Friday, February 28, 2014

Rob Pincus for NRA Board of Directors


I note that my friend Rob Pincus is making a write-in run for the 76th seat (the one chosen by attendees at the Convention) on the NRA Board of Directors. You can read all about it here.

I unconditionally support Rob Pincus' run and urge that you do the same!

Why? Because Rob will always stand up...he eats, sleeps, breaths and, most importantly, believes in the Gun Culture and the RKBA. Perhaps most importantly, Rob can be a spectacular pain in the ass to the Powers-That-Be, and that is exactly the kind of person we need promoting our interests.

He walks the talk, and he will do us proud on the NRA BoD!

"We're Not the Gestapo..."

That quote from CT State Police Spokesman Oberscharführer Paul Vance, while stating publicly that his men and women are ready and willing, even eager, to go door-to-door to confiscate "illegal" assault weapons and those dread weapons of mass destruction, magazines with a capacity of greater than 10 rounds. He concludes his comments by saying he doesn't want to talk about the Constitution, not at all. They never do, do they?



So for all you folks who have steadfastly kept your heads in the sand on the end game of gun grabbers, I believe the lesson is about to commence...

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

"Chilling Firearms Arsenal..."

...easily my favorite headline of the week so far! It's from Radar Online, and the full text of the headline is, "George Zimmerman's Chilling Firearms Arsenal — Leaked Police Evidence Photos Reveal His Deadly Gun Stash." What, pray, constitutes a "chilling firearms arsenal?" Here's the list:

• One Keltec 12-gauge shotgun
• One Walther .380 handgun with seven rounds of live ammunition in the magazine
• One Taurus 9 mm handgun with live rounds in the magazine
• One Glock 19 handgun with 16 live rounds
• One AR-15 semi-automatic rifle
• Dozens of rounds of ammunition
• Several gun holsters and bags

Literally dozens of rounds of ammunition! Sure, it's laughable — I have literally dozens of rounds of ammunition in the laundry room, emptied from my pockets after matches and range sessions. But it's emblematic of the increasing divide between Armed America and the shrinking enclaves of the political elite. 

I may be really off-base here, but I think we're seeing the end game on the part of the progressive/statists in favor of gun confiscation, which would explain their near panic response and hysterical bleating to all things gun. Unfortunately, animals in their death throes are often the most dangerous. That why we're seeing egregious travesties like the felony trial of Mark Witaschek in Washington D.C. for possession of a single inert shotgun shell and muzzleloading sabots or the almost breathtakingly arrogant "compromise" in New Jersey that would reduce magazine capacity from 15 to 10...in return, gun owners would be allowed to stop to go to the bathroom on the way to the range or hunting fields — illegal under current New Jersey law. As Sebastian notes in the linked post, it'll be interesting to see if Gov. Chris Christie signs the "Right To Piss" compromise, thus ending his run for the Presidency...


Sunday, February 23, 2014

What Did You Do On National Margarita Day, Daddy?

Like yesterday...I luckily was in Santa Fe yesterday and able to go to the Great Mother Church of Margaritas, Maria's New Mexican Kitchen, to bend a knee (and an elbow) at the Source...I opted to order one of their hi-zoot marts made with El Tesoro's amazing aged Anejo, Grand Marnier and lemon juice. Sigh...nothing less than wonderful! My Sweetie chose another path, El Tesora Platinum with 1/2 Cointreau and 1/2 Grand Marnier and lemon juice. She said it may be the best margarita she's every tasted...that sets a really high bar for me!

Take a few minutes to read David Codrea's blazing take-down of Bloomberg flack Paul Barrett's simpering piece on changing the Second Amendment, quoting an aging Justice John Paul Stevens:
Interesting, which side “hero of the political left” Stevens and the hired man tending the Bloomberg machine come down on, is it not? And regardless of shameful cases of convenience prosecuted and decided to perpetuate discrimination and victimization of black Americans (just like the shameful cases that declared segregation legal), it’s not like the legal minds of the time weren’t aware that the Second Amendment was not merely a restraint on the national government.
I bring this up because for a while Paul Barrett was a bit of a darling among some people who should know better after his book on Glock, which I and Mark Keefe at American Rifleman refused to review.  Barrett occasionally has some decent insights into the firearms business, but he is Bloomberg's boy through and through, with everything that implies.

On a different note, Hamilton Yam at Modern Service Weapons did an excellent article on modern training and trainers and choosing the same:
As a consumer, recognize who has what to offer, and go to the correct people for it. Know exactly what you are looking to receive, and be a smart shopper. If you were offended by this article, then perhaps you need to do some introspection.
Read the whole thing. There's an interesting new blog from a newcomer, Matt, outlining his preparations for his first African safari. I have to say he's a lot more focused than I was last year!

