Saturday, April 27, 2013

A Few Words About Tom Knapp...

In truth, stories are the "currency" of the road. When you spend more nights in hotel rooms than at home, stories become the way we ease the long nights, the way we sing for our suppers, the way we share an experience that we both hate...and love.

My old friend Tom Knapp was first and foremost a storyteller. We would run into each other a couple of times a year, and it was as if we had only broken off the conversation moments before, except that Tom had a whole new collection of stories. And we would sit in some hotel bar into the wee hours, telling stupid stories. And in the morning was another airport, another city, another story.

I was thinking tonight about an evening a few years back with me and Tom and Ronnie Barrett. There may have been adult beverages involved, and I don't believe I've ever laughed as long and as hard.

The singer-songwriter John Sebastian once wrote a song about the road...here's what he said:

And oh, the stories we could tell
And before we have to say our last farewell
Well, I wish that we could sit back in a bar in some hotel
And listen to the stories we could tell
Yes, I wish that we could sit back in a bar in some hotel
And listen to the stories we could tell

We'll miss you brother.

Friday, April 26, 2013

George Jones R.I.P.

I note the passing of my friend George Jones, a giant. I am reminded of a song lyric from Kris Kristofferson, "Running from his devils, Lord; reaching for the stars." Be at peace, brother. Give my best to Tammy.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

How It Works in Gun-Free Paradise

Among all the "good boys gone bad" crap presently circulating in the MSM...and be assured that the 19-year-old will no doubt be hosting Saturday Night Live any moment if the New York Times has its way...here's an interesting little tidbit.

After those rollicking crazy Boston boys blasted an eight-year-old into oblivion, they did a little workout at the gym and planned to head to New York City to party party party. A problemo surfaces...they only had one pistol. I mean, two terrorists, one pistol, not gonna look good on FaceBook, n'est-ce pas? So did the boys race to an Internet cafe to buy maybe a dozen or so full-auto assault weapons off the Internet, with same-day shipping? Speed to a LGS for the "Tuesday Terrorist Two-Fer, No NCIS No Way"? Wait for the weekend gun show where they could stock up on RPGs, grenades and those rifles with the shoulder thingie that sticks up?

None of the above. Instead, they went to the one firearms superstore where they were sure guns would be in stock...they walked up to the police car of MIT Officer Sean Collier, killed him in very cold blood and tried to grab his gun. The reason those lovable Holden Caulfield-esque urchins failed on that task was that apparently the Islamic Terrorism 101 class on the Internet doesn't include retention holsters, disabling of. Don't worry...I'm sure the curriculum will be updated any moment now!

Man, if we'd only had a law that made it illegal to transfer a gun without a background check! That would have stopped them dead in their tracks!

Yeah, that's pretty stupid, isn't it? It turns out that criminals, be they terrorists, gangbangers, professional killers or crazy people, don't obey laws...that's why we call them criminals. And that's the reason that the American people have consistently rejected the strident calls for civilian disarmament.

And let me reiterate a point I made immediately after the Boston bombings...people who wage war on innocents and children are vermin. We don't need to agonize about why vermin do the things they do. We only need to know how to exterminate them.

UPDATE: Excited to be flagged by FaceBook as an "unsafe site!" Liberty is by its nature "unsafe."


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Writing Day

Still chained to the computer writing GUN STORIES scripts. Kinda fun...reminds me that I used to be a writer and was chained to the computer every single day. Also just got the rough cut of the Panteao "Training With a .22" that Tom Yost and I filmed, so I'll be going through that as well.

As soon as I finish scripting GS, I'm going to jump into assembling the "crime docket" for the next season of THE BEST DEFENSE. I have a rough list of ideas, including a spin on the Boston bombings. So what would you guys like to see on TBD next season? What scenarios would you like to see Mike-Cubed cover? Anything you think we've been missing?

Monday, April 22, 2013

Snow, Snow and More Snow!


This mornin, 
I shot six holes in my freezer
I think I got cabin fever
Somebody sound the alarm
Boat Drinks
Jimmy Buffett

Another foot of snow tonight...I swear, I'm never going to be warm again. You can see The Wall from here, and I'm waiting for the white walkers to come storming over. It has been a bitterly cold April, coldest since I've lived up high. I want to go to the range! Wahhhhh! Wahhhhh!! Wahhhhhh!!! I paid for my Tavor today...I'd like to shoot it before the next geologic era. Luckily, it's Margarita Monday, and I went with a "mild" gold coin margarita with Corazon Reposada and Citronge orange liquer (and lemon juice, of course).


What can I say? Everybody up here gets cabin fever crazy when it's spring Down Below and freezing ass cold Up Here. I spent the day writing scripts for GUN STORIES, then knocked off about 3PM to start on DOWN RANGE Radio for Wednesday. Tomorrow I need about an hour to finish up DOWN RANGE Radio, then it's all GS scripts all the time. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy..."

I was gonna link to some more gun articles, but you know, I can sum it all up for you: They hate us and will do anything in their power to disarm all civilians, and we will fight to sorry sons of bitches every step of the way. The President lies, the media is biased, Michael Bloomberg is Benito Mussolini in a good suit, Gabriel Giffords (not to mention her sleezebag "Rocketman" husband) turned out to be, as my friend Lester Bangs once said of Linda Ronstandt, "just another poozle," Chris Christie isn't really a conservative and will NEVER hold national office, and the American public DOES NOT want gun control, no matter how many bogus surveys get trotted out. That about covers it.

No, wait...let me send you to the best article on gun control I have read in years and years, from the left-leaning KONTRADICTIONS Blog...read this! No, memorize this:
It is important to note that according to the Supreme Court (and most Americans), the views espoused by Obama, Feinstein, Maher, et all are unconstitutional. Is it really so difficult to understand why some folks might think that Democrats are just being politicians by giving lip-service to the second amendment while pushing new legislation? Taken collectively, these and many other open confessions by party members are more than probable cause for suspicion of intent. Constitutional voters don’t have to be ignorant or fearful to sound the alarm about these people. They just have to take them at their word and actions.
Wasn't that great? Circulate it everywhere!

