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

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.

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

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...

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.

Old Family Friend

Like most gun owners right now, I'm getting bit by the cost of ammunition, sure I reload in most of the calibers I shoot, but the way things are with component availability, let alone cost, I've decided that I need to fall back on the old standby .22lr for plinking and some practice.

On Memorial Day weekend, I was digging in the safe and decided I should clean up my Dad's old .22 squirrel gun, so I pulled it from the dark recesses of the safe and headed to the garage.  My dad's old gun, a Marlin Model 99 .22lr semi-auto was (as I later found out), only made for 3 years, from 1959 to 1961 and was the predecessor to the ubiquitous Marlin Model 60, the main differences are that the Model 60s generally have provisions for mounting a scope and Marlin went from Walnut on the 99 to Birch on the 60.  I'm sure there are minor internal differences, but the actions are essentially the same. 

I always remembered Dad as being a fairly good shot, at least in my estimation, I remember he, my brother and I putting a dime on a post about 20-30 yards away and trying to pick it off between us.  I also remember being so entirely proud of myself for hitting it and spending a half hour looking for said dime, I carried it in my pocket for a year or more.  I suspected he was sand bagging, but I didn't care much, I still hit that dime!  I also recall Dad going out in the morning and coming back before noon with several squirrels for dinner that evening and how good a cook my mom was/is.  A lot of family history is stowed away in the lustrous walnut stock and when I look down the barrel at the the brass bead front sight, I can imagine Dad zeroing in on the next meal.

My Dad's Model 99 isn't worth a whole lot of money, it's got a lot of wear and has seen it's fair share of rust, but I'll fight you for it and It'll be a damned cold day in hell before I sell it.  This is an old family friend that's taught several men and a couple of women how to shoot, provided meals for a poor country family of seven kids and various other family members and until I dug it out that weekend, I didn't realize just how much it meant to me or my family.

Oh, did I mention you could hit a dime with it at 20 yards?  Yeah, that too.

Stage Strips?

Is this an alternative for cowboy shooters at the loading table?  Reloading strips have long been a part of CAS, providing a convenient way to keep track of the ammo you need for a stage without having to carry a box up to the line or back to your cart after you've loaded.  Tuff products have done what Bianchi won't, make speed strips Quick Strips for .41-.460 calibers.  Now if they made them in 10 or 5 round versions, I think they might get some traction in CAS, they aren't exactly period, but then a bright blue plastic box isn't either.

If these hold .45ACP, I might have to get some for WildBunch since I gave my leather strip to Judge (actually, he pilfered it) and .45ACP will fall out of the wooden ones I've made.

Hmm....

H/T to Les Jones

Oh happy day!

Today was the first time all year the weather was cooperative for a range trip.  Sunny and 73 degrees will do nicely.  I loaded up a few 1911s, a few hundred rounds of ammo and headed North. 

Today I had a new horse in the stable, this past week I picked up a Colt 1991A1 off of an individual in Indy and she's a beaut.  I've never been much for blued 1911s, but this one I fell head over heals for the moment I opened the blue Colt box.  I now had my real Wild Bunch pistol.  The 1991A1 is Colt's "el-cheapo" 1911 with none of the frills of the higher end guns, standard grip safety, thumb safety and spur hammer.  The ejection port isn't lowered or flared, the only thing that they put on it that would be considered an upgrade is a set of white dot sights.  This is quite possibly the only niggle I have with the gun, I'd prefer a set of hardball sights, but I ain't complaining.

The Colt shot and functioned flawlessly as it should.  I fed it 230g FMJ factory and some 185g LSWC that I had loaded.  It didn't care witch round was in the chamber, it just spat it out and grabbed the next round.  I also tried a variety of mags, from cheap-ass surplus mags to CMC Powermags to the original Colt mag, again, the Colt didn't give a rats ass.  In fact, all the 1911s I shot today went without a hiccup. 

The other guns I brought with me were my carry officer's model and a couple of Government RIA's.  I was asked by Judge to find out why his RIA shot about 4" high and 2" right at 10 yards.  So I brought mine along and swapped upper parts until I eliminated everything but the slide.  Looks like it needs to take a trip back to Armscor.  After diagnosing the culprit of the RIA's woes adn about two hours and 250rnds later, I called it all a success and headed home.