Finally, read...then reread...this piece on the tactics of the Ukrainian freedom fighters:
But to understand why the protests succeeded in toppling Yanukovych, it’s worth taking a glance at its strategies and military-style tactics. The protesters not only built a broad and inclusive coalition, but innovated where it mattered most: on the streets.
Important reading...

Friday, February 21, 2014

It's Friday...

...and Colt is buying LWRC! If true, it makes a lot of sense for Colt, who has been pushing really hard to regain a toe-hold in the market it created. The most interesting thing to me is the "up from the grave" meme on the 6.8 SPC cartridge. I ran across a huge Washington Times article on the deficiencies of the M4 platform:
He said its 5.56-caliber bullet is too small and the gas-piston firing system is prone to stoppage. He said better weapons — the German Heckler-Koch G36 and Russian AK-74 (a version of the venerable AK-47) — use superior firing systems. “Frankly, this whole thing is scandalous,” Gen. Scales said. “We send soldiers into close combat with lousy weapons and we’ve done it since World War II and nobody complains. It’s a national outrage. “It has no penetrating power,” he said of the M4. “It’s ineffective against vehicles, against bunkers. It’s ineffective against virtually anything except a man in the open. Put a flak jacket on the enemy and it’s virtually useless.”
To be sure, we've heard all this stuff before...many, many times before. In fact, the 6.8 Special Purpose Cartridge was developed as part of the Enhanced Rifle Cartridge program to create a cartridge specifically to address the perceived shortcomings of the 5.56. And the 6.8 was and is a heck of a cartridge, doing everything it was designed to do.

It was also born into a political arena where the very idea of a major modification of the U.S. military's primary weapon was flatly, totally, politically off-the-table. So the 6.8 languished as a commercial product...a side effect was the huge increase in the use of the AR platform in hunting, where the 6.8 excels. I was hugely impressed with the 6.8 heavy bullet performance on hogs.

Recent years have seen the rise of the .300 Blackout. Rather than go into it again, Nick Leghorn did an excellent job of explaining the difference between the missions of the 2 cartridges in this TTAG post form a couple of years back.

So LWRC does a huge deal with the Saudis on 6.8 carbines. All Outdoor reported after SHOT that the U. S. military was once again looking at the 6.8 SPC.

Bot the 6.8 and the .300 Blackout have their failings for a military context. The 6.8 SPC requires a different bolt, different barrel (duh!) and maybe most importantly a different magazine. Visualize how many AR/M-4 magazines there are out in the world...it's roughly a gazillion bazillion, give or take a few million. Yes, the U.S. could issue a gazillion 6.8 magazines, but the AR platform is one of the most issued firearms on earth...might there be a battlefield problem there?

The .300's issue is a little stickier. Since it uses the 5.56 case blown up to .30 caliber, it can use the standard AR bolt and magazine, a big plus. Occasionally, a .300 Blackout cartridge will chamber in a long-throated 5.56, followed by a very loud noise and flying pieces of metal, a big minus.

The best summation I've read has been in the Brit blog Think Defence from late last year:
It makes no sense to replace our small arms inventories now – not unless we foresee ourselves becoming embroiled in a major international conflict within the next five years.
That is probably the bottom line. Ironically, the real competition to the 6.8 in the commercial market is the rise of the now-perfected 7.62 AR-10 platform, as noted by AllOutdoor here. The .308 is a proven product, well known to American shooters and hunters and, overall, maybe the best all-around chambering on earth.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Back in the World...

...after 4 days in Louisiana with the Miculeks & the Clark's for a really cool SHOOTING GALLERY season closer! Darn fun, I tell you!

With the podcast and all I justndidn't have time to post to the blog. Plus, I kept dreaming I had decided to go back to college and was apparently approaching the second educational trip the same waynI approached the first...haphazardly. Apparently, I failed or study for a history exam...read, I never bothered to open the book...just like the first time! I hate waking up at 4:30AM worried about European history...I'm pretty OK on the Hundred Year War...really...

As usual, I fell in love with a gun on this trip. I made the mistake of sitting around Clark Custom Guns with my old friend Jimmy Clark, BS'ing about this and that. And the he said, "Hey man, you haven't seen my double rifles!"

For the last 5 years Jim has been building double rifles on CZ Ringneck or Bobwhite shotgun actions. He uses the CZ mono bloc and Douglas barrels and, being Jim Clark, designed a unique systems for setting up the barrels and regulating then before soldering them together. Also being Jim Clark, they are just beautiful and built perfectly. He had his "baby," a 30-30 built on a .410 action. The he hauled out a beauty, a .450/.400 3-inch Nitro built on a deluxe 20-gauge action with the high-end wood. Oh, snap!

Eventually he took it away from me...

The cool thing is that Jim's double rifles start at $5000, whereas almost any other double rifle would be pretty much $25K for the ante. The high-end .450/.400 clocks in at $7500. Still out of reach, but not nearly as far out of reach!