And one more, a wonderful piece about what Americans do (and what One World progressives like B-Ho and nasty little fascists like Bloomberg will never understand):
There are people who do not understand this American instinct, and some who even want to undercut the notion that ordinary Americans have anything to contribute to their own safety. These people believe that only the “experts” should do so, experts who inevitably come from the government, and therefore who inevitably work for these same people. They prefer Americans helpless, docile, and dependant. It makes them easier to control.  
The push for gun control highlights this schism between Americans who wish to rely upon themselves first, and those who seek to require other Americans’ reliance. Americans don’t wish to retain their sacred right to keep and bear effective arms because they imagine themselves Rambos or because – if you listen to the clowns at MSNBC – they somehow wish to empower the killers of children. Just the opposite.
I swear I just saw a white walker, or some other Undead, crawling over my Honda Element. If I see one more episode of "Love It Or List It" I think I'm going to hang myself. It's only cabin fever...place head between legs, take deep breaths, and everything will be all right. Really.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

The Continuing Crapification of Colorado

From the AP:

 GUNFIRE ERUPTS AT COLO. POT EVENT, 2 WOUNDED 
DENVER (AP) -- Authorities are hunting for suspects after shooting broke out during a massive marijuana celebration in Denver, leaving two people with gunshot wounds. The gunfire scattered thousands attending Saturday's 4/20 counterculture holiday, the first since Colorado legalized marijuana. 
 LOL! I've given this a lot of thought, and here's what I (and the late Shel Silverstein) think:


Now I ain't makin' no excuses for the many things I uses
Just to sweeten my relationships and brighten up my day
But when my earthly race is over and I'm ready for the clover
And they ask me how my life has been I guess I'll have to say

I was stoned and I missed it
I was stoned and I missed it
I was stoned and it rolled right by
I was stoned and I missed it
I was stoned and I missed it
I was stoned oh me oh my

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Alf Has a Head Cold...

...well, some sort of virus, so she's coughing and as pathetic as only a small beagle can be. Probably needs the miraculous Bacon Cure. So most of the day was driving down the hill to the vet to get appropriate doggie drugs for the ailing Alf, then stopping off for a chicken burrito and a Black Aria "Baltic Porter" at one of Boulder's endless hippie joints. What I had planned to do was reload .44 Russians and/or fix the case feeder on my Dillon .45 ACP reloader. Dillon sent me all the appropriate parts some time back, but I haven't yet tortured it into working. Maybe tomorrow.

Pretty good piece from Herschel Smith at the Captain's Journal titled, quite appropriately, "ALL YOUR GUN BASE ARE BELONG TO US:"
I know, you don’t want to believe that the polls are badly misleading when they ask about those ethereal platitudes, as opposed to when the specifics are presented, complicating things for you. You don’t want to believe it even when your own press tells you this. So the 90%+ number must be right, and the evil NRA is to blame, or your own tactics, or lack of money, or something like that. It cannot be that the people aren’t interested in your gun control measures.
Read the whole thing.

I also want to send you to Kevin Reeve's blog at OnPoint Tactical. He has a great entry on how to stay safe in crowds, which is very consistent with what we've taught on THE BEST DEFENSE and on DOWN RANGE Radio. I would very much like to take OnPoint's Urban Escape and Evasion course...with a little luck I can get that on my schedule later this year. One change I am making is adding trauma kits with tourniquet dedicated to each car, augmenting the smaller first aid kits...maybe the Blue Force NOW! and the optional tourniquet.

Friday, April 19, 2013

ADay of Endless Meetings

May actually graft the phone to my ear! Will post some more tonight. Meanwhile, a great sum-up from WSJ:
In other words, keeping guns away from dangerous or unstable people was less important than defeating the NRA. The Senate GOP offered an alternative background-checks amendment that failed 52-48. Nine Democrats were in favor, but their colleagues voted en masse to block it from moving forward. How's that for incoherent?

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Bloomberg Responds!

Morning Must-Reads

It's with a certain humor that I've scrolled through a lot of media this morning and one thing remains clear:

They hate us — people with guns — not guns!

Well, they hate them, too, but not as much as they hate us. My favorite is the HuffPo Headline: Democracy Weeps. Actually, it's mob rule that weeps...democracy prevailed. It turns out that America isn't governed by fake polling data and likes from the President, Vice-President and that "nasty little fascist" Mayor of New York City. Que'll surprise! Here's a round-up of hand-wringing from CNS and a sampling of tweets from those mental giants in Hollywood. Man...Bette Midler hates us? How will we survive?

There are some interesting reads, though. This from the New York Sun in an editorial titled "Blame Bloomberg:"
The problem is that the neither Messrs. Obama, Bloomberg, nor Biden believe in the Second Amendment. Nor do any of their partners in politics, such as Senator Schumer. Not one of them has protested the over-regulation of guns in New York or any other state. Mr. Cuomo just tightened gun prohibitions in a state where Mother Teresa couldn’t get a pistol permit. Not even the most law-abiding, well-trained individuals can carry a gun in New York. The Second Amendment is not in force here. So people look at Bloomberg-land and ask, where is he leading us? Where does he want to go? The way we interpret the decision of the Senate yesterday is that it is saying, “not one more inch in that direction.” Good for the Senate.
Well, d'uh! Go back and read the WSJ editorial of a couple of days ago, too:
These [Supreme Court decisions on Heller and MacDonald] are landmark rulings, defining the Second Amendment with more specificity as the Court has done for other parts of the Bill of Rights. Yet judging by the laws now being debated and in some cases passed, you'd think those rulings didn't exist. Liberal majorities are rolling over them as if they were op-eds from a third-rate think tank.
Because progressives don't believe in any part of the Constitution, to tell the truth. And while you're at WSJ, read "Gun Control Meltdown" from yesterday PM:
President Obama's gun control agenda was routed in the Senate on Wednesday, and Mr. Obama naturally blamed the National Rifle Association. The truth is that Mr. Obama invited this meltdown by assuming he could exploit the Newtown massacre to ram through a liberal wish-list that wouldn't have stopped the next mass murder.
Nice, short piece from David Boaz at the libertarian Cato Institute on "Who Killed Gun Control"...quick answer, Americans did!
In their book It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States, Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marx write, “The American ideology, stemming from the [American] Revolution, can be subsumed in five words: antistatism, laissez-faire, individualism, populism, and egalitarianism.” If political scientists Herbert McClosky and John Zaller are right that “[t]he principle here is that every person is free to act as he pleases, so long as his exercise of freedom does not violate the equal rights of others,” then we can expect Americans to cling to their gun rights for a long time.
Let's hope socialism continues to fail in the United States. Even the reliably antigun Christian Science Monitor has a better understanding of American political structure than the President of the United States, his hang-dog dimwitted sidekick Biden and apparently every liberal/progressive in the country:
Fifth and perhaps most important, James Madison still rules America. The Framers designed a bicameral legislature and the separation of powers specifically to prevent an automatic translation of public opinion into public policy. Supporters of the system say that it fosters deliberation and ensures the protection of minority rights. Critics say that it prevents passage of necessary legislation. 
At the moment, political progressives are especially disappointed in the system. They should remember, however, that it has enabled them to block conservative ideas that were popular with the general public. If the polls always prevailed, after all, America would have a balanced-budget amendment and a constitutional ban on flag burning. President Obama has frequently taken credit for making tough decisions that were unpopular at the time, implicitly acknowledging that poll numbers do not always translate into righteousness.
Remember, according to Gallup, 50% of Americans believe in alien abductions, but that's no reason for Congress to pass laws mandating puncture-proof kevlar underwear for all Americans! From Brother Massad Ayoob, "The President is a Sore Loser:"
A very angry Chief Executive declares that Senators who see reality and prevent what’s best described as “the tyranny of the (uninformed) majority” have somehow subverted the process. He then manages, with practically the same lungful of air, to spout bogus statistics and simultaneously accuse those who told the truth of willful deception.
Make that, "Sore loser and a liar in his own right."

