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.