I'm also really looking at the Clark deep-flute 16 1/4 inch 10/22 barrel...37 ounces for a steel match-proven barrel!

Friday, February 14, 2014

A Few Thought Before the Weekend...

One commenter on yesterday's post on the shooting sports noted:
Shooting is like golf, if you do not play you do not care. The answer is to get more people playing the sport. The "private club" attitude is the real killer for entry level folks. You want to get into it and the current participants turn you off. Nobody wants to teach newcomers, but most are willing to abuse them.
That's a bold statement but one I'm moderately in agreement with. The problem isn't that sport shooters are assholes; rather, the problem is the sports are mostly "mature," that is, the ins and outs of the sport have been settled for some time and it is incumbent on the newcomer to basically adapt. 

I can tell you it wasn't that way when we started USPSA, or IDPA...there was a sense of discovery and invention, as if the next New Amazing Thing we did to this gun or that holster would be the magic trick that changed the whole sport...and sometimes ti did. I remember when Bill Rogers showed up at the first club match with proto "plastic" holsters..."What do you guys think," he asked us? I remember the first stage in competition that required us to use a flashlight (a Mini-Maglite, thank you). 

I shot the very first big IDPA match, the Columbia Invitational, with a Wayne Novak .40 S&W Browning Hi-Power out of an Ernie Hill concealment holster (I shot in ESP). There was that same sense of excitement with the first Ruger Rimfire matches, and ICORE.

As a sport matures, it changes for the newcomers. Instead of the element of experimentation and discovery, the newcomer is essentially presented with a list of what it takes to do well in the sport/category chosen...just like skiing...buy these skis...buy these boots...wax 'em up and let's go! 

That doesn't mean that skiing is bad...au contraire...but it is a different mindset. New shooters come into the sport(s) with an excitement..."Hey, I got this great holster!"...and are met with, yeah yeah, we tried that in 2008 and it didn't work. Here are a list of 3 holsters that will get you to "A" class...same as skiing.

Skiing is a great sport! But it needs to be marketed differently that a new sport (say snowboarding 10 years ago).

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Shooting Sports on TV

With biathlete Lanny Barnes getting ready for her first Olympic run, my pal Paul Erhardt decided it was a good time to stir the old shooting sports pot with an excellent "Between the Berms" column in The Shooting Wire basically outlining how scoring systems are, in a sense, holding the shooting sports back:
In order to tell the story of a sport and a competition you have to tell the story through scoring. 
Think of it this way. Imagine watching a baseball game where the scoring isn't provided until the last batter is out. That's kinda how the shooting sports approach scoring. 
What needs to happen is the shooting sports have to invest in the infrastructure of scoring beyond a freshly sharpened pencil and neatly printed two-part carbonless score sheet.
Kevin Creighton from Misfires & Light Strikes piled on at DRTV (incidentally, the very first post for out Guest Blogger program):
If practical shooting isn’t a spectator sport, it is, by definition not a TV sport. There’s a vicious circle going on here: Practical shooting doesn’t get TV exposure because no one goes to the matches, and no one goes to the matches because it doesn’t get TV exposure. Solve one problem, and you’ll solve the other.
Both Kevin and Paul are right, but I'm not sure they're right enough. I've got more than a decade of putting the shooting sports on television, honestly with mixed success. In the last couple of years Producers John Carter, Mike Long and I have pretty much "decoded" how to do the sports on television in a way that draws the viewer into the event.

Along the way we've discovered an interesting "root" problem...all of us, and probably most of the people reading this blog, make the baseline assumption that the shooting sports want to grow, and increased exposure is critical to that point.

I'm not sure that's the case. My thinking goes back to BTV* (*Before TV) when I launched a quixotic run for the presidency of the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA). My platform was based on growth and what we as practical shooters heeded to do to make that growth happen. I had about a bazillion accumulated miles, so I did a lot of traveling around the country to matches.

What I did not find was a consensus that growth was in fact a desirable goal. I'd say that on the balance most clubs were totally happy with the status quo and saw growth as a negative (more people, more crowded matches, increased complications in running events, etc.). That was a long time ago, but one thing I've seen since is that despite many and varied grow-the-sport programs over the years, not all of the practical sports have grown. I have attributed that lack of/slow growth to the unstated resistance at the grassroots level.

Anyway, Marshal and I agree that for a shooting sport to be truly successful on television, we probably need to start from scratch. That's why TOP SHOT was such a success — it was a television event that featured shooting, as opposed to a shooting event covered by television.

Marshal notes that long-range shooting is a big television draw in Norway...12,000 spectators watching 6,000 shooters over a 7 day period — out of a country of 5 million! Here's a link to the televised finals. Note the world class scoring system as discussed by Paul and Kevin. It exists!