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

An Historic Day

A day when demagoguery failed and, amazingly, principles ruled in Washington. Man, I never thought we'd get here, especially after the heartbreaking loss of Colorado!

Yes, the fight will go on, but here is what I believe...if our blood enemies couldn't shove through their civilian disarmament agenda in this superheated, media-saturated, incredibly vicious environment, they can never get it. The President lost his temper and those off-the-teleprompter remarks did even more damage to the civilian disarmament cause going forward. He truly hates us.

It's easy for the progressives to talk about how this will be a defining issue for the Democrats in 2014 and beyond, but look at today's Gallup poll...only 4% of Americans thank "gun control" is an important problem. Think that number is likely to rise as we move toward 2014, with the evolving ObamaCare disaster, the emergence of new terrorist threats and the slow-motion economic train wreck? North Koreans are threatening to nuke us, the Boston marathon bombings have driven a spike of fear into everyday life in America, the real unemployment rate is a national disaster, on this anniversary week of the birth of our country people are profoundly afraid for the future...and they are voting with their wallets at gun stories around the country.

I think the single deciding factor was that all these tired, rehashed civilian disarmament proposals wouldn't do a DAMN THING to protect us from spree killers, evil men and women or even criminals. They are nothing but the first steps that will inevitably, invariably lead to door-to-door confiscations of our firearms, and the people of America fundamentally understand this! That has always been the end game, and nothing has changed.

Today was a great victory for all of us, the much maligned "little people" who called and emailed and wrote and attended town hall meetings and made sure that OUR VOICES WERE HEARD!

On a local note, if I was a Democrat in Colorado I might be thinking about a new line of work. Instead of leading the nation in a brave new world of gun control, Governor Hickenstoopid and his Bloomberg whores are out there all by their lonesomes...

BTW, brace yourself for some executive orders...I think the most "at risk" are imported guns and magazines...and considering that Italy-based Mec-Gar supplies a large of end-user mags, this could have a big effect.

UPDATE: Here's an excellent summation from Charles Cooke at NRO:
As they regroup, gun restrictionists might look at their tactics. The shiny new Gun-Control Thesaurus, in which “gun control” was seamlessly replaced by “gun safety,” “gun-violence prevention,” and “gun responsibility,” did nothing much to help their cause. Likewise, supplanting the already misleading term “assault weapon” with “weapon of war,” “military weapon,” or “combat weapon.” Advocates’ penchant for the wider culture war led them to vilify gun-rights advocates as ridiculous or paranoid and to cast basic liberties as antithetical to the interests of the nation’s children, turning potential allies off and leading to 52 percent of Americans’ disapproving of how the president dealt with the issue.  
 The public quickly switched off. Try as they might, nobody on the restrictionists’ side could get past the fact that laws banning assault weapons, limiting magazine size, and forcing background checks upon all gun transfers would do nothing to stop maniacs. They could not present ploys such as “if it can save one life . . . ” without looking manipulative and desperate.
Read the whole thing. In fact, read the whole NRO gun control special. Here's the liberal perspective from The National Journal:
Obama’s team took news of the defeat hard Wednesday, with some advisers predicting that gun regulation won’t be revived. It is hard for them to explain the failure of a measure supported by 90 percent of the public without making the president appear weak.
Note that the spin at end where Republicans (and the red state Dems) will "pay" for their votes...hey, hold your breath on that! Bitter at SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED has some very perceptive points on today's vote that's definitely worth reading...especially for those of us in Colorado.

MORE UPDATES: This from Reason.com
According to the president, no one honestly questioned the merits of his proposals; the opposition all "came down to politics," meaning a desperate desire to retain power. His opponents not only failed to make a convincing case, he says; they offered "no coherent arguments" at all. Since Obama's case for gun control consisted mainly of invoking dead children and grieving parents, that charge displays an astonishing lack of self-awareness.
Am I the only one who's tired of this lying joke of a President accusing everyone else of lying? And an apt comment from Tam at VIEW FROM THE PORCH:
Team Gun Control is positively frothing on Facebook. If I had a car that ran on hippie tears, I'd be set for years.
LOL!

We are ALL the NRA!


Boston

What to say? We are Americans, and we pull together in a crisis. My heart breaks for the lives lost, the people injured, the dreams shattered. A marathon is a celebration...I cherish the memory of each time I crossed the finish line...and an attack on that celebration on a day dedicated to American patriots has far-reaching implications for our day-to-day lives. Even though I've spent far too much time studying incidents like these, I still find it so hard to grasp the thought processes of a random killer like this bomber. People who make war on innocents and children are vermin.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Snowy Snowy Monday...

The snow is creeping up the sides of my Sweetie's Mini, and I expect by tomorrow it'll be just another lump in the snow. Ah, spring in the Rockies!

It took the entire day to do the podcast, and I'm afraid it might have been overcome by events from Boston. I'll decide tomorrow whether I'm going to let it ride or not. It took so long because somehow I managed to pull a muscle in my...groin...and it hurts big time. Whine...cry...bitch...I'm pathetic. The thought of clearing the driveway is hellish...hellish, I tell you!

I did a lime-based margarita with Corazon Blanco...very...limey...good, but limey...for Margarita Monday. I tried to watch a new sic-fi series on SyFy, but it bored me in the first 10 minutes. I ordered some stuff from Blue Force Gear.

