Darn Tooten Skippy

From Mike Bane.  Seems Remington is entering the handgun market again.  They're apparently going to take a huge risk on an untried platform.  Oh wait, no, no they aren't, they're gonna make a 1911.  Now some are speculating that they might do something crazy like a polymer 1911 or some other Glock boy non-sense.  Some say they're trying for a .gov contract for a new .45ACP pistol.  I figure they're just wanting to get some of that sweet sweet gun money that's kept this economy from ending up like a WWII Japanese super sub.

Cowboy Action?

Somehow, I look at this picture and think Cowboy Action...

Second Amendment Weekend

Seriously!?  Holy crap!  No word on how effective last year's weekend of awesome was, but I'd guess it was damned successful.

Indiana, you have to get on the ball and do this NOW!  South Carolina legislators, my hat's off to you.

via Alphecca

Stop In Any Language

Seems an Local resident used the universal language for "stop what you're doing right now" when he found a 22 year old male skulking about his domicile.  I'm not sure whether the homeowner was trying to shoot the intruder or warn him when he put a .357 Magnum round through a door, but I'd bet that besides a screwdriver, pocket knife and flashlight that the cops found the scat to Fruit of the Loom ratio was greater than 1:1.

Comin' At Cha 09

We're back after visiting our pards in Texas for the Southwest Regional.  This match was highly anticipated with good reviews from years past and good word from the US Open which is run by the same folks.  I truly expected the best large match experience I've ever had and I may have just had it.  Maybe.  The folks that run the match bill it as a party with a shoot attached and that's exactly what it is.  There's plenty to do and everyone is your best friend, they are without a doubt, some of the kindest folks I've ever met and I had a wonderful time at Badlands Bar3 ranch with its beautiful setting.  I've never felt more welcome anywhere.

The weekend started for us on Wednesday last week as we stopped by Memphis, TN to, well eat Bar-B-Que and visit Beale Street for music and spirits.  We hit Corky's early for excellent Bar-B-Que and with our stomachs full, we headed downtown to a hotel.  BB King's bar is where we spent almost all of our time on Beale listening to the house band and sampling a few more food items and drinking excellent beer while enjoying a good blues band.

Thursday was Graceland and touring "The King's" mansion certainly put a legendary American figure into perspective for me.  I was pretty young when he passed and never really delved into his music and life, but this is a truly American experience that allowed me to see why people thought of him the way they do.  The hall of trophies is incredible and while this house is considered a mansion, by today's standards, it is merely upscale.

After Graceland, we left Tennessee behind and made our way to Texas, set up in the hotel and then wondered why the heck I picked New Boston to stay in.  There's really nothing there, the hotel was great, but there's nothing to do.  Long story short, we were in a dry county!!!  I mean really, who'd have guessed that the shoot was in a dry county?  We prevailed however, and managed to find a package store at the crux of two dry counties on Friday.  We also ventured into Texarkana for some of the best steak you'll ever eat at the Cattleman Steakhouse.  This isn't the Cattlemen chain, but a family owned steakhouse that treated us like kings and stuffed us with shrimp cocktail, calimari, clam chowder and a big, tasty ribeye steak, YUM!

Thursday was the Wild Bunch Match, I didn't shoot it particularly well, but I managed to barely make the top 10 of 37, so I guess that ain't all bad.  The WB match was free and started at 3pm on sidematch day, bad thing is that due to some hickups at the start, we finished in twilight conditions, but we finished and had a good time.  Nothing like knocking the rust off before the main event.

Friday we shot stages 1-5 on the early shift, I shot pretty well for me with one miss on the day.  The stages looked fast and initially we thought these were all going to be burners, but they were really well written with choices to make and things that made you slow down a bit.  They weren't dumbed down stages that let you rip away, you had to think and choose the best way for you.  I find it highly pleasing that Judge and I shot stages differently and when reviewing why we made the choices, figure we both got it right.  That's a good stage when there really isn't a single best way to shoot it no matter your category.

Saturday was stages 6-10 on the afternoon shift.  I had one miss on this day, but I was slower, so not as good a day on Saturday.  I'm still pleased overall and the stages weren't the issue, they were all pretty well written (except for one) and I don't think anyone can complain.  Well, maybe the chickens, everyone hated them.