We're pretty excited about the Peacemaker World Shooting Championships, which we'll be full-court-press covering for SHOOTING GALLERY 2015. These guys are doing everything right, and I'll go out on a limb and say this looks like the composite match we've all been hoping for. Even better, we're involved on the ground floor, because we want this match to be a home run.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

The Incredible Shrinking Self-Defense Caliber

Two interesting pieces from good friends of mine on the Internet this week. The first is from Kevin Creighton at Misfires & Light Strikes blog:
Am I the only one to notice a shift in the online gun world ever since the Glock 42 come out? It used to be ” 9mm is barely able to stop a rabid hamster, you need a pistol caliber that starts with a ’4′ to be safe.” Now that Glock has a mini .380 out, I’m seeing a lot more chatter about how with the right bullets (I’m a fan of Hornady XTP’s, myself), .380 ACP is a viable self-defense round. 
Amazing how common sense changes once changes become more common…
The second comes from good friend Dave Spaulding on DRTV:
One of the “trends” crossing the internet is the “re-emergence” of the 9mm in law enforcement circles and any number of ex-spurts are adding their opinion to the fray. Much of this discussion is led by the FBI returning to the 9mm because they struggle with getting recruit agents through the firearms portion of the basic academy. Many laugh at this assertion as it was the FBI in the late 80’s and early 90’s that spearheaded the creation of the .40 via their “10mm lite” cartridge after the “failure” of the 9mm Silvertip in the famed Miami Shootout of 1986. Much was learned from this event and we are still learning, in this case it is that the .40 S&W cartridge can be tough to shoot due to the added slide velocity of the cartridge and the effects this has on the shooter via felt recoil. In the end, if you can’t hit your opponent quickly and repeatedly with a given handgun cartridge all of the on target power is for nothing.
In short, 9mm is emerging as the top defensive round. Dave and I have talked about this a lot over the years. I was trying to remember when I went from the .45 to the 9mm as my EDC cartridge...I think it was around 2005. I know in 2008 I got the Para Carry 9 LDA, which remains one of my all-tie favorite carry guns (note to self...ALWAYS buy lots and lots of magazines for obscure guns!). Before that I'd carried the STI LS9 a lot.

I went to the 9mm because my own thinking had shifted from the "one perfect shot" to "how many times can I hit the bad guy who wants to do me harm?" The more you move toward the "how many times..." the more 9mm makes sense.

I started thinking I was headed in the right direction when a good friend of mine, who was both a top gunsmith and one of those international high-risk executive protection specialists, mentioned to me that he had started carrying one of the little Kel-Tec 9mms. He paused after he told me, waiting for my derision. I told him I'd started carrying the LS9. "Really? Cool!" he said. "If you think about it, it makes more sense than a .45."

As bullet technology has narrowed the gap between .45, .40 and 9mm, to me it makes so much more sent o be able to deliver the second, third or even fourth shot if necessary, and very quickly.

ADDENDUM from BreachBangClear:
So, to wrap this up, repeat after me: “There is no magic bullet. There is only shot placement.”

More Comforting News...

From MediaTrackers:
Documents from an Ohio National Guard (ONG) training drill conducted last January reveal the details of a mock disaster where Second Amendment supporters with “anti-government” opinions were portrayed as domestic terrorists. 
Portsmouth Chief of Police Bill Raisin told NBC 3 WSAZ-TV in Huntington, West Virginia that the drill accurately represented “the reality of the world we live in,” adding that such training “helps us all be prepared.” 
The ONG 52nd Civil Support Team training scenario involved a plot from local school district employees to use biological weapons in order to advance their beliefs about “protecting Gun Rights and Second Amendment rights.”
Well, cool! What could be more fun than spending a weekend practicing the slaughter of your neighbors? Not surprised at this, considering everyone from Homeland Security to the clown show at the Southern Poverty Law Center and the usual suspects have been working very hard to portray us as the enemy, while portraying the enemy, that would be the Islamic fascists who want the utter destruction of lifestyle and all the world's people under the heavy yoke of Sharia, as an aggrieved minority set upon by wave after wave of neocon Bull Conners and the snapping police dogs of the Tea Party.

Think about how ludicrous this statement is..."a plot from local school district employees to use biological weapons in order to advance their beliefs about “protecting Gun Rights and Second Amendment rights.”