I'll spend my snowed-in tomorrow writing script for GUN STORIES. The Internet is coming and going, and I figure the power will go out tonight. Might get lucky, but heavy spring snow is a bear on power lines. Tomorrow might be an instant coffee morning, boiling water on the non-electric stove. If the electricity holds up, I'm going to do a run of .44 Russian with Trail Boss powder in the perhaps vain hope of doing another cowboy match this weekend, when it's supposed to be 60 degrees (and mud up to my butt). After a quick survey of the gun room all I have are the superb LaserCast 240-gr RNFP, which I've used forever in .44 Magnum medium range loads, so that'll have to be it for the Russians.


BTW, I got a wonderful note from my friend Hamilton Bowen after I bemoaned the fact that, after taxes, my custom gun repository was sadly depleted...maybe a .50 Special Redhawk (similar to the .50 AE above) isn't completely out of reach!!!


Sunday, April 14, 2013

Sunday Evening...

I'm cooking Italian tonight, since we haven't had pasta in, honestly, a year. I thought spinach lasagna sounded good. Nothing too elaborate, but something that goes well with Ravenswood Old Vine Zinfindel. One of the best wine-tastings I've ever had was the old vine vintages at Ravenswood, and I love it with marinara sauce.

My Sweetie and I got out to shoot a cowboy match  on Saturday, and Boy Howdie, was it fun! I'd forgotten how much I love to shoot cowboy. I was shooting an 1866  Taylor's Uberti Carbine rebuilt to .44 Russian, and I used Russians in my 2 Long Hunter Blackhawks until I ran out it and fell back on some .44 Specials I luckily had with me. I tanked the last stage and ended up 7th instead of 4th; my Sweetie came in right behind me at 9th after her tanking the same stage. She only did it to make me feel better...LOL!


BTW, the '66 was redone by a great local gunsmith, Badger, who added the carrier mod to the Uberti carbine. The carbine requires some finesse running it, as opposed to my Ken Griner 1973, which is all about blunt trauma.

You know, I really liked shooting the Russians, big old fat bullet rolling down the barrel. I think I'm going to spend some more time messing around with the cartridge. I did work up some loads with Trail Boss powder and a heavy bullet, but I was thinking of trying Red Dot, which is what I use in my cowboy .357s since the first reloading component crisis back in 2008. I couldn't get Bullseye, TiteGroup or Unique, so I had to figure out what I could get (Red Dot). I've been very happy with it since...light, clean, painless.

BTW, to all the people who hate me and take the time to send threatening emails, you're going to have to try harder. Simply cursing me and then including a list of Snowplow Bloomberg talking points just isn't going to do it. Use your imaginations, people!

Also BTW, IWI tells me that my Tavor is in route...I'm so excited!

Friday, April 12, 2013

We Have a Winner!

The "Michael Buys the Beer"/IDPA Frolic Event at the 2013 NRA Convention in Houston will be held SATURDAY after the Show floor closes (6:30PM) at:


Little Woodrow's
EaDo
2019 Walker Street
Houston, TX
713-222-2224

Little Woodrow's is a beer place — 100 different varieties on tap! — and we're going to bring in appetizers for everybody as well. We'll probably start up as soon as the convention floor closes.

PLEASE RSVP TO: FLYINGDRAGONHELP@AOL.COM!!!!

And remember, space is limited, unless you're Sheldon on THE BIG BANG THEORY....

Alf the Wonder Beagle's New Gat!


As you know, Alf the Wonder Beagle has been having some issues with other beasties on her walk, so she's decided a new heater is just want she needs. I mean, isn't that the cutest little revolver you've ever seen? It's from the fertile minds of the guys (and gals) at Lipsey's, who in addition to distributing firearms specialize in working with manufacturers to create limited run specials.

This beauty is a Ruger Bearcat "Shopkeeper" model — 3 inch barrel, round but, .22 LR. Apparently my friend Jason Cloessner, who's in charger of Lipsey's specials, had an epiphany while holding one of their dealer's custom 3-inch Bearcat, the smallest single action in the Ruger line-up. Of course Jason couldn't leave well enough along, so he talked Ruger into a birdshead grip and a few other custom features like the steel ejector rod housing (standard have aluminum). When he showed the gun at SHOT, apparently my eyes lit up like a little kid at Christmas, because before I could say anything he quickly said, "Yours is already on order, and, of course, you'll be keeping it."

D'uh! At least until Alf got hold of it. I just picked it up and haven't shot it yet, although I have shot many many Bearcats over the years (I started when I was 6 years old!). It's  called a "Shopkeeper" because in the Old West and a lot of years after, shopkeepers and other businesspeople would use short-barreled, round-butted single actions for concealed carry in their businesses.

The Lipsey's/Ruger Shopkeer has the potential of being a wonderful little trail gun. Of if you've got young ones you want to hook on shooting, the Shopkeeper will work as well on them as it did on me. That first Bearcat instilled in me a life-long love of single action revolvers.

Here's why Jason knew I would be a sucker for the Shopkeeper:


Just 3 of my Ruger's Birdsheads! The middle gun is a .22 LR Ruger Single Six turned into a shopkeeper version by my good friend Paul at The Mountain Gunsmith. I used that little Single Six in the "Training With a .22 LR" video I just finished for Panteao Productions as the perfect cowboy action shooting trainer.


The birdshead at the top may be my favorite single action revolver that I own...I've talked about it before...several years back there was a run of custom Ruger large caliber birdshead Vaqueros dubbed "The Last Cowboy." They were based on the short-live Ruger Birdshead Vaquero in .45 Colt/.45 ACP. I had one of the .45 Vaqueros I was going to have built into a super little 5-shot gun, but that's a long story. By the time I found out about The Last Cowboys, they were long gone.

In my heart, though, I pined for one of the Cowboys. One day I saw a set of The Last Cowboy grips offered for sale on a cowboy forum, and I snapped them up for $50. I had a couple of Ruger birdshead grip frames I'd gotten from Brownell's when they were available and cheap. The final thing I needed was already in the gun safe...a thoroughly beat-up Ruger Vaquero in .44 Magnum. It was one of the guns we used in the NSSF media education program, and it looked like it had been through the mill...dropped, abused, scratched, etc. I bought it when the program ended and actually shot my first cowboy action matches with it and an equally beat-up brother.

