is that the stock's barrel channel is cut to fit tight against the skinny barrel, and will have to be relieved to accept the Kidd barrel's .920" girth. I don't have pictures of that, but I used a half-round file and a 1/2" drive socket + extention wrapped in 60 grit sandpaper to open that channel up, and it took considerable effort and several hours to do. It looks good though.

The next thing to do is to add some sort of metal bedding block for the receiver to rest on. From the factory, there is a brass escutcheon with a bolt that rides through it that connects the barreled action to the stock, but the problem with that is that the action rests on wood, and over time the wood gets compressed in that area. Adding a metal block that ties into the escutcheon and floats the receiver above the stock will help in accuracy. I went to the hardware section of Lowes and picked up this furnature T-nut:



It literally matched my measurements within a few thousandths of an inch, so there was little work for me to do to make it fit. You can see in the photo (click to make bigger) the brass escutcheon and takedown screw.

Before installing the T-nut, I trued up the surface of it on a belt grinder before carefully taking off the .030" from the bottom for a perfect fit:



I then had to drill out the takedown hole in the stock a bit so that the T-nut would fit:



I don't recall the bit size, but I used a piece of 120 grit sandpaper wrapped around a brass punch to slowly and carefully open the hole bigger than the T-nut to make room for the JB Weld that I used to permanently glue it in. I counter sank the T-nut about .020" using a 5/8" forster bit, and noticed that despite my leveling the stock in the drill press, the stock wasn't completely true. To counter that, I skimmed the JB Weld under the head of the T-nut to make it true, but it still didn't matter; once I placed the receiver down into the stock, it was only resting on a small portion of the T-nut, and would rock back and forth on it even when I tightened the takedown screw. I took a small piece of 120 grit sandpaper and started taking down the high sections on the top of the T-nut to make the action sit flat, and would occasionally use shoe polish to witness where the contact points were:



I found out that part of the problem was the glob of dried black factory paint on the underside of the receiver, so I sanded that off and made it flat. It was a pain in the ass to keep mounting the receiver in the stock to check for a fit, but I only wanted to do it once, so I was careful.

Once that was done, I bedded the barrel using JB Weld. There are better products to do bedding with, but I had the JB Weld sitting around already. I found the balance point on the barrel and made the bedding 2 1/2" long, using Kiwi shoe polish as a release agent. It worked great, and when I place the barreled action in the stock, it rests solid on the steel T-nut and the bedding.

A glamour pic:



The scope on the beasty is the Burris 2-7x35 Fulfield II Tactical that I took off the AR-from-DPMS, and the rings are Brownell's low aluminum rings. That's the second pair of Brownell's rings that I've ordered -- the first pair were steel -- and I have to say that they are of excellent quality. I can't remember off the top of my head who makes the aluminum 1913 rail. The next step is to buy a trigger for it. As far as stock 10/22 triggers go, this one is among the best that I've tried, but nowhere near where I want it to be. I'll have to post the barrel bedding pictures when I do a range report; hopefully sooner than later.

Reality check

So you and your wife are walking back from charity work at the local homeless shelter one night and a thuggish looking scumbag with "FELON" tattooed on his forehead in Arial Bold font jumps out from an alley way 15 yards away, full stop, holding a knife in one hand and a box of condoms in the other. He yells "This is a stickup and a rape and a murder! Give me your wife, your money, and your car keys or I'll kill you both dead with this here bowie knife!!". . . .allowing you ample time to think and draw your sidearm and get into that Isosceles stance you learned about on the range. Scumbag takes a single step offering you the chance to blow him away with your fang-face patriot-ninja-warrior ammo and save the day.

Sadly, lethal force encounters don't usually look like that as far as I can tell. Here is a real example of a lethal force encounter that fortunately resulted in not only no fatalities, but justice served as the scumbag in question went back to prison for the rest of his life ***Warning: Graphic pictures near the end of the thread*** -- My CCW Shooting AAR.