I thought it might be helpful if I, as one simulation-writer to another, gave Portsmouth Chief of Police Bill Raisin a little supporting documentation. There is a lot of documentation for what Homeland and its willing dupes — sorry, Chief! — are trying to do. You can find lots of it here, or here. The key point is the creation of "the other," that is, encouraging the larger body of people to see the targeted group of people as "the other," so outside the boundaries of modern behavior, of modern culture, that they are undeserving of the protections of law or even civility afforded to citizens...so here, Chief Bill...news you can use!
"The Jews forced us into a struggle for life and death. The war has forced us to give up much we formerly thought was necessary. It has also forced us to give up the “politeness” that in reality is a weakness. A boxer in the ring must use his fists to defend himself against his opponent. A fencer can only win when he uses his sword. We as a people will survive this war only if we eliminate weakness and “politeness” and respond to the Jews with an equal hatred..."
— Ernst Hiemer, 1943

“Der heilige Haß,” Der Stürmer1943
Of course, you're going to need to change a little wording here and there, but that shouldn't be a problem for a smart guy like you! Contact the FBI and they'll give you the appropriate wording. Maybe if you were able to identify the new "enemies of the state" more easily...oh, and BTW, one more tidbit...

"Jews are prohibited from owning or bearing firearms and ammunition, as well as daggers or swords."
— Max Eichler

 Du bist sofort im Bilde (Erfurt: J. G. Cramer’s Verlag, 1939) pp. 139-142.
Probably should add "biological weapons" to that quote when you change it!


Sunday, February 09, 2014

Ugh...

...or maybe "ugggggh..." We're maybe 4 days into this bout of snow, but it's not so much the snow as the winds. The small accumulation gets whipped overnight into big drift. Spent yesterday cutting drifts...not so much like shoveling snow as quarrying out concrete blocks and tossing them into a pile to wait for June. I'll fire up the snow blower this afternoon and keep chipping away at it. Been a while since we had this hard a winter, so we're due. The new south-facing Secret Hidden Bunker, 3000 feet lower, will make life in high country winter a little easier.

The weather's supposed to break in a couple of days, and they can get back to construction.

Have just about finished putting together the SHOOTING GALLERY 2015 Season plan...looks pretty good. We have the first planning meeting for THE BEST DEFENSE in a couple of weeks. I'm a little worried about scripting GUN STORIES because my pretty extensive gun library is packed away...that'll probably the first thing that gets unpacked at the new house. Hopefully by getting an early enough start on the broadcast products I'll be able to carve out more time for DOWN RANGE Television. I know Marshal and I be filming with Daniel Defense in March. I plan to film the Non-Permissive Jurisdiction project for DRTV, too.

I'd like to do do an Internet piece on prepping for ICORE...I'm been going through my stuff and seeing what can be twisted or tortured into use. My plan is to use a GP-100 6-inch rather than the 5-inch Match Champion, specifically for the adjustable sights. I'm going to change out the rear sights for a set of Bowen Rough Country adjustables and a green fiber optic front. I'm also going with a set of Hogue "Lamo Camo" grips to replace the Hogue rubber grips on the GP-100 I have...I never warmed up to the soft rubber Monogrips, and I like the design of the Hogue wooden/laminate grips (although some very knowledgeable revolver people profoundly hate them).

The only time I've really liked rubber grips on serious boomers, where anything that takes some of the sting out of them is a good thing. I especially like the Hogue "Tamer" Monogrips for the Ruger Alaskan .454 and the S&W .500 Magnum.

Marshal and I going to be doing a long range battle rifle class soon...I'm planning on using the Ruger SR762 if I can get it 100% in time. I would love to film that for DRTV as well.

LOL! As you've probably figured out, Marshal and I have more ideas than there are hours in the day...did I mention maybe a live DOWN RANGE Radio podcast from the NRA Show? A snubby revolver course? A comprehensive look at the state of the .380? Long range bolt guns? Wringing out the .204 Ruger on an AR platform? A test of the new Tac-Sol .300 Black? Profiles on top gunsmiths? And the list goes on and on and on...

Friday, February 07, 2014

Something I Wasn't Going to Write About...

...I'm from the South...not the "New South," but the lost South of a different generation, maybe from a different universe. So yes, I can tell funny stories about moonshiners and haints and violence that by today's standards would be breathtaking...or terrifying. I once wrote a piece for Esquire, back before Esquire became a sad collection of poofs — remember, back in the day Esquire was the only mainstream media that did a fair and honest profile of Col. Jeff Cooper — on Charlie Daniels and the soul of the South.


I wrote that Charlie Daniels was, like me, a product of the Old South, and that time laid  very differently there. I told the story of when I was a kid, on a bet, I'd walked out on the girders of an old railroad bridge over the Mississippi River at flood in Memphis.While I was out there like an idiot balancing over the black water, I looked upriver and and there was fire lighting up the sky, and I could see people on a boat, silhouetted against the flames, jumping into the river. I swear I could hear the screams, then a huge explosion. I frantically got off the old bridge, raced to my grandparents and told them there was a fire on the river. My grandmother laughed. "Honey," she said, "it's just that old riverboat that burned up...everybody sees it. Ain't really there, so those people are already gone."