All I needed was genius, and that came in the form of Hamilton Bowen of Bowen Classic Arms. I've bought a number of Hamilton's guns over the years and you've seen him on SHOOTING GALLERY several times. He is the best revolver guy on earth and I do not doubt for one moment that he could carve a single action revolver out of a bar of soap and not only would it be beautiful, but it would run perfectly.

I sent Hamilton the old Vaquero and a sack of parts, and this is what came home:


...a 4-inch barrel, color case-hardened, Super Blackhawk hammer, black power cylinder chamfered, classic Colt front-sighted, special fitted base pin, flawless trigger pull and perfectly fitted "The Last Cowboy" grips...in short, a  .44 Magnum Vaquero taken to its ultimate expression.

I know Alf would be happy with the Shopkeeper if she only had opposable thumbs! I would probably have to get body armor for Pokee the Tailless Cat, though...

Thursday, April 11, 2013

A Major Fear of Mine Realized...


From Sky News in the UK:
Beaver Bites Man To Death In Belarus Attack 
The beaver pounced as a man went to take its photograph after spotting the animal on the side of a road during a fishing trip.  
A fisherman has been bitten to death by a beaver after trying to take its photograph. The man was on a fishing trip at Lake Shestakov in Belarus with two friends when they spotted the animal on the side of the road. 
His friends attempted to stem the flow of blood from the wound but the animal’s bite had severed a main artery and the man, who came from Brest, bled to death...
Earlier this week a video was posted on YouTube showing a man in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, running away from a beaver who charged at him as he was filming in the area. 
Last year in the US two girls were mauled by a beaver in a lake in Virginia as they swam. They suffered serious bite and scratch injuries. A man was also attacked in New York and an elderly woman in Washington. In 2003 in Belarus a farm manager and farmhand were bitten by a rabid beaver as they tried to chase it from a barn. They survived the attack.  
Beavers are the second largest rodents in the world.
People, this is real and it's happening right now! Beavers around the world are turning on humans, savaging them in ways a sane person can hardly imagine! Terrifying, and I live in...Beaver Country!

Don't let those talking beavers in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe fool you...beavers are some nasty actors.

Could this be the dreaded Beaverpocalypse spoken of by the Mayans, who predicted that at exactly 5:34 PM Mayan Standard Time on April 11, 2013 (or more correctly, in the words of the ancient calendar, "Later...like much later...chill dude") the Whipoosh would rise from the Sacred Lake and, in general, kick some human ass? Paging Aslan!

I'm not taking any chances...I'm loading 60-round SureFire AR magazines as we speak, and everybody knows they're TWICE scary as 30-rounders (Ooooooooh...scary scary...60-rounders...call Governor Hickenstoopid!).

I've been doing some internet research...as you can see in this picture from an ancient manuscript...


...humanity has been living on borrowed time. I think now we can say with some authority what killed the dinosaurs!

Wait wait...I think I can get this right...

There once was a man from Brest
With a beaver biting his chest
Not in the thigh
He said with a sigh
Or I'll be as dead as the rest!


(Beaver cartoon from Open Clip Art Library/Lemmling)

The Goal Posts Are In Sight!

The end is in sight...along with serious damage to my bank account and the crushing closure of even the slightest hope of getting Hamilton Bowen to build me a .50 Special Redhawk this year...maybe this millenneum...sigh.

We're searching for the best place to hold the "Michael Buys the Beer" event at the NRA Convention in Houston next month...can any of you Texans make a suggestion that's in walking distance of the Convention Center?

BTW, this week I watched the Luc Besson opus The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, which I kind of liked...hey, Milla Jovovich...say no more! Of course, it didn't end well for Joan...


Looking at that big fiery finish I couldn't help but think...Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey! Who's gonna bring the marshmallows?  I mean that figuratively — FIGURATIVELY!!! of course, so Homeland, for heaven's sake don't raid the Secret Hidden Bunker until I've finished my taxes!

John Richardson at No Lawyers Only Guns and Money has a fascinating story on good ole boy Manchin and his good ole boat where he entertains and where, apparently, he worked out his deal to sell us out...this from WaPo from Manchin when questioned about the good ole boat:
“...I’m a wee little small owner and have a generous partner. But you know what, it’s an older boat, it’s nice, we have a lot of fun....But we can get 10 or more senators and have a good time. And you know what? We can go float out there and you can’t find us...We go out on the Potomac. You build relationships..."
Yeah buddy...here's a picture of the kind of "old boat" Manchin bought for $620,000 back in 2003. It's a 54-foot Sea Ray Sundancer 540:


Looks a lot like an aluminum Jon Boat I had back when I was a kid...


Well, maybe not, but I hope that sunken boat is a good visual representation of Manchin's and Toomey's political future.

Realistically, we all knew we were going to get sold out by one (or more) of our "friends" sooner or later, and, frankly, it could be a lot worse. Manchin is a little man who wants to be a player so bad he probably dribbles urine in his underwear. Toomey is a good example of how all people who wave the Gadsen flag don't necessarily understand what it means.

I agree with Brother Bob Owens that the Red State Dems and moderate Republicans "deserve" an up-or-down vote, on the record, for this. As my friend Sheriff Jim Wilson once famously noted, "Pussies will reveal themselves..." I hope the Republicans have sense enough to tag as many "poison pill" amendments to this travesty as they can.

Finally, here's a great piece from My Gun Culture on "How To Buy a Gun on the Internet." How it really works, as opposed to the "Buy a grenade launcher off the Internet and get same day shipping!" that the gun grabbers portray. I've bought a few guns off the Internet and it's like watching molasses on a slow morning. That's a Southernism...

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Sorry...

...for the light blogging. Coming up on April 15 and I'm in that kind of hell. Am almost through it, so hang on...

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

RIVERDANCE With Blood

Can B-Ho get any sleazier? He's turned the concept of "waving the bloody shirt" into a Broadway musical, complete with props he carries with him.  All he needs is exploding blood bags and a catchy closing number —paging Adele!

Oh wait...did I offend anyone with that last crack? Before you answer, let's talk about victims. As Americans, as human beings, our collective hearts bleed for victims, whether from violent crimes or tsunamis or school bus accidents. Because of that compassion, we allow victims a special voice within our culture. We listen to victims because their loss gives special poignancy to their words.

I was in New York City right after 9-11, and I sat in bars in lower Manhattan and listened to people who had lost friends, relatives, spouses, children. Some of those people called for immediate, bloody reaction in the United States...I just nodded my head and bought the drinks. If you were to ask those same people today whether they still called for detention camps for Muslims and Star Chamber trials, they would be mortified. In fact, I doubt they even remember those words so many years back in dark Manhattan bars.

Yes, the words of victims have special poignancy, but what they don't have is any special truth. Grief drives us to look toward the heavens and demand an answer from any nearby Deity. Grief drives us to demand a solution to the fundamental insoluble problem, which is that the world is as it is. Bad things happen, often to good people, and grief drives us to...do something.

To me there is no greater sin...and I use the word "sin" specifically...than harnessing grief to serve a crass political agenda. This from Reason:
In Obama's telling, only "powerful interests that are very good at confusing the subject, that are good at amplifying conflict and extremes, that are good at drowning out rational debate, good at ginning up irrational fears." That's pretty rich, coming from a man who claims that massacres like the one that took 26 lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, last December have become "routine," who falsely asserts that the man responsible for those murders used a "fully automatic weapon," and who in response to that horrible event pushes policies that could not possibly have prevented it, while citing the grief and outrage it generated as if they were arguments for the same gun control policies he has supported all along.
Remember, Michael Bloomberg created a "SWAT team" for gun control, just waiting for something to happen to so he could drive home the same old agenda. He just needed the blood.

When I was in high school, my brother — 2 years younger than me — died of brain cancer. It took a year for him to die, and what little I know of grace I learned from him in that singularly horrible year. In the wake of his death, my family, staggered by grief, simply self-destructed...I played my own part in that self-destruction, driven by an anger...no, that's not strong enough...driven by a fury — to hate...God, my parents, the people around me, the sons-of-bitch doctors who failed to keep my brother alive. Funny, but after more than half a century if you ask me what I think about doctors, before my brain even has a chance to turn on 17-year-old Michael will erupt with, "I hate those sons of bitches!"

I grieved and I hated and more than anything else in the universe I wanted to...do something, even if that something I was doing was obviously destroying the world around me. But grief does that to a person. And that is why even though we share the pain of those who grieve, we cannot allow ourselves to build, or rebuild, the world around them.

Doing something is an anathema to intelligent action; it allows us to believe that somehow feeling supersedes thinking, that the public expression of emotion, as cathartic as it might be, is grounds for reshaping our entire country into something the Founders never intended.

One more personal piece of data...when I was in college in Florida, I was dirt poor and lived in an ancient, decaying trailer park in a 1952 Spartan travel trailer, the ones with Studebaker roll-down windows and a porthole in the door. The residents of the trailer park would make a good reality show...the mandatory hooker, a murderer who got off on a technicality, a rodeo cowgirl who kept her horse at a farm across the road, and a "hack" writer — the first professional, e.g., a guy who got paid for it, writer I'd ever met. Each month he'd get a request list from his agent in New York for "2 western stories, make the heroes like John Wayne," or "4 short-short science fiction stories, one with evil aliens," stuff like that. And Bill would sit at his manual typewriter and bang them out like clockwork.

In his spare time, he drank too much — natch! — and studied history. He had an old reel-to-reel tape recorder, and sometimes when I was over at his trailer helping him imbibe he'd play me tapes of speeches. His favorites were Hitler, whom he had fought against and hated..."just listen to the cadence, Michael. Forget the words. Listen to the power. He sold a whole country with that voice. With emotion, not reason." Bill's long gone, but the lesson remans the same.

Monday, April 08, 2013

Self-Defense in Non-Permissive Environments

This is definitely a subject whose time has come. I'm ramping up a couple of ideas for THE BEST DEFENSE 2014. I'm seriously looking at the Browning lever action (BLR) lightweight "Hog Stalker" take-down gun in .223 (my first choice) or .308.

It has an 18-inch barrel and an overall length of 38 inches, so it'll break down into two 20-inch chunks. It has a detachable box magazine and is already drilled and tapped for a scout-mount scope. It cocks in at 6 pounds, 11 ounces. I'm leaning toward .223 over .308 because of ammo accessibility and the ability to carry more ammo. The 4-round magazines are dreadfully expensive ($125 apiece), which is a drawback over a tubular magazine, such as the new Taylor's Alaskan break-down .44 Magnum Winchester 1892 clone with its 7+1 load of .44 Maggies. The Taylor's is a little longer but almost a pound lighter.


In either case I'd go with a revolver (hey, it's not a semi auto with one of those boxy springy things that so scare liberals) as the handgun...actually, ideally, 2 revolvers — a belt gun and a smaller gun that will function as a pocket pistol. If I go with the .223 BLR, I might look at a .357 revolver — once again, ammunition availability and versatility. On the Alaskan, I'd go for compatibility and opt for a .44 Magnum revolver. There are a couple of option, depending on your level of paranoia and your willingness to schlepp bags. If weight of the overall package is the number one consideration, I'd look at the Alaskan, a scandium-framed 329 S&W revolver and a Charter Bulldog as the pocket pistol. The .44 is a thumper, but without the range of the .223 (and, yes, there is the issue of 2 calibers, Special and Magnum). If weight was less of an issue, I'd go with the 4-inch Redhawk, which will probably be working years after the glaciers come south.

If I go with the .223 BLR, I'm going to suggest a .357 revolver. For weight, look at the lightweight S&Ws. For stone-like durability, the Ruger GP-100. I think the Ruger LCR is one of the best pocket pistols ever made, but there are plenty of other small frame S&Ws, Tauruses, Charters and what-have-you out there. In this case I'd go with a .357 version for ammo compatibility.

Just some work-in-process thoughts!


Saturday, April 06, 2013

The Urban Rifle

Since NJ Larry asked the question on the last post, and I thought I should take a shot at answering it. Here's his comment to my discussing the DoubleStar C3 as an "urban rifle:"
Can you pls describe the use of a rifle for "urban carry"? Also can you quantify and document the actual incidents where this is used in the USA on a yearly basis?
Actually a pretty good question. First, you're going to have to grant that I'm paranoid. D'uh! Well, I prefer to think that I'm a realist and that much of my personal philosophy is based on a song by Jim Morrison:

Well, I woke up this morning, I got myself a beer 
Well, I woke up this morning, and I got myself a beer 
The future's uncertain, and the end is always near

So, let it roll!  Anyway, if I may borrow another quote, this time from Kurt Vonnegut, "Things are going to get worse and worse, and they're never going to get better again." Our culture is for lack of a better word broken, and the entire machinery of America is being steered by malevolent, ignorant children drunk on their own power. That creates a high potential for what we refer to in THE BEST DEFENSE as "social dislocations."

