Zootshooters!

This is sweet! I saw the link first at Tam's, and of course had to look it up. This is right up my...alley!




You can find their website here

Now I have an excuse for that Tommy I've been wanting. We can use the three 97's that Jose has started collecting and of course the wild bunch 1911's. I've even got a gangster hat from my roleplaying days. I am so there...I just need to convince somebody to bring out their full auto Tommy for me to play with!

That's a LOT of rounds

224,000 over 12 days to be specific.  James Yeager posted a report on a class he instructed in Tennessee recently on The Survival Podcast forum.  Most interesting is the reporting on the gear while 22 men crawled around in the mud and muck and the ways it failed (it all fails eventually).  AKs, ARs, Glocks, holsters, packs, you name it.  The moral, I believe, is that stuff is gonna fail if you expose it to extreme environments and you just have to cowboy up and deal with it the best you can.  Don't sit and pout because your AR has a round over the bolt, DO SOMETHING!

James gives a very nice description of issues that arose and relates that the most reliable arms under these specific conditions are the AK47 rifle and Glock handgun.  That really doesn't surprise me in the least, that's the rep that both arms have acquired over the years.  He does note, however, that even those vaunted bastions of reliability failed (seems mud in the chamber is bad).

H/T to Steve at The Firearm Blog

Does Not Compute

Michael Bane has the scoop on USFA's newest revolvers that are coming in 2009.  Needless to say, I just don't plain care for them.  They are ugly as it gets.  That said, to each their own, if you want a SA revolver painted in whatever tacticool color, good on ya.  I suppose if you wanted to Walk the Earth with a single action pistol that wouldn't rust at the first sign of dampness, you could get one of these (or you could just get stainless).  I wonder if they'll offer them in digital camo or zebra stripes?  How about a cow pattern to make them a true cowboy gun?

P.S. I wonder if these are SASS legal?  I don't think this has ever come up, maybe it never will, but I wonder if someone showed up at EoT with painted revolvers, would that be allowed?

Gun Buyback Fail

The Suffolk police had an anonymous buy-back program that quickly ran out of gift certificates to give away for the "illegal" guns people were handing over. Of course the police kept the guns anyway and then asked people for their IDs. That's all sorts of trustworthy right there.

The program gets a fail, the article on newsday is full of all sorts of win though, they included a very snarky poll asking what the suffolk police can pony up since they ran out of gift cards. My vote was for "Leave the gun, take the cannolis"

Money quote from the article:

"How is that anonymous?" she asked. "Anonymous is not 'Give us your name and number and in two weeks you'll get your gift card.' "

Walking the Earth

This post by Tam has been sitting on my mind lately. I know it was an off hand remark, and the statement can really mean whatever you want it to mean, but damn if it don't make ya think.

What gun combo would you take with you to walk the Earth?

Walk the Earth can mean whatever you want it to mean and if you feel like defending it go ahead. If not, just proclaim it to the world.

Me? I think it would be my 4" S&W Model 66 and my Remington 870 (with the extended mag tube, Surefire forend, and Vang safety).

Zippo

When my wife's grandmother died last year we brought home lots of little things that had sentimental value. We have several cast iron skillet's, cookbooks with handwriting in the margines, pictures and letters. A month or so ago she brought me a Zippo that had been her great grandfathers that she had found in a box of pictures. The hinge was broken and the internal parts were rotten and gummed up, but otherwise it was not in bad condition.

I did some research and found that the lighter did not have the date or serial number stamped on the bottom, but it did have the serial script of "Zippo" stamped on the bottom. So the lighter is circa late 40's early 50's. I also found with it an envelope where it had been sent for repair to the Zippo factory in 78.

So of course I sent it back to the Zippo factory for a free repair. The lighter came back yesterday in perfect working condition. I now have at least a 50 year old lighter to go with my B-Western gear. So the next time you see me at a CAS match just ask to see the lighter, after all it was made to be used.

Oh, by the way the Zippo company stands by their product forever and will make repairs for free with a fast turn around. That's a quality American company that is hard to find nowadays!

Hopalong

For my birthday I received the Hopalong Cassidy Collector's Edition. It's a digitally remastered box set of 25 classic Hopalong Cassidy films with William Boyd. Now I am to young to have seen any of these on TV (Except for the Western Channel) but those of you who read this blog know I love movies, especially old classics and these are the best of the westerns.

I watched Border Patrol last weekend with my 4 year old daughter who loved it. It was a lot of fun to explain to her about the "good guys" and "bad guys" and she got a kick out of the character California.

Anyway, if you get a chance pick this up. it's well done, good transfer, and of course it stars Hoppy my favorite of the b-western cowboys!