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!

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?

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.

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.

One Good FU Deserves Another

As we all know by now "The One" has ascended to the office of POTUS.  This doesn't bode particularly well for gun owners, or conservatives, or hell, anyone who wants to keep the money they earned or Civil Liberties!  I digress.  What to do about it?  Why go out and buy one of the most hated guns the idiot Left fears, an AR15 EBR (Evil Black Rifle).  I don't "need" one, but I've wanted one for a while and had made up my mind to get one this year "just in case".  Well I put it off for a while looking for a pre-built that I think I want at a decent price (I'm Cheap Frugal) as I don't really know enough about the EBR to know what I want so's I can build one.  This past weekend, I spied the ticket, the DPMS Sportical AR15 from Panther Arms, its a complete flat-top AR with no forward assist and not a sight to be found, a blank slate of an AR to be done with what I wished.  The best part?  $640, sweet!

Anyway, I had MCSports put it on hold for me as I wanted to deal a 1911 away I've been wanting to get rid of.  I took ownership of it today of all days, kind of appropriate no?  Perhaps I'll see if I can save some more before 1/21/09 to buy another (or just some lower recievers) on innaugaration day, just my way of flipping the bird to those that are ignorant and unfortunately in charge as of next year.

New Stuff

Sorry I've been away for awhile, but things have been very hectic with me this year. Cowboy Shooting started grand with my being appointed as Vice President of Thunder Valley. In VP Tradition I immediately missed a majority of the matches this year due to work and other commitments. I hope to change that next year and make every match! (I'll settle for most of them)

I found myself working or taking care of my daughter most shoot days and I have only managed to attend less then a handful of shoots for the entire year. I did however get elected as President of a national law enforcement organization and managed to help my department get it's own range after a 10 year fight.

The new range is fantastic. It is a state of the art 12 lane indoor range facility rated for small arms fire up to and including .308 rifle rounds. The backstop and targets were installed by Action Targets and they include 12 turners, 1 runner, and 1 retriever (the retriever comes right at you and/or runs away from you). This range took a lot of work but it's finally done and we are all very happy and excited about it.

Sure there are glitches and bugs with the new building. It's just like moving into a new house. Once in you find out all the stuff that was accidentally left out or forgot so we still have a ton of stuff to do. Along with the new range we finally got approval for our patrol rifles and I'll be attending a patrol rifle instructor course next month. My experience with a patrol rifle is very limited so I'm a little apprehensive about the instructor level course. All in all it's been a very exhausting year and I am looking forward to it winding down so I can start fresh again next year. Hopefully it won't take me as long to post as this time.

PS. It's almost Zombie time again so stock up on the esentials.

Aggrigate This

There's a new gun blog aggrigator at http://www.gunblogs.org/

So you can get your roundup of, well roundups. Whoa!

What Next?

If you're like me (and why wouldn't you be?), you're always wanting a new gun(s). What I want continually rotates as I see new toys and the latest greatest ubergun. I, thankfully, don't get too caught up with fads or hype on new guns, the latest Blast-o-matic 2000 doesn't hold much interest usually. No I get an itch that needs scratched usually because I have a need for a particular task or I get curious about a gun and wonder if it is better or why a lot of others think its so great.

Curiosity has lately led me to crave a Ruger double-action revolver. You see, I love my Ruger single-actions and to date I've only craved S&W doubles, but the lure of a SP101 or GP100 is that I'd like to compare them with the S&W line and have first-hand knowledge of them rather than simply snub them on faith. I'm sure they are serviceable firearms and sure, they're ugly as dammit, but are they capable of performing as well as a S&W? Does the trigger smooth out as well? How's that sight picture? Do they carry well?

So I put them on the list of guns I desire, not at the top mind you, but if a deal is found, I may just part with my hard earned dollars.