The victim was maimed forever from the encounter, and the scumbag was dumb enough to leave a prominent blood trail from the crime scene to his bed, complete with bloody weapon containing empty shell casings. All in all, though, it could have been a lot worse. The victim was never charged with any crime, got his weapon and personal belongings back (after two years! Yikes!), and mostly recovered. Some of the things that stand out from this story to me are that this is a specific example of a grip safety causing a defensive weapon not to fire at the precise moment it needs to, and also that appendix carry would have not only allowed a more covert draw by the victim, but also may have prevented the scumbag from discovering the empty holster, thus arousing suspicion. Also, even though it wasn't needed in this fight, a spare loaded magazine is definitely something that you should carry.

I post this story because there are armed folks out there -- good people, mind you -- that it seems can't wait to get into a situation where they take out the bad guy and save the day, going home victorious knowing they did the world a service. There are those also who are cluelessly armed and under prepared. This story is a stark reminder of why I try my best to live a life of avoidance, de-escalation, and deterrence in order to not end up in a situation like this one, but if trouble does find me, that I'm prepared and focused.

. . .and that's just a little bit more than the law would allow

Good grief. There's so much fail in this short tragic story that I'm just shaking my head.

As Bittinger approached the front porch of the home, the suspect fired an arrow into his chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The shootee had a "weapon;" the type is not made clear in the article. I'm under the assumption that if the shootee had a weapon and made threats, and/or became a deadly threat, then perhaps deadly force via bow and arrow was appropriate. Just because the shooter didn't use Paw Paw's shotgun hanging over the mantle doesn't mean that deadly force wasn't justified. The Dukes were quite fond of primitive tackle, and as we know they were just some good ol' boys, never meanin' no harm.

This part of the story was interesting:

The coroner says Bittinger died when the arrow punctured his lung and blood filled his heart.

Blood filled his heart?!?! You can die from that? Oh, shit, I have blood in my heart right now! I'mma fixin to call me the rescue squad, right fast! Maaaama! Maaama heeeeelp!! Bloods done filled my heart!!!!

My take on this is that the coroner meant blood filled his lung, or maybe the coroner imbibed a little too much moonshine, or even his sweat stained Realtree hat is on just a little too tight. We'll never know for sure. The hits just keep on coming, though:

A compound bow has a system of pulleys that provide more force with less pull. It’s normally used for hunting.

Or killing babies. You know, because anything that provides more force should be brought into the light for some much needed obfuscation, and then hopefully some legislating. Because this wasn't a killing with a "bow," but a "compound bow," meaning that we should ponder the shit out of what this actually means. It means the deadliness of the instrument is compounded, and commands less effort to wield, so logically we should point this out to the masses considering that a good 99.99% of professional journalists don't have a clue as to what to make of this. Being that the weapon is obviously compounded, it should only be allowed in the hands of law enforcement and professional hunters who have met the compounded training needed to handle all that compounded power that comes from a system of pulleys. Idiot.

Lastly, we have this comment that makes me weep for the people of this country:

Lynne Le

I don’t believe Tony threatened the suspect,
the suspect murder him and blame him, he’s death he can’t defense him self.

Lynne Le needs an intervention to get him/her off whatever substance he/she has been abusing. That person needs help, right quick now! Get Betty Sue and Jimmy John in a room with em' to talk some sayance in to em'!

Range Report

Unfortunately, the last place in my AO that I have to shoot is infested by outsiders. I passed on a chance to shoot Friday due to shenanigans; on Saturday I got some quality time to shoot, and today a friend and I arrived to fire off some rounds for two hours and found a guy on a combine cutting and bailing hay on the adjacent property in the line of fire -- nobody has done that for over a decade, so I was pissed. Go the fuck back to New Jersey or wherever the hell you came from; this frontier is the last place on the planet that I can conveniently shoot, like I've done since I was a boy. Where do you people keep coming from? There's not enough room! Go away!!

Anyhow, yesterday I couldn't help myself so I had to shoot the 10/22 -- I just finished putting a steel bedding block in it and mounted an 18" Kidd barrel, but hadn't bedded the barrel yet. I did that today and it's curing right now; pictures and range report of the whole process are in the works when it's done. It still shot awesome, and that was with Mini-Mags, not match ammo; shooting off of a yoga mat because I forgot my sandbags; and I didn't even tighten the takedown screw.