Whether those dislocations come from a great big windstorm that everybody plainly saw coming, a whack job in North Korea actually figuring out how to lob a nuclear missile onto the America heartland, the New Madrid Fault finally giving up the ghost, the children running the country succeeding in collapsing the economy and chumming up enough divisiveness for battles in the street, or the Iranians mastering their low-angle missile launches from cargo ships and succeeding in turning off the lights in lots of America, our security rests on a series of increasingly unstable assumptions.

I travel...a lot. Sometimes I drive and sometimes I fly. My primary imperative on my trips is to get home to my family, as unorthodox as that family might be. Based on my own studies of social dislocations, I believe that a rifle is a huge "force multiplier" in a situation where everything flies into the fan. Therefore, having a rifle seems like a good idea. The rifle becomes an extension of the very idea of concealed carry...I'm not sure when a fire is going to break out, so I carry a fire extinguisher. A rifle is a larger fire extinguisher. The function of that rifle is the GET ME HOME in extraordinary  circumstances. Does this happen every week? Nope. Will a major social dislocation ever happen? Don't  know. But everything we do in life is a risk/reward equation...my "risk" here is an additional baggage charge at the airport or one more bag in my car...not a very big risk against a very big reward.

As far as quantifying on a yearly basis, whatever for? I do know people who quite literally survived Katrina because of their hardware. I have spent a lot of time with first responders, military "war gamers" and experts on major social disasters. Sometimes I have nightmares about stories I've heard from those experts.

I guess it comes down to yet another saying...things don't happen, until they do.

So when I can carry a rifle, I do, for the same reason I carry a trauma kit.

Make sense?


Friday, April 05, 2013

A Diana DeGette MUST READ!

From Rocky Mountain Right blog, the Diana DeGette Guide to Gun Safety:
This is a diagram of an AR-15. Guns work by using the spring in the magazine to detonate the black powder inside the long tube at the end. The proton pack generates a powerful electromagnetic field that helps propel the bullet down the tube where it then exits and murders someone. Sometimes people murder each other with shotguns, which are similar to the AR-15 but have laser sights and vent holes.
Read the whole thing, and prepare to spew milk out your nose. LOL!

Interesting piece from Caleb at Gun Nuts Media on "tiers" of AR quality. Read it here. I don't necessarily agree, which, hey, will give me something else to talk about on Monday's podcast! Actually I have a ton of stuff on the list. I just started working with the DoubleStar C3 (Constant Carry Carbine) on 50-yard drills with the irons (Magpul MBUS). I love this gun! You throw it up to your shoulder and run it.


The short 7-inch Ace stock takes about 5 minutes to get used to...especially if you're used to reach way far out there on a mid-length handguard. At 5.5 pounds, the C3 is like running a big pistol. I didn't do any of the stuff you're supposed to do with a new gun...I didn't take it apart, meticulously measure each part, blah blah. I took it out of the box, sprayed some Ballistol on the bolt and cranked it up with Corbon match 55-grainers (my last 100 of those particularly wonderful rounds). Sights were a little low at 50, but there's an Aimpoint Micro in this baby's future (yes, I have old eyes!). The only other thing I'd add is a sling, maybe Kyle Lamb's lightweight bungee sling.

Is the C3 to do-all and be-all of ARs? Of course not. But I believe the C3 perfectly fills the niche of car/travel rifle (a niche I've been filling with a Rock River Arms LAR-PDS AR-15 pistol). The C3 with its short entry stock perfectly fits in the new Comp-Tac "Trojan Horse" rifle case, which I think is definitely a "product of the year." I only wish it came in fetching colors...maybe puce. Seriously, since I "went viral" and started chalking up illiterate death threats, I've found myself traveling more and more with a rifle (something my friend John Farnam suggested I start doing years ago). The C3/"Trojan Horse" combination (along with the requisite selection of P-Mags — 30 rounds! Run! Hide! Call Governor Hickenloopy!) is a perfect travel companion.


Thursday, April 04, 2013

More on the Colorado Magazine Ban

This is a MUST READ article for Colorado residents! Please, read the whole thing. From my friend Jim Rawles' Survival Blog:
PROBLEMS WITH THIS LAW 
To conclude, here are some of the areas where I could see the police and district attorneys using this statute to abuse gun owners: 
Police: 
1. If you are open carrying a semi-automatic handgun, this law will provide the police probable cause to stop and detain you while they determine if you are violating this statute (which the police could not do legally before this law); 
2. This law will provide the police the ability to disarm you while they determine the capacity of your magazine (which was not legal before this law) 
3. If you inform the police that you are conceal carrying a handgun, you can be stopped and detained to determine the capacity of the magazine (which before this law was not a valid reason to detain you); 
4. If your magazine carries more than 15 rounds of ammunition, you could be arrested or cited for a violation of this law and your firearm and magazine taken as evidence while you prove your innocence. Remember, in order to fully assert your exemptions, you must go to trial. This will take time and you will be without your handgun and magazine until after the trial. 
5. Should you now claim your Fifth Amendment right if asked by a police officer whether you are carrying a firearm? Perhaps if your magazine holds more than 15 rounds of ammunition. If you do so, what will be the police officer’s response? Arrest you? Let you go? 
6. As stated above, who possesses a magazine when it is found in a person’s home or car? And, for the exception, who owns and maintains continuous possession of a large capacity magazine when it is located in an area where multiple people are? 
Prosecutors 
1. After receiving the firearm and magazine as evidence, the district attorney could use the threat of a trial on defendants to make them accept a plea deal that will include the loss of your firearm and magazine forever. 
2. What will they do when you die owning a large capacity magazine? Would they charge the executor of your will if a transfer per your will takes place after you die? What actually is that executor to do with the magazine at that point? Turn it in to the police? Given that, it will not be that long before all of the current owners of large capacity magazines pass away and their magazines destroyed after being turned in the police. Call it self- directed gun confiscation. 
3. Going on a “fishing expedition” trying to refute my exception assertions. This can be accomplished by requesting any and all documents, people, etc that could be used to refute my exception assertions. 
4. Tying up the defendant in a long, expensive trial while at the same time not allowing the defendant to have possession of their handgun(s) while the trial is ongoing. 
5. With the way that this law is written, if you plan on asserting the exceptions you will be waiving your 5th Amendment rights to self incrimination. By that I mean you will have to testify to assert the exemptions. This will give the prosecutor the ability to cross examine you as they attempt to refute your assertions.