Sukiyaki Western Django

Well the guns have been cleaned and stored away. As we sit and dream of shooting to return in the fall I thought you might want to have a little fun with the Western. Sukiyaki Western Django has received some good reviews and by the trailers it looks to be a lot of fun as long as you don't take this kinda thing to seriously.



Available on DVD and Blueray November 11th.

Wild Bunch Rig

Drool.

I plan on shooting in the Wild Bunch Category next year at Thunder Valley. I've created my own wild bunch rig, but I just recently came across this one by Mernickle Holsters.

It's priced at a hefty 299.95 but it's been designed from the ground up as a competitive rig for the SASS Wild Bunch Category by Bob Mernickle who knows a thing or two about what it takes to make a great holster.

This would also make a right pretty carry rig. Looks like I'll just have to keep right on drooling.

Well well, it seems the Gov from IL was arrested today on corruption charges, say it ain't so!  Seems he was trying to sell the vacant Senatorial seat vacated by Obama to the highest bidder.  Its a good thing Obama wouldn't have anything to do with this, right?  Maybe, maybe there is a connection?

Shades of The Chicago Way

Huzzah!

This is good news!

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Lyle Laverty today announced that the Department of the Interior has finalized updated regulations governing the possession of firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. The final rule, which updates existing regulations, would allow an individual to carry a concealed weapon in national parks and wildlife refuges if, and only if, the individual is authorized to carry a concealed weapon under state law in the state in which the national park or refuge is located. The update has been submitted to the Federal Register for publication and is available to the public on www.doi.gov.

AND

“The Department believes that in managing parks and refuges we should, as appropriate, make every effort to give the greatest respect to the democratic judgments of State legislatures with respect to concealed firearms,” said Laverty. “Federal agencies have a responsibility to recognize the expertise of the States in this area, and federal regulations should be developed and implemented in a manner that respects state prerogatives and authority.”

Someone at the Dep. of Interior is using common sense?  This confuses me, but I'm willing to roll with it.  Perhaps the common sense fairy could come to The Hill and bestow some sense before those idiots give away even more money we don't have to corporations and banks that don't deserve it.

Free Plaxico

This article in the WSJ from Dave Kopel certainly hits the nail for me.  I think Plaxico is an idiot for having a Glock shoved in the waistband of his sweatpants, but I don't think he should do significant jailtime for it.

Shooting yourself is stupid, really stupid.  So is sticking a glock in your pants without a holster.  Discharging a firearm in a public place is illegal and should be unless you are defending yourself or others.  Simply having a gun in your possession however, should not be illegal, nor should it carry a silly minimum sentence.

UPDATE: John R. Lott, Jr has a piece up at fox.com about disarming citizens, as they were in India, even if they are physically superior like NFL athletes.

When police can’t promise to protect law-abiding citizens such Plaxico Burress or the victims in India, why don’t we allow people the right to protect themselves? Unfortunately, bans do more to encourage crime than prevent it.

End of Year Shootouts

So we come to the close of another year and another shooting season.  This time of year is truly for the hardy foolish among us to venture forth into the frozen or nearly frozen ranges to grab our ice-cold revolvers, rifles and shotguns and try, try, try to make it to the end of the day without frostbite or embarrassing ourselves.  The end of the year means for me that I can shoot other categories as shooting whatever my main category happens to be doesn't have any benefits in regards to rewards or competition.  So I usually switch to something else, last month I shot traditional, this month I think it'll be Frontier Cartridge Duelist.

Black Powder categories never go well for me, but I've got the ammo loaded and I need an excuse to shoot my double and those brass shotshells are a callin'  Since I've acquired a couple of extra sets of revolvers over the past year or so, I don't have to cuss myself while cleaning my Rugers, I'll cuss myself over cleaning Colt clones...

In any case, this week's match should be fun as Rebel has set up the stages with "Old SASS" type scenarios, carrying bags of money, dynamite and the occasional dance, all on the clock and all in fun.  Once SASS got big, these types of things went away as competitors complained that these things took time and weren't "fun" for them.  I can understand this to a point, but occasionally, it is fun to do all the silly non-shooting stuff just because.  I look forward to Saturday, its going to be a long day as I need to fill in for the ailing Redneck Rebel (GET BETTER SOON BOB!), but that's a small price and keeps me appreciating all our leader does so darned well.

Here's to slow times, hootin', hollerin' and a day of fun, smoke and friends.

The wait is on!

Yes!

This has to be the first time in my life I'm excited about waiting in line. After a year Grant Cunningham has opened his wait list back up and I managed to score a spot. Now I just have to have patience unit he is ready for my S&W M13 3".

Don't worry I'll post pictures when it's done.