For the record, the steamship Sultana exploded and burned on the river outside of Memphis April 28, 1865, the greatest maritime disaster in American history. The print above is from Harper's Weekly. Everybody's seen it, doncha know. I could tell you more, but, heck you'd probably think I was crazier than you already think I am. Charlie Daniels and I sat in his wonderful house in Tennessee many many years ago and talked about stuff like that, and quarter horses, and Bob Dylan, and Charlie's collection of vintage Winchesters.

I bring this up because last night, my cat Pokke-san jumped on the bed. He's the loudest cat you can imagine...I woke up when he was running up the stairs. Then I felt him land on the bed. He walked up to my Sweetie's face, sniffing like he always does. Of course, she was deeply asleep and didn't wake up. Then he came over to me...I could feel his paws on my chest, as I have so many times before over the last 8 years. I could feel his soft fur on my face. Then he made a soft noise, somewhere between a purr and a growl, and it sounded so very very sad. I was awake, but I didn't open my eyes, because of course my cat, Pokke-san, is dead. I heard him jump off the bed and head down the stairs, so I clicked on a Streamlight and sat up. Alf the Wonder Beagle was at the foot of our bed, standing rigidly, her hackles up. Dogs know things.

I picked her up and put her on our bed. Then I sat on the side of the bed for a while and thought about the Sultana.


Thursday, February 06, 2014

Can You Spell "Cabin Fever?"

The high point of the day was making guacamole (Alton Brown's recipe) after ordering a .204 Ruger AR upper from JP Rifles. That's what happens with cabin fever...a little voice in your head says,"Go ahead...you can scrape up the bucks when it's ready..." I was blown away with the .204, a 4000fps 36-grain rocket that shoots like a laser beam. I have plans for the final gun!

Today was a heat wave, the high was 20, count 'em, degrees! Alf was as frolicsome as a puppy since the ice wasn't freezing in her paw pads. I even slept late, which is rare. I'm trying to spend 30 minutes a day dry-firing the Ruger revolver, and I think I'm finally settling into it. Hopefully the Blade-Tech holster will be here soon so I can start draws.

Here's a piece you need to read and distribute...a former MAIG mayor says he left the organization when he realized Bloomberg's ONLY objective was total civilian disarmament:
A former member of Michael Bloomberg’s gun control groupclaimed this week that the group’s objectives are far more radical than it has let on. 
John Tkazyik, the mayor of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said he quit the former New York City mayor’s group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, after he realized its objective was outright confiscation of firearms from law-abiding citizens.
Read the whole thing and pass it on. And remember, I told you so. There is no "conversation," there is no "reasonable," there is no "common sense," there is no "third way." There is only door-to-door confiscation by whatever reiteration of the Gestapo our little progressive friends can dream up...I'll bet they will have the cutest silver scull morale patches!

To back that up, here's a good piece from William Levinson at AMERICAN THINKER (where the above poster came from), "Gun Control: A War, Not a Conversation:"
(3) Incrementalism is War 
When Adolf Hitler says, "Today Germany, tomorrow the world," nobody should delude himself into believing that appeasement will make his statement mean something else. When militant Arabs publish Israel-free maps of the Middle East, and run children's shows that call for the extermination of Jews followed by Islamic domination of the world, a responsible person takes them at their word and treats them accordingly: like rabid animals, as opposed to negotiating partners with whom it is possible to have any kind of win-win conversation. 
When Senator Dianne Feinstein says, "If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them . . . Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in, I would have done it," it is similarly best to take her at her word. The same goes for Jan Schakowsky's (D-IL, wife of convicted felon Robert Creamer) statement that Congress can indeed get around to banning handguns. Andrew Cuomo has added that confiscation of firearms is an option, while Handgun Control Inc. said openly that the Brady Bill is merely the nose of the camel under the tent.
Good reading and good reminders. I have been taken to task for saying we are involved in a "war." This is the battle of our lifetimes.

And BTW, if you could spare a minute cross your fingers for my friend Lanny Barnes and all the members of U. S. Biathlon in Russia at the Winter Games.

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

"Buffalos Died in the Frozen Fields, You Know..."

...well, not really...only a song lyric...but it was 12 degrees below zero when I got up this AM...I can't say that the Wonder Beagle was thrilled about going out...when she came back in she immediately jumped on the bed and burrowed under the covers. I don't blame her.

(From the great Rotten eCards, of course)

And speaking of gangstas, from the Boston Globe, a report on the MA "study panel" on gun laws, recommending changes in MA's already draconian laws:
The panel members said they also learned that current law gives too much discretion to police chiefs to deny gun licenses to “unsuitable persons,” so they recommended that the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association help develop a tighter definition for that term. 
For the most part, police chiefs invoke the “unsuitable persons’’ language to deny licenses for handguns. The panel recommended that police chiefs be allowed to apply that standard to buyers of rifles and shotguns, who are exempt. 
That change would allow police chiefs to prohibit people who have been arrested, but not convicted, of a crime from buying a rifle.
Lemme get this straight...let's give law enforcement the power to strip a person of one of their Constitutionally protected rights...just because? Scratch a progressive's skin and beneath you always find the armorplate of a fascist. I know it has become unfashionable to say such things, but it is the truth our enemies believe that we will all be safer, more secure, if we empower our overlords to simply take matters into their own hands, irrespective of laws or those pesky Constitutional protections.