Yesterday and today, though, I put about 150 rounds of 147 grain Winchester Ranger-T through the Glock 17 and it performed flawlessly. Shooting exactly to point of aim at 10 yards and 3" high at 31, I got an average speed of 1,023 fps with an extreme spread of 26 fps over ten rounds. I'm now going to buy a case of it to ensure reliability, as well as shoot it in the baby Glock and the Kahr so we have a common load amongst the Europellet guns.



The 95 grain Winchester Ranger-T in .380 ACP did not fare as well. I picked up a box at a funshow a bit ago and decided to see how they did in a Kel-Tec P3AT. Seven rounds averaged 870 fps with an extreme spread of 33 fps, grouping in at 2" for the best five rounds at 13 yards. Add in the other two out of the seven and the group was about 4" -- I didn't measure with a tape. I fired one round through a gallon jug of water and into a two liter bottle set on its side, and it stopped 2" into the two liter. The bullet didn't expand very much:



Water jugs usually make a bullet expand as much as it possibly can; if it won't expand in water, it won't expand in flesh. It also gives up five grains of weight and 161 fps over my standard carry load, the Buffalo Bore 100 grain Hard Cast. I'll stick with Buffalo Bore for now. There were no feeding problems from the Ranger-Ts within the 40 rounds that I fired, but if I'm going to carry a load that I know won't expand, it better have a flat meplat and be going as fast as possible.

I've been doing draws from the Dale Fricke Zack holster for Glock for some time now, and it's still my daily carry holster. When the gun heats up from a few magazines of fire, it can sting a bit when you stuff that hot pistol down the front of your britches, but damn it's fast to draw from. My drawing accuracy with a Glock pistol is also tightening up; enough so already that I dare say rivals my 1911 accuracy. I now have 100% confidence in my Glock 17 at appendix carry, and I also trust the RA9T load enough that that's what is in it right now. AIWB is the way to go for now and forever more, but I really want one of the CCC Shaggy holsters to try out. The Zack is super comfortable and forgiving, and I highly recommend it.

Modern Day Marine 2011

I skipped over the stuff that I've already covered from the last several years, as I'm not able to post 50+ pictures anymore due to time constraints, and that I'm still using my phone's camera instead of something more suitable.

Walking in the door, I encountered the FN USA booth in all its SCAR glory. I snapped a picture of this prototype bolt action rifle that looks like it's made to compete with the Remington XM2010 ESR:





With the lighting in the buildings the way they are, it's tricky to get a good picture. I didn't get any information on the gun, just the pictures; although I do note that this rifle is impossibly heavy. Many of the firearms at the convention are waaaaay too heavy, as if the manufacturers could care less about weight at all while they mill out receivers from massive steel and aluminum billets. Marines are accustomed to carrying too much stuff, so I guess it's all good.

The next thing I saw was this weapon sight for the M2 BMG "Ma Duece:"



It's a 6x48 Trijicon ACOG Machine Gun Optic with a Reflex on top for when there are so many bearded bad men coming at you, you can't take them all out at 1,500 yards and have to resort to close range work. I like it! It's about time somebody took advantage of the M2's 2,000+ yard range and skipped over the irons for something more video game-like.

I got a pic of an XM25 model, with a 25x40mm round for scale on how big of a round it fires:



I've heard that the XM25 is a fight stopper, and most of the Soldiers carrying it opt out of carrying an M4 also, with just an M9 on their hip. As the rep at the booth told me, operators of this weapon note that insurgents don't mind the snap of 5.56 rounds overhead at distance that much, but when stuff starts blowing up behind the rocks they're hiding behind, and eardrums start bursting, they decide that they've had enough. He also said that there have been clear reports of enemy killed with it.

Advanced Armament Corp had a booth at the event, and I got a picture of this 5.56 suppressor that they purposely ran about 40 rounds of 7.62 through to see what it does. That's 28 bullets lodged in the baffles and it was still working:


Wouldn't want to be the test guy shooting that one!

AAC is making them smaller and smaller, too:



For those interested, Steiner has a 1-4x24mm riflescope that looks awesome and feels solid:




The scope has an illuminated reticule, with a stop in between each level of brightness so you don't have to click all the way through to be at the brightness that you want. Also on display was one of their 4-16x50mm scopes mounted on a new varient of the Sako TRG:



Again, the rifle is sweet looking and I'm sure it's a shooter, but it weighs a ton!

Colt is now showing off their 7.62 rifles in MARPAT desert, just for the Marines:



Sorry about all the blury pictures, but I have to include Colt's monolithic rifle:



A cadet was groping it at the time, and I got the picture that I got. Many cadets ruined many pictures while I was there, and they roamed about in massive, isle clogging droves, asking questions and such at every booth.

At H&Ks booth I fondled a MP7A1 while nervously waiting on the two reps there to berate me for daring to touch their wares while not being a uniformed operator:



I closed my eyes and pictured riding around the mountains of Afghanistan on quads shooting terrorists, just Dusty and I with our trusty MP7A1s, before dragging out the suppressed Barret and helping out some SEALs in close contact on another mountain. . . . and then I snapped back to reality and walked over to CRKTs booth. They have a new lineup that takes assisted opening knives to another level.

The thumstud on the knife is kind of like a safety of sorts, and when you press it in towards the blade and give it a nudge it snaps open like an auto. Assisted openers normally require you to manually open the blade like 30% or so before the spring takes over and finishes opening it up, but the new system from CRKT takes a bump once you click that thumb stud:


They had several different models to look at, but I only got to handle the one.

Again with the blurry pics because of a cadet wanting to handle what I was taking a picture of, I give you a US made, multicam clad, fully functional RPG-7:




Notice the 1913 rail with folding sights.

There are some other crappy cell phone pictures in this folder if you're so inclined, such as the Daniel Defense rifle that Larry Vickers torture tested on video a month or two ago. Click on any of them to make them bigger and search my Photobucket folder.

Better keep your receipt

A serious discussion and decision of a guy to mail order a second wife -- no, not a replacement for his current wife; he will have two living and breathing wives living with him very soon. Something tells me that there's going to be mayhem in his world in the near future. I find the thread to be entertaining, but I don't agree with his decision.

Of course, that's easy for me to say considering I have an awesome wife with no equal!

Reloaders are so creative

Check out the video on hydro-forming cases at 6.5 Grendel Forums. Traditionally, handloaders will fire form the cases in their gun, but hydro-forming is a lot quieter and doesn't cost you primers, powder, or Cream of Wheat.

The fact that you can take 7.62x39mm Russian cases and turn them into 6.5 Grendel/.264 LBC-AR was a driving reason I went with the cartridge. If the supply of Grendel cases dried up tomorrow, there would still be usable brass for me for decades.

In life you must have choices

Which weapon would you chose? -- I'm a big fan of this theme at theBrigade. Numbers 9 and 25 look too dangerous for battlefield use, but I'm all about number 6.

With bated breath

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is turning up the heat on Eric Holder, demanding the attorney general “come forward and at least admit” he knew about Operation Fast and Furious long before he told Congress he learned about the gun program.

The truth is coming. . . .aaaaaaaaany day now.

Alexander Arms releases Grendel Trademark

From the 6.5 Grendel Forum on the Big 3 meeting:

New Announcements from the Big 3 meetings in Kansas!
David Fortier reports:

Well, today Alexander Arms announced a few things at the Big 3 writers event.

1. The Grendel has been accepted by SAAMI
2. They have released their trademark on the Grendel
3. They showed off steel cased Grendel produced by Wolf
4. They hired a very well respected gentleman named Wayne Holt to handle PR.

So, now ANYONE can make a Grendel. The steel cased ammo is being produced by Barnaul for Wolf Performance ARMS and Ammunition. Note Wolf now has a firearms division and is working with Izhmash and Molot. They are looking into Vepr and Saiga rifles in Grendel. Currently testing is being done on the Wolf steel cases to verify they are good to go. Wolf is claiming production ammo for 1st quarter of this coming year. They said now that they switched this from Tula to Barnaul things are progressing nicely. I think its very positive as Barnaul's quality is well known for being a notch above Tulas. The steel cases look sexy....

Wayne Holt was the #2 man at Hornady for many years and was with Glock prior to this. This is big move on Alexander Arms part. Should be very interesting to see how things go.

Wolf was at the event and they are very firmly behind the Grendel, and have some very interesting things regarding AK rifles.