FWIW, here's my list as of this morning, in no particular order (yes, it changes that much):

Ruger double-action (.357)
AR-15 (a receiver will do)
Old model Ruger Vaquero (.357; 4 5/8 barrel; stainless; X2)
Old model Bisely Vaquero (anything but .44; X2)
Remington 1100 tatical (or some adequate house 12 guage)
1911 in Commander configuration

New Blog/Shooter

A new blogger/shooter, Pretty Pistolera has posted video of herself in practice for IDPA. Including advice she's received from her fellow shooters. I'm no range instructor, but I'd add that she should practice jam clearing the proper way every time, tap-rack-bang and not just pull the slide back because you know its a dummy round, it won't ever by that easy in competition or a gunfight.

I'm sure Judge will have much more advice, it'll even be useful.

BTW, keep sticking that butt out, that's fine form right there.

Pretty Pistolera shown here practicing for IDPA

PS Welcome to the blogger/shooter world. If only more wives were interested in shooting...

4th Of July

Happy b-day America, or what's left of it. I spent most of the day reloading ammo and I got a lot of it done, I would have done more if MCSports weren't closed and I coulda got more Clays. Reloading seemed fitting on the 4th for some reason.

A huge pizza for dinner at Mother Bears and a cigar (Carlos Torano 1916) with my pard Judge topped off a pretty good day.

Done Blowed Up

Last week faithful readers will know that I was sequestered a la Dick Cheney in an undisclosed (Las Vegas) location. I missed PVR's anniversary shoot, but managed to make it to the TVR shoot last Saturday that was a much needed diversion from visiting vendors and learning more about the stuff I need to know for work. It is so darned nice not to have a working phone, e-mail or salemen in your face.

The stages were for the most part, lightning fast and Clyde demonstrated that by setting a TVR record of 98 seconds and change for a match. That's a little over 16 seconds per stage! He shot clean and fast and probably wishes he'd done that at EOT.

Myself, I shot well with two misses and Copper and I were pretty much neck and neck the whole day, but I know with the two misses and him being clean, he had me. That was until the last stage of the day when he "Done Blowed Up" and managed to pull out three misses on the biggest targets we'd seen that day. I didn't watch it, but it must have been something to see.

Even shooting well, I didn't make the top ten (11th), you see, there have been some mighty fine shootists that have made a lot of hay at TVR and it certainly makes you work hard for everything you get there. Case in point, I finished second in Gunfighter behind the speed Zwing Hunt and ahead of a usually faster Manatee. I don't usually best Manatee, so I'm happy with that and Zwing is currently in another zip code than I am speed wise, so it would be unrealistic to expect to best him.

TVR's own Dick Cheney (Judge) wasn't able to attend his first shoot as VP as there was a death in the family. It certainly makes you appreciate every chance you get to have the kind of fun we have at the range and I'm hopeful that Judge can make the July shoot to be properly instated as our VP.

Thanks

I spent this week at the Academy teaching cadets how to shoot. I've done this before, and every year I do it I find new and interesting things. Well, mostly interesting, often frustrating, and sometimes down right discouraging. This year really seemed to try the patience of all of the instructors. I could spend pages and pages going over all of the lapses of concentration, stupidity, safety violations and inattention, but that's not what this post is about.

In the end we managed to qualify 22 out of the 24 students and by Friday their skills had really improved. We all got a lot of thanks from the cadets and it got me thinking about who taught me how to shoot.

I started shooting when I was about 9 or 10. My dad took me out and I started to shoot pistols with him. I went to the police academy and learned more, but none of those people really taught me how to shoot. Sure they showed my the basics, and gave me a few pointers. I went on to read books, watch videos, and even take classes from a variety of instructors, but I never "really" learned how to shoot until I went to Firearms Instructors School. I had the great fortune of being in a lane all by myself on the end of the line with my instructor Jim Baugh.

In 5 days I learned more about shooting then I had in 30 years. He changed my grip, my stance, and they way I looked at the target. In the end I walked away with about 50 years of shooting experience, and to this day most of what I teach the new kids is exactly what Jim taught me. Unfortunately, Jim died in the line of duty of couple of years ago. So I started this post to say thanks Jim for everything you taught me and I hope it makes you smile to realize that I'm taking all that knowledge you passed on to me and sending it down the line.

For the few of you that happen to read this blog take a minute to say thanks of your own to the person who taught you how to shoot, and when you get a chance, pass it on.