Comin' At Cha 09 stage 8

Sunday, Judge and I headed out for home early.  We didn't stay for the awards, I kind of regret that, but he had to work on Monday and with nothing to really do other than watch an awards ceremony, we figure it was best to head out for Indiana since it was 12 hours away.

Knowing is...

This is inspired and needs to be a patch, hat and T-Shirt already.  I've seen this around for a little less than a year, but for any GI Joe fans who sat through those craptatious PSA announcements, this is pure win.

Trade Day Time

This weekend will be the 3rd Annual PVR Trade Days.  As the ad says:

3rd Annual PVR Trade Days
October 10th and 11th, 2009
Buy, Sell, Trade. Bring anything related to the Old West and
Cowboy Action Shooting. You are welcome to bring your own
table/display or just use what’s available at the range.

Cowboy Guns
Wild Bunch Firearms
Pocket Pistols and Derringers
Leather of all kinds
Holsters, Belts, Badge Holders
Loading Strips, etc.
Old West Clothing for
Cowboys, Cowgirls and Genteel Ladies
Spurs and Accoutrements
Ammo
Reloading Components
Reloading Tools
Gun Care and Cleaning Supplies
Art

Please price the items you want to sell.

1 of 13

Is it just me?  or does this woman look totally bad-ass?  She's one of the 13 newest female Afghan National Police officers.  I bet Judge & Copper wish they could wear hoods and dark glasses while at work. Anyway, I just hope we (USA) don't totally screw the pooch in Afghanistan, if we do, this woman's life and many other are forfeit.

Tip of the hat to Gunpundit.

It's a trick, get an axe

Boingboing has the story of an Indian family that took a stand against thug militants, took their guns away, killed one and injured two more.  The reason?  One of the thugs wanted to marry Rukhsana Kausar without her consent and when they attacked her family, she pounced on one of the thugs and she and her family fought them off.

I'd like to think that this sort of thing (fighting against thug militants) wasn't such a rarity, but it is.  Cudos to Miss Kausar and her family, nobody deserves to be subjected to thuggery and oppression and if the rest of the world had her tenacity and self-respect, we'd all be better off.  I'd just prefer the family started on a more even ground, but unfortunately, the Indian government wants law abiding citizens to be victims.

Bleg

Folks, to anyone who actually gets to this page, if you can spare the bucks, please help out my niece who's participating in IU's Dance Marathon to benefit Riley Children's Miracle Network.

Thanks a bunch, this is a good charity and I'm proud of my niece.

The inevitable AR followup

Michael Bane has the scoop on Ruger's new rifle following their AR introduction earlier this year.  The SR22 is a 10/22 wrapped in AR trappings.  You can throw AR15 accessories at it to customize it as you wish and yet shoot the economical .22lr cartridge all day to get your trigger time.  The rifle looks good and with the proven 10/22 action and barrel, I'm sure it shoots as good as advertised.  The premise Ruger (and Michael) want us to believe is that we can use this rifle as a surrogate to an AR15.

I'm afraid it isn't that easy.  You see, while this rifle looks similar to an AR15, it simply isn't, the safety selector isn't in the same place, the mags aren't the same, the trigger isn't the same and the bolt most certainly isn't the same.  So what? you may ask.  Well, if you're wanting to get practice with a firearm, you should practice with THAT firearm, not something similar.  I'm sorry, but there are good, cheap conversion kits for AR15s and S&W did it right by making an AR15 in .22lr.  So if you want to shoot a 10/22 that looks like an AR, go forth and purchase this gun, if you want true practice with an AR cheaply, buy an AR and convert it to .22lr.

Dreaming of Texas

Work has settled down a bunch for me after last week and after a full summer of all work and no play, I've been itching for the play part.  Judge, Copper and I will be heading down to Texas in November for the SASS Southwest Regional also known as Comin' At'cha!  Many folks say this is THE regional to go to and being as how I'm always busy and it's hotter than hell in August, Guns of August (Midwest Regional) is out for me.  So, Judge and I were looking for something this time of the year and we figure Texas won't be THAT hot in November and a change of scenery is always nice.  Now if we could find something else to do before the shoot in NE Texas, we could make a true vacation of it.

For now, I've found this video to whet your CAS appetite.

"Comin' At'Cha" SASS SW Regional at the Badlands Bar3

Yep, That's Fast

Caleb points out a video of quite possibly the fastest mover you'll see.  It certainly illustrates very well the time that you have (or rather don't have) when someone charges you.  Could you get three shots on this target?