I have had (mainstream) conservatives explain to me why NYC's "stop and frisk" laws were such a good thing because they reduced crime. Ends, meet Means. My response was strictly Constitutional, what part of, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..." don't you understand? What part don't you agree with? When I first went to England one of the things I truly wants to see was a copy of the Magna Carta...buried within that landmark document from the 13th Century was the concept of due process, the seeds of America and the freedom we've enjoyed.

But the liberal/progressive elite are uncomfortable with due process, because it implies that all people, even them, are equal under the law. And how can people who are so much smarter, so much better educated, so much more understanding of the country and its needs, be equal to some redneck peckerwood gun clinger or a black kid struggling to get by the in wrong neighborhood in New York? So much better if if those oh-so-smart people in power protect those less fortunate in income, parentage, job choice, neighborhood, skin color, religion choice. The authorities are there to protect and serve, after all. What could possibly be wrong with that?

There's a quote from G. K. Chesterton that applies here, I think:
“The wisest thing in the world is to cry out before you are hurt. It is no good to cry out after you are hurt; especially after you are mortally hurt. People talk about the impatience of the populace; but sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late. It is often essential to resist a tyranny before it exists.”
I once interviewed a young Muslim woman who had been caught up in the Balkan "ethnic cleansing"...she survived and ultimately thrived, but her story was a horrific one of physical torture, multiple rape, disappearance or death or friends and family members, the usual genocidal package. What struck me in that interview was even after the years had passed, she remained puzzled at the genesis of her experience. It seemed so strange to her that the men who connected the battery cables to her genitals after repeatedly raping her were the same men for whom's families she had babysat, at whom's table she had dined numerous times, men who's children she played with and whom she considered her friends. Her life seemed perfectly normal...until it didn't.

How slippery is the slope? While we all may laugh at college students signing a petition to put gun owners in concentration camps, it's an uncomfortable laugh, with maybe a glance over the shoulder.

Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Tequila Tuesday!

My favorite 30-30 Reposado, Patron Orange Liquer and lemon juice...along with chili-rubbed halibut and my Sweetie's trademark Spanish rice.

Today was a push push push...lot of stuff had to get done by end of business day, and, miraculously, I just slid under the wire. I am looking forward to a long-range rifle class with the Ruger SR762 end of March, and the Crimson Trace/GUNSITE 250 pistol class in May. I'm thinking of using the Ruger Match Champion revolver in the GUNSITE class...I've never shot the 250 class with a revolver, and I think it might be instructive (as in how much I don't know).

I'm also thinking about going to the ICORE World Revolver Championships in June for SHOOTING GALLERY 2015. We haven't been to ICORE in a while, and it's time to go back, I think.What put me in the revolver mood was a phone call from my old running buddy Paul Erhardt, who outlined his plans for shooting ICORE and writing about it for the SHOOTING WIRE. Looked like it might be fun. Plus, I'm getting a lot of requests for information on revolvers for self-defense...interesting! Why should that be? Maybe because Gun Culture Ver. 2.0 has now had a couple of years shooting guns, and they've discovered that revolvers, with their one single manual of arms — pull the trigger — seem more and more attractive.

I think I have a semipermanent cold...my nose is never...let me repeat,never...going to stop running. I can't be allergic to something...it's, like, 7 degrees below zero. Nothing is alive out there. Just snow snow snow. And yet, I sneeze as if I'm in Kansas in the spring. Sucks massively. I've been reading a novel from Bernard Cornwall on 1356...it's grim and it keeps me awake at night. It also makes me think I'd like to write historical fiction when I finally run out of steam on television.

Which, I hope, isn't soon. Am working on the pilot of a new reality show, which I'll show you when I can. I think it's a hit, but, of course, I'm largely deluded. I still have an African hunt scheduled for June. Not that far away...not that far away...hang on...

Monday, February 03, 2014

Podcast Monday

And, amazingly, I got it done. Actually, I had too much material...I've been wanting to talk about revolvers, a lot about revolvers. I like revolvers, have always liked revolvers. My first handgun was a revolver, an S&W Regulation Police .38 S&W...I still have it, and that's a whole other story. It's also the first gun I ever pointed at a human being...and luckily, I never had to pull the trigger.


I've mostly been an S&W Guy but I have to say the Ruger Match Champion GP-100 may change my mind. That's about a gun and a half! I love the Hogue grips, and it's a pretty good trigger pull — needs lighter springs, but it's smooth with a crisp break.