I would ask "Now was that so hard?", but after almost a decade I already know the answer. The shenanigans that have been going on behind the scenes in the Grendel world may never be discovered, but oh well, time to move on.

To me, plentiful and affordable steel cased ammo is the signal that an AR or AK cartridge is completely accepted into the shooting world. I bet the 6.8 SPC boys are pretty pissed right now, but they shouldn't be. Hopefully that cartridge goes steel cased as well; the shooting community can always use another tool in the toolbox.

Kids say the darndest things: Bedtime Edition

I'm about as smart-assed as they come. I mean, I have to hold my breath and struggle to remain serious about everything, and not crack stupid redundant jokes in every single conversation.

--Wife: "I'm gonna jump in the shower."
--Me: "You shouldn't jump in the shower; it's dangerous."
--Wife: "That wasn't even funny five years ago. Does that ever get old?"

Not really.

So it's bedtime for my kids, and I suggest to my firstborn son (almost 3 years old) that he set up his bag of Cracker Barrel pirate figures in his bedroom and make the black pirates fight the red ones.

--Son: "But I caaaan't. It's dark in there and I'm scared of monsters."
--Me: "Your scared of what? Lobsters?"
--Son: "No. Monsters."
--Me: "Mobsters?!?" You're scared of Mobsters?"
--Son: "No. Monsters. And I'm scared of gween bwobs."
--Me: "I'm totally putting that on the internet!"

A couple of months ago he ran up to me enthusiastically and told me he saw a "wizard," which I knew through my Divine, daddy translation skills meant "lizard," but I just couldn't resist:

--Me: "You saw a Wizard! Cooool! Did he have a long beard?"
--Son: "No daddy. I said wizard!"
--Me: "Was the Wizard's name Gandalf?"
--Son: "No, daddy!! I said Wizard!! Not Wizard!!"

Kids can be endless entertainment! And yes, I can be a dick.

Foreign badassery

Canadian snipers doing Canadian snipery things.

The smaller rifle is a PGW Defense Timberwolf Tactical in .338 Lapua (fun word to say over and over again - Lah-PuuAAAAHHH!!) and the bigger bigger bigger one is a McMillan TAC-50, which if you read down on that link it will tell you that the world record for killing a human was set using this rifle by one of Canada's finest at a range of 2,657 yards.

I think their digital woodland camo is good to go, from the looks of it. I've seen their desert cammies up close in its natural habitat, and it's equally as effective. The Canucks don't fart around with their gear, and are a top shelf military.

You can't handle the truth!

The battle rages on about what in the hell is going on at Alexander Arms, and why the strangeness surrounding the 6.5 Grendel cartridge continues to go on with no questions answered. The non responses are coming straight from the top, so I don't understand why the clouding of the issue. Just answer the questions.

It's well known that there are licensing issues surrounding the Grendel name; barrel makers and tooling shops that make reamers have dropped, discontinued, and refused to chamber products in that cartridge, and only a handful of people seem to know why. Absent any real facts -- and not because the questions haven't been asked -- folks have muddied the water even further by speculation.

When I was shopping for a barrel for the MK12 Mod 0, I intended to chamber it in 6.5 Grendel, but couldn't get anyone to do it. I talked to Shilen, who won't chamber in that round; and from my research there aren't many gunsmiths who will touch it either. The only cut rifling barrel maker that held a license to make a barrel in that caliber ceased communications with me suddenly, and then announced days later that they were dropping their Grendel barrel lineup. There wasn't a concise answer as to why, and I wasn't happy to have wasted over a month for nothing. In the end, I picked a very similar cartridge that is made by Les Baer, and it took one phone call.

So what happened? Why is there such negativity from the firearms making community over a cartridge as special as the 6.5 Grendel? Why are there so many clones of the Grendel round that differ by only a fraction, or just enough to avoid a lawsuit? Why are there barrel makers who refuse to chamber in that round? It can't be coincidence, and dodging the questions folks have been sincerely asking or calling them "trolls" or deflecting to "ooooh, lookee, we're going to announce something special" adds up to a whole bunch of nothing. I mean, if my wife walked in the door and said "Honey, did you hit something with the car last night?" the answer that she would be expecting to get would certainly not be "Uuuuuhh, I've got something awesome to show you next week! It's going to be SUPER!!"