Planning Planning Planning...

So we have a working plan for SHOOTING GALLERY, and staring tomorrow will begin calendaring the filming schedule. Competition-wise, we're looking at the inaugural IDPA Back-Up Gun championships, a really cool .22 LR challenge in conjunction with the Ruger Rimfire Worlds episode, an excellent 3-Gun competition and some other cool stuff. And wait until you see the Crossbow Challenge!

Shifting my focus to THE BEST DEFENSE...am starting to shop around for crime trends. I want to reach out to you guys and ask what you would like to see us cover on TBD. Ideas??? BTW, here's a really great article on situational awareness from Kevin Reeve at onPoint Tactical:
Being able to develop awareness is dependent upon first knowing the baseline for the area you are in, and recognizing any variations to the baseline. These changes in baseline are learned from observation. One must know the baseline. One must recognize disturbances to the baseline, and one must recognize if those disturbances represent a specific threat or opportunity.
Read the whole thing, definitely! Good stuff.

Began writing scripts for GUN STORIES this morning before the SG meeting. Reminds me that I actually like writing and miss it,Back when I was a professional writer I wrote every single day, without fail. And yes, book deadlines were terrifying.

Have begged out of Area 2 MultiGuns tomorrow and Saturday...I have a head cold and am, in general, totally unprepared for the match. I want to go to the range tomorrow and work with an AR. Realistically, I should take a handful of OTC cold medication and try to sleep this thing off.

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Busy Day...

...doing SHOOTING GALLERY planning for African safari (pretty fun, you ask me) and GUN STORIES logistics. Then we headed down to Denver so my Sweetie could hold a sign that read "OBAMA—GO HOME TO "GUN FREE" CHICAGO!" at the Obama "Bend a Knee" event at the Police Academy. From WaPo:
The president pleaded with the public that “if you hear that kind of talk, say, ‘Hold on a second.’ If any folks out there are gun owners and you’re hearing someone talking about the government taking your guns away, get the facts.”
Here are the facts...our government is trying its level best to take away our guns. You'd have to be dumber than Diana DeGette – which means you'd have to be watered twice a week — to think anything different. And Diana, magazines are MADE to be reloaded...so are clips, if you have a Garand.

BTW, while not all Denver cops were thrilled with being props for Obama's endless condescension, take a good look at the men and women in blue standing behind Our Glorious Leader in the WaPo photograph...they all volunteered for the duty. Take a long look at their faces and tell me again that no law enforcement officer in Colorado is going to enforce these ridiculous laws. These men and women will enforce these laws to the letter!

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

DOWN RANGE Radio

Sorry...I assume everyone knows everything! Each Wednesday morning we release an episode of DOWN RANGE Radio, my 45-minute (more or less), professionally produced podcast talking about guns, self-defense, recipes, rock and roll, and what one regular listener described as "Michael's brain drippings."

Last year DOWN RANGE Radio received a "Gunnie Award" as the Number 1 firearms podcast on the Internet. Our commentaries on the Supreme Court Heller Decision has been cited as some of the best and most informative work on that landmark moment. We recently put in place a way for listeners to leave voice message questions on DOWN RANGE Television and I'll answer them the next week.

I can't believe that tomorrow is episode 309...that's a massive amount of B-S! LOL! Long time back Marshal Halloway and I lost track of how many people actually listen to DOWN RANGE Radio...the numbers were already huge. Over the last 2 years we've found that at big events like the NRA Convention or the SHOT Show, fully half the people I talk to are "pod people" as opposed to fans of the television show.

One amazingly creepy moment...I was flying back into Denver with my crew from a filming session. My producers and I got off the plane first and while waiting for the rest of the crew to disembark we were talking about the success of the podcast. "Do you really have a sense of who listens to the podcast?" my producer Mike Long was asking. Walking off the plane was a classic Colorado climbing dude, big pack loaded with climbing gear, a rope strapped to the outside of the pack and earbuds in his ear. He walked past us just as Long asked his question...on cue, he turned his iPod around to reveal my face on it and answered Long's question of who listened: "Everybody," the dude said and kept walking...

RE: 7.62/.308 ammo, I have had great luck with the Hornady Superperformance, both the 165-gr and the 168-gr Match. I bought some 150-gr Prvi Partizan back when it was cheap (well, cheaper...it has been a long time since 7.62 was "cheap") and it's been great in the semiautos. I also used it to shoot a hole in one of my steel plates that was rated for 7.62. LOL! I also have had good luck with the wonderful Black Hills 155-gr A-Max, but I have exactly 2 boxes of that left.

Monday, April 01, 2013

Monday Margarita Night

Spent all day on the podcast...sometimes the 45-minute podcast takes an hour or so...sometimes it takes a full 8-hour day. Today was of the full 8-hour variety. It is what it is, and I love the podcast (as you know). So I finished the podcast, walked the hound and started planning dinner.

Monday is Margarita Monday, as you guys know (as created by my Sweetie). Tonight I wanted to try something different...while I was at the Hippie Dippy Super Market in Boulder last weekend (a.k.a. Whole Foods), I found a sack of Meyers lemons...Meyers are very mild lemons with a hint of a orangey tang, so I bought a sack. The recipe I concocted was 1 1/2 ounces of Meyers lemon juice, 1 1/4 ounces of Corazon Reposada tequila and 1 ounce of Patron Citronge liqueur. I also add a tiny amount of agave sweetener (no more than 1/2 teaspoon), to taste. This makes a mild, wonderfully tasteful margarita. Enjoy it in good health!


On the salmon, I did a 3 chili (ancho, negro, New Mexico red)/honey/lemon juice rub. Coat the salmon on the non-skin side with the rub. If you cook the salmon on the stovetop, which was necessary since it was snowing sideways at the Secret Hidden Bunker, go with 4 minutes on the skin side, flip it over and do 2 minutes on the rub side. I use a cast iron skillet (as usual) heated to very hot. Cooking fish requires a light touch no matter where you cook it, and it takes practice.

This podcast talks about selecting the 7.62 MBR. Surprised, I'm going to come down on the FAL as my personal choice...I believe the PTR series is the best for preppers who don't already own a 7.62, specifically because of the inexpensive magazines. If you don;\'t own a semiauto, I'm gonna say go with the Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle as the first 7.62, followed by a MBR. In my own case, I believe the Colt LE901 is going to be the MBR of my dreams, as soon as I add a great trigger, a different muzzle brake/comp and maybe juggle the stock...add a high-zoot optic...