Hopefully the temperature will creep over 20 degrees and I can get this gun to the range this week. I've got a case of ARMSCOR .38 Special FMJs tat just cry out to be shot. My cherubs and seraphim tell me this is not the last, nor the only, Ruger competition revolver...I think that's great, and I look forward to the next one.


Sunday, February 02, 2014

Bruno Mars @ Superbowl

Prince Lite.

The Rest is Rock and Roll History...

I note the passing of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who once played my friend Lester Bangs in the movie Almost Famous, apparently of drugs. Lester, of course, died of an accidental overdose in 1982. So I've read other music journalists who say they became music journalists because of the advice from Lester Bangs as delivered by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Yeah, I guess.

I've seen the needle
And the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie's
Like a settin' sun.
— Neil Young

Tactical Groundhog Day


“This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.”
— "Phil Conners"
Groundhog Day
Punxsutawney Phil does a quick sneaky peak outside his secret hidden bunker. It's happening again...the "zombies" have the bunker surrounded! This year, though, it's going to be different. Phil slings the half-size Honey Badger in 5.7 X 28 and tucks 4 more 50-round mags in his custom Tactical Tailor plate carrier/tactical vest. He remembers how hard it was to get a groundhog-sized ceramic plate.  He straps on the groundhog-sized Glock 42, 2 Spyderco Delicas, a bandoleer of mini-flash bangs. Six more weeks of winter his fuzzy brown whistle-pig tail! Today will be a reckoning...
I think I'm going back to bed now. That means there will be 6 more weeks of brutal cold, blizzards, asteroid strikes, tsunamis, angry arguments with total strangers at the Safeway, and Vanilla Ice on television.

Saturday, February 01, 2014

Low Key Saturday!

First, I eeeeeeeeked out a 4th overall in last weekend's cowboy match, although the guy in 3rd place shot a Thompson semiauto as the rifle and a 1911 as the pistol (obviously, a different class!). Very pleased. My Sweetie came in 6th overall, so very proud of her as well! Especially after our several months' layoff. If we can just do as well in a 3-Gun match as soon as the Great Thaw hits.

New Secret Hidden Bunker is now officially On Hiatus...too much snow; too cold...sigh. The joys of building in winter in the High Country. Since we didn't have anything housewise to worry about today, we took Alf the Wonder Beagle on a long snowshoe hike...we wore the snowshoes; Alf got by on her 4-Paw-Drive. I did make a minor change in ammo on the Designated Dog-Walking Gun, the Taurus Judge PD. There's a mountain lion in the neighborhood...it has killed and eaten 2 dogs in the last week. So I went to a progressive loading of 3 Federal #000 buckshot rounds backed up by an "anchor" of 2 Winchester .45 Colt Silvertips, 225-gr screamers I'm very comfortable with.

Interestingly enough, we didn't hike quite as far as we'd intended, since the Wonder Beagle got spooked. One atom of cat scent in the air sends her headed for home! We still got in an good workout. Darn cold, though.

Good piece by John Lott in NRO Online, The Cruelty of Gun-Free Zones:
Yet the media do understand the dangers of gun-free zones — at least when it comes to their own safety. Shortly after the Journal News of Westchester County, N.Y., got national attention in December 2012 for publishing the names and addresses of local gun owners, documentarian and activist James O’Keefe secretly filmed editors of the paper deciding not to put signs in front of their homes saying that their houses were “gun free.” One of the editors, after saying he hated guns, worried out loud that such a sign would make his home a target of criminals.
I've always thought the media should be willing to put large yellow triangle sticker on the windows of their homes reading, "GUN FREE AND PROUD!" They never will, spineless hypocrites.

I have to confess I'm not going to the Great Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, or SCI for that matter. My travel schedule spins up in a week or so, and I wanted to enjoy the time I had at home. And shoveling the driveway...LOL! Been watching Klondike...reminded me that it's been a long time since I've pulled a sled up a mountain in Alaska. Was cold then, too...

The battle for repeal  of Colorado's Bloomberg lovefest laws begins Monday. I don't think we're going to get anywhere in this legislative session, but it's going to be a new world after this year's elections.

Also ordered holsters today for the Ruger GP100 Match Champion (a Blade-Tech OWB and Hoffner Mirage IWB) and a Blade-Tech OWB for the SP-101 snub.

Otherwise, I cooked up some jerk salmon tonight using some Savory Extra Hot Jerk Seasoning...good stuff! Rub a little olive oil on the salmon...salt...pepper...lots of jerk seasoning. Broil on high for 5 minutes; dribble a few more drops of olive oil on the salmon, seal in aluminum foil, bake at 425 degrees for 5 more minutes. Pretty good, and lots of heat! Served with Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale.

It might break 20 degrees tomorrow! Yippie!