Sunday, February 28, 2010

Last night. A good mix of two mocumentaries and Zombieland since my friend had yet to see it.

Started off with "Big Man Japan," which follow a guy who's the last in a line of men with the ability to become giant and fight off the giant monsters that seem to attack Japan on a weekly basis.



The problem is that it's a realistic portrayal of this type of thing, so most of Japan hates the guy. To get big requires a tremendous amount of electricity applied to the nipples, which pisses off the eco hippies, and the fights tend to destroy a quite a bit of infrastructure, pissing everyone else off. His wife has long since divorced him, and rocks are thrown through his windows with such regularity that he doesn't even flinch at them anymore. His grandpa, "The Fourth," is remembered as the last Big that People liked, but he's now senile and living in a retirement home, although he does manage to zap himself at one point and stumbles around Tokyo doing things only a 90 ft. tall senile old man would do, adding yet more humor to the film.

The movie is entirely in Japanese, so you do need to do some reading, but the translations are all pretty good. The last 15 minutes of the movie however break the entire premise of documentary and turn into a pure satire of Japanese Giant Monster movies, quite humorous in it's own right, and reminding us westerners that Japanese culture is weird to say the least.

I'm tempted to track down and buy a copy.

Following this was "Behind the Mask: the Rise of Leslie Vernon," another mocumentary, this time involving a group of graduate journalism students following Leslie Vernon, an up and coming serial killer in the lines of Jason, Freddie, and Michael Meyers. Vernon is played by Nathan Baesel, and his performance comes off as a muted Jim Carrie, which in this case is a good thing. Likable and a little off, and definitely dedicated to his work. Very much one of my favorite Kids in the Hall sketch as a full length film. The trailer doesn't quite do it justice, but here it is anyway.


Again, the last 15 minutes or so break out of the documentary premise, but in this case it's fitting. The grad students have come to realize that he is in fact going to kill the bunch of teenagers in the old farmhouse, and decide to through the monkey wrench into the plans. Of course this is Vernon's plan all along, and if you've watched any number of bad horror movies (easily my favorite genre) you see it coming from about halfway through the film, earlier if you read the back of the box.

Overall, the new-ish take on the genre, and the quality of the film overall, have definitely shoved this one into an all time favorite slot. If you like horror movies, give this one a swing. (Unless you're apposed to boobies. There is one showing, and the reasoning is quite hilarious, and face it, random boobies are a staple of slasher flicks.)

Of course that was all followed up with Zombieland, the odd man out in the unintentional mocumentary themed night. That one was recent and mainstream enough that I won't go much into it, other than it's a pretty good zombie movie, but they're mostly idiots for using primarily shotguns. Shotguns aren't really good for zombies.

Friday, February 26, 2010

CZ-82


I picked up a CZ-82 from AIM a while back, and was pleasantly surprised when it showed up. For being a "surplus" gun, the finish was immaculate, and the import stamp is easily the best I've ever seen on a surplus piece. It's tucked up under the frame on the bottom of the slide.



It also came with a spare mag and a pretty nice leather holster and magazine pouch, and unlike the normal issue holster that most of them shipped with, this one is quite a bit more usable.



Recoil is a bit sharp, even with the little 9x18Mak cartridge, but there's not much muzzle flip with the low bore and beaver tail. Speaking of bores, the CZ-82 features polygonal rifling, so it's a bit alarming looking through it if you're not expecting it. It'll eat FMJ all day long, and I picked up some 94gr. hollow points from Silver Bear a while ago and they went through without a hitch. The grip is a bit wide for the overall size, a trade off for having a double stack 12 round magazine. The CZ-82 wasone of the first service pistols around with a double stack magazine and the first to feature ambidextrous magazine release and safety levers.

Take down is quite simple, simply drop the mag, pull down on the trigger guard, and pull the slide back and up to unlock the slide and allow it to slide off the barrel, which is pinned to the frame. Operation is conventional blowback with the recoil spring surrounding the barrel, allowing for the low bore axis.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Department of Homeland Misplacement

We all know about DHS and their inability to keep track of their guns, apparently they can't keep track of computers either. Or a whole slew of things. Check out the forms in the link, night vision devices, gps units galore, and who knows how many "Personal Radiation Detectors" at around $1,200 a pop. We misplaced a night vision scope during an FTX once, and the entire company was on lock-down until it was located. The search function on the forms has 268 results for "night vision."

How are people not getting their collective asses severely chewed out for this?

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Small Victories

Spent most of the day at school (got there for a 9:30am class, got home right about 9pm... had an hour in there for lunch...) and came home to a package from Bravo Company with a couple Lancer translucent mags and more importantly, the "correct" handguards for my M16A2 clone. The muscle memory is still there after all these years (almost 5!) and they just feel right. The oval ones do fill up my hands nicely, and help avoid cant, but my issued gun had round ones, so damn it, I wanted round ones.

On a side note, my initial feelings towards the Lancer mags is kinda meh. The see throughness is neat, but the follower is about as anti-tilt as 1st Gen GI 30 rounders. I don't see it as being a problem for me, but still...

Another side note, Bravo Company's all of a three hour drive from here. It's pretty cool to get the shipping notice one day, and the item the next day, and only pay for the basic shipping.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Pic

of today.
More Signess.

Just spent 5 hours...

Filling in forms with the recruiter to get back in the Army. Only about 3 hours longer than expected. "Yeah, this is why most guys hate doing prior service guys." Also my ASVAB test is out of date, so I have to do that again. Joy.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

More Shotgun Mussings

Not really another rambling about the use of them, but I'm thinking about tracking down a relatively cheap semi auto 12 gauge for three gun and the like. The Mossberg 930spx has most, if not all, of the features I'm looking for, but the safety location bugs me. I have a 590A1, and with a pistol grip stock, