Shot Show Sting

If your Shot Show checklist included "bribe an African Defense Minister", you might be in jail right now.

The FBI ran a sting to nab people trying to bribe officials to gain contracts.  One of the 22 arrested is was an executive for Smith & Wesson.  This is probably going to overshadow their release of the new .327mag J-Frame they brought to the show.

Flash, Boom, Bang

Michael Yon is pretty much the Ernie Pyle of our time.  He's been working and living among the soldiers on the front line of the War On Terror since 2003.  Funny thing is that he doesn't report via newspapers or TV, his presence is mostly online at www.michaelyon-online.com.  This week, he's reporting from Afghanistan on a counter-battery group and he's got some AWESOME night shots of cannon fire.  If you like big bore going boom and lighting things up click over to see and read.

M4A1?

Looks like the US Military will be upgrading the venerable M4 carbine with a heavier barrel and name it the M4A1.  Why?  Durability, the videos in this article depict a very extreme test of the carbine.  In one video, the lighter barrel turns red hot, droops and eventually explodes.  The second video, the carbine with a heavier barrel catches fire, but continues to operate until the gas tube ruptures.

This is really a ho-hum story, but the videos are pretty cool, so go watch them.

"Pound Sand Newspaper Lad"

OK, so I'm not so much with posting about what other bloggers say, but Tam must have the same steroid guy Mark McGuire has when she commented snarked about the Muncie Starpress.com editorial.  My favorite quote has to be

It's against the law for a child molester to own or carry guns. It's not against the law for a child molester to write newspaper editorials, however. Not that I'm implying anything, of course. But don't parents with small children have the right to know?

By the way, the editorial is about the new bill introduced in the Indiana State House Natural Resources Committee to protect the License To Carry A Handgun Database from public.  As it is now, $35 will buy you the names and addresses of all Indiana LTCH holders.  Those of us who have said license, tend to think this is a bad idea as the criminal element could put two and two together and = my home being broken into.

Also, if you're unaware, the local, ahem, newspaper has deemed it necessary for "public safety" to put this database on their website so that anyone can search it.  Albeit by street alone, no actual address is given, but they legally could if they wanted to.

Much to my delight, my local representative Peggy Welch has sponsored the aforementioned bill to close the Handgun License database and for that, she's earned another vote from me.  I had originally written both her and Vi Simpson on the matter to make my feelings known, at least one of them may have listened and that gives me the warm & fuzzies to be honest.  I like it when I can feel (even if it isn't true) that a government elected official is actually doing something that benefits me.  We hear all to often about the bad ones and there seems to be an over abundance of them right now, but there are a few that aren't.

If you live in Indiana, I urge you to contact your local congresswoman to encourage them to get this bill out of committee and pass it in due haste.  The following list is Natural Resources Committee and they'll decide if this bill gets put to vote in the full house, so if you've got a rep on this committee, obviously, we need your help.

Chairman, bob bischoff; h68@in.gov
Vice-chair, dave cheatham; h69@in.gov
Bill sponsor, peggy welch; h60@in.gov
Members:
nancy dembowski h17@in.gov
Dale grubb; h42@in.gov
Nancy michael; h44@in.gov
Phil pflum; h56@in.gov
Paul robertson; h70@in.gov
Bob cherry; h53@in.gov
Dick dodge; h51@in.gov
Tim brown; h41@in.gov
Sean eberhart; h57@in.gov
Dan leonard; h5@in.gov

Slim Is In

The newish trend in pistols seems to me to be that less is more.  Designers have figured out that pistol shooters, concealed carriers especially, don't like bulky pistols.  At least not pistols that are bulkier than need be.  The Glock SF, S&W M&P series, Ruger SR9 and now Sig is getting in on the size reduction of their pistols with the new P226 & P229 E2 pistols.  They've reduced the size of the backstrap and overall size of the grip, plus an improved texture.

This makes perfect sense to me, when I was tearing down a couple of P226s to refresh the springs for the owners, I marveled that there was so much wasted space in the frame and these pistols could have been a LOT smaller than they actually were.  Looks like Hans & Co. thought the same thing, eh?

The reduced grip will help those with smaller hands, but I think it'd guys with larger hands too, how?  Simply put, I've got ham-hands and the web between my thumb and forefinger is especially meaty.  So when I close my hand up, this area takes up a lot of space, I typically put the smallest backstrap on a pistol like the Walther P99 or S&W M&P to give that part of my hand a place to go.  That chunk they took out of the backstrap looks awfully inviting to me, this gun looks like it'd fit me like a glove.

Now I'm wondering if there'd be a way to retrofit an older P226 or P229 to this new grip?

I Pitty Tha Fool!

Yes indeed it is an A-Team movie!!!

I can't help but wonder how true to the original material they'll be?  Will there be stainless Mini 14s with folding stocks?  Bullet-proof tin in every garage?  Conveniently placed obstacles for the bad guy vehicles to flip over?

What I do know is that their will be explosions and bad acting and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Only A Mother Could Love It

Or Me.

As ugly as this new revolver from Chiappa Firearms is, I want one.  Not from any reasonable standpoint mind you, I don't know if it is built well, shoots well, is reliable or has the ergonomics of a piece of rubble, but something about the looks of this snubby really calls to me.  It's called the Rhino and you can see why, it has a profile that is reminiscent of the African beast with the horn on its nose (here the part of the horn is played by the front sight).

This latest addition to the .357 revolver family has a somewhat unique arrangement that allows the barrel to be lower to push the recoil impulse lower into the hand and the theory is that it'll have less felt recoil than a traditional revolver.  As always, when you get something, you have to give up something else.  I wonder what it is in this case?  Weight?  Reliability? Ergonomics?

Scraping The Bottom

I know that I'm swinging pretty low here, but I was setting up a new computer and the browser's default home page had a link with a picture of a guy shooting a gun with a caption "What's He Shooting?"  This drew my attention and stole a good 5 minutes of my life so I'm paying it forward to you dear reader.

Apparently, the gossip kiddies are up in, well arms, about some pictures of some douchebag from some horrible child exploitation reality TV show shooting a gun at his "estate".  Apparently reality TV d-bags aren't allowed to have guns wherever this picture of said d-bag was taken.  So everyone is weighing in with their opinion.  I'm sure the comment section is a freakish mix of reality TV fans and 2nd amendment types hashing out the intricacies of law and how it applies to TV d-bags with guns.

My opinion?  At least he has a decent grip and his stance isn't terrible.  Other than that, meh...  Who could possibly care?

You Can't Argue With That

I ran across this video that relates (briefly) the Swiss take on defense, as a country and individuals and one citizens take on why he personally is so adamant about self defense.  Turns out a trip to a halocaust museum sparked his determination not to be a victim and he, like I, believe that the way to not be a victim, is to be able to properly defend yourself.

The video also follows the shooter to the Tiro Federale in Campagna Switzerland's national shooting day where over 200,000 Swiss go to the range and shoot their service rifles with government provided ammo.  There are over 500,000 service rifles residing in Swiss homes with a national population of only 7,000,000 people.  The men who are compelled to mandatory service in the military get to keep their service rifle and MUST keep it in their home.

The crime rate in Switzerland is the lowest in the world, I wonder why?  Shouldn't there be blood flowing in the streets with 500,000 ACTUAL assault rifles in homes?

Watch the video for more.

Why Switzerland Has The Lowest Crime Rate In The World

No Trial, No Reports To File

Seattle Police officer Jim Pugel saved the Washington taxpayers a LOT of money.  Good riddance to this dirtbag.  Also, I hope that the friends and family who helped this sorry excuse for a human being find nothing but sorrow and ruin.

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.