I think this would make a good movie

A10 vs The Taliban Bikers

For a very brief moment, I feel sorry for some Taliban bastard getting blown away by some hotshot A10 jockey, but then I realize the Taliban are major douche-bags and feel a sense of gratitude that some hotshot A10 pilot lit his ass up.

Does that make me a bad person?

Now you know why that sand in your mag was red Judge.

You don't say

Dave Hardy links to a pretty interesting piece on police tactics towards "active killers" and the changes or evolution thereof.  The study done by the Tactical Defense Institute of Adams County, Ohio concludes that the proper response by police should be a singe officer response, that is, the first officer on the seen aggressively goes after the killer.  The reasoning for this is that the time it took to assemble a SWAT team and later an ad-hoc tactical team from the first four or five uniforms on scene cost lives.

Here's the money quote from the study though.

The other statistic that emerged from a study of active killers is that they almost exclusively seek out "gun free" zones for their attacks.

Really?  You mean to tell me that a person who wants to kill a lot of people as quickly as possible will go to a convenient local where many people gather and cannot have firearms?  But they're gun free zones!  GUN FREE!  Many have started to refer to schools and malls as victim zones, you can't really argue with that, if a nutjob wants to get his 15 seconds of fame by blasting 40 some odd people into the afterlife before he lethally injects himself with lead, what the hell good is a law or even a sign for that matter?

Now as for the single officer tactic, I'm not so sure about that.  I would think it would be a matter of time before some idiot wants to kill a lot of cops and decides to head for the local mall to kill a few civies and wait for the cops to come one by one.  Maybe the first two officers would be a comprimise, or (GASP!) you could abolish "gun-free" zones and let responsible permit carries have a fighting chance and maybe save a lot of lives in the process?  Nah!  That'd never work because only government can save us.

Presents from the Taliban

Following the advice of Tam I started picking up some extra magazine for my "Peoples Sporting Rifle." I ordered a couple from Cheaper than Dirt and found them to be worn, but serviceable and relatively clean. Perfect for my wishes. I decided to order another one (can't have to many) and when this one came I must say it was...interesting. The insides were filled with red sand. There was to much for it to be just rust (unless the package originally had two mags in it) so I can only assume that the Taliban are trading in there old mags for new poly mags.

That's right, I believe I just received a Taliban trade-in. Momma always said you get what you pay for.

I can't believe I read that right.

"Why are white people buying assault weapons?" said Ben Agger, a sociology rofessor at the University of Texas at Arlington who wrote a book about the Virginia Tech slayings. "I almost hate to say it, but there is a deep-seated fear of the armed black man, because Obama now commands the military and other instruments of the justice system. They are afraid Obama will exact retribution for the very deep-seated legacy of slavery."

I had to read that twice, yes, he's saying if you are white and bought an EBR, it is racially motivated, that is, you are a racist. I'm nearly speechless that someone who's charged with educating others would be so completely and utterly ignorant. I've disliked (hated) sociology for a long time, its kind of like reading a 15yo newspaper of obvious insights most of the time. Other times sociology produces this sort of clag that nobody in their right mind should ever believe and yet, there it is in black and white. Oops, letting my racism show again.

PO'd

I'm pissed off. Over the last 3 months I have been scheduled to attend a Shotgun Instructors Course, a Pistol Operators Course, and a Patrol Rifle Instructors Course. They have all been canceled. At the last minute. Forcing me to change not only my work schedule, but my personal schedule as well.

I'm starting to develop a complex. The first time no reason was given (I know the class was full), the second time was for low attendance, and the most recent was due to "scheduling conflicts". This last class was also full and had been scheduled for 6 months. I figure the state employed instructors just decided it was going to be too cold next week and bailed. What a load of BS.

I teach classes also, all over the country, I have had classes with 60+ students and classes with 9. Oh well. You commit to something then you carry through with it. That's part of it. I can't help but have very poor feelings for the government agency that hosts and teaches two out of the three classes that were canceled a week in advance for unknown reasons that couldn't be all that great anyway.

Sherrif Defends CCW Holder Identities

An Oregon Sheriff is fighting a newspaper request for the names of CCW holders in Washington County on the grounds that Oregon law that states records are not public if they could reveal a person's security measures or weaknesses. Sheriff Rob Gordon believes that it is implied that the permits were obtained for security purposes (NO! REALLY?!) but the court is saying that permit holders have to state that they obtained it for security purposes before they can be considered non-public.

So Sheriff Gordon is contacting by mail all 10,000 or so permit holders to elicit whether they indeed obtained them for security reasons.

"Instead of going through the process of saying that it's implied, we're going though the process of getting the documentation that says that it is," said Sgt. Vance Stimler, public information officer at the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

I wish all Sheriffs would be this progressive in thought towards the CCW community, sadly, I think he's in the minority.

Well done Gordon!