MVSA IDPA Match - MGM's new charging target - FAST AS HELL

1 down, 99 to go

'nough said

Generations

Last week my father gave me a gun. While that in and of itself if pretty great, it's not the gun itself that is really special, but the guns history. It took a little research, but I managed to figure out a little about the gun.

It is a version of the Pistolet Automatique de 7 millimètre 65 genre "Ruby", however, this one is made by Santiago Salaberrin and it is a .25 auto with the trade name "ETNA" stamped on the gun. There are a number of variations on this weapon, but this one is definitely a pocket pistol designed as a little holdout piece.

So the guns is not really all that special with over 30 factories making versions and copies I would bet these things are lying in boxes and in the tops of closets all over the world. So what's so cool about a 70+ year old gun? My great grandfather was a drummer in a band. He traveled the river boats up and down the Mississippi playing drums and generally doing what a musician would do in the roaring 20's. In his vest pocket for all of those trips was the little "ETNA"

So now I think I'll make sure it's in good working order and carry it with me to work. I can't think of a better legacy or connection to the past.

That was close

So I picked up a Kel-Tec PF9 the other day and took it to the range on Sunday to try it out.  A couple of boxes of Blazer Brass 115g FMJ went smooth as silk and the little gun, while snappy, is controllable and accurate enough.  I then shot a box of Golden Saber 124 +P JHP through it and again, no problem, so I moved on to reloads.  This was also going smoothly until the little gun stopped barking, I did a QA on her and the slide won't budge, rot roh. 

At the range, I couldn't get any movement on the problem, so I packed it up and went home for more serious investigation.  After complete dissasembly, it turns out the bullet in that round set back severely (about .25", looks like a .380ACP now) and bulged the case, locking it in the chamber tighter than bike pants on Rosie O'Donnel, lets just say it was tight.  Thing is though, the gun was just out of battery and my trigger pull resulted in the firing pin striking on the very edge of the primer, another tenth or so and I would have probably been digging Kel-tec out of my hide at best.  Who knows what the worst would have been, I'm just glad I didn't find out.  You wonder sometimes what the difference between a ho-hum range report is and another internet posting of a blowed up pistol, I find it is .10".

Then again, maybe it was God's way of saying I should have been in church on Sunday morning...

Bed Bunker

I want.


The greatest combination since that dude with chocolate ran into that other dude with peanut butter.  Its a gun safe under, no AS a bed. WIN!

Rest well at night with up to 35 rifles and 70 handguns under your bum.

Take Me Down

This is very interesting, as most everyone knows, Winchester ceased production of their lever guns a few years back, they are now doing a very limited run of their iconic 1892 levergun in a take-down version.  Steve at the Firearm Blog has the details, essentially, they'll make 500 20" and 250 24" guns.  I'd have to agree with Steve that they'd really have a hit if they released it in 30-30 and I'd go one further and say it should be in either 18" or 16".  Talk about a near perfect truck/guide gun.
 

X Planes

One of my loves in life are aircraft, mostly military, but aircraft in general.  I get this from my dad who loved the aircraft he grew up with as a kid and couldn't read enough books on the subject of his heroes, men like Robin Olds, Dick Bong, Eddie Rickenbacker, Robert A. Hoover and of course Chuck Yeager.  As I was growing up in the 70's, I developed my own love of the aircraft if not the men who flew them.  The 70's was just after a great period of Supersonic development and the tactics and strategy of air defense underwent a wild developement where the powers felt that it needed to be really freakin' fast and haul missiles.  I identify with the "Century" jets more than any other out there, from the F-100 Super Saber to the truly knarly looking YF-107.  The other planes that were big news in those days were the "X Planes", the experimental aircraft that pushed the limits of what aeronotical engineers could do.  From Yeager's X-1 to the semi-spacey X-15 to the superfast X-51 Scramjet.  Why am I telling you this on a cowboy shooting blog?  Well I had to point as many people as I can to my new favorite blog, X Planes and I figured I should explain why I think it's so darned cool.

Flag This

Michael Bane seems to have the knack for flustering S&W's lock system on big-bore lightweight revolvers.  He's had another instance with yet a different gun, folks have asked me why I won't buy one with a lock on it, this is why.  I will not own a gun that I would intend to carry for self defense that has such a device on it, there are too many other good guns that won't do this and yes, it is the principle that S&W didn't have to ruin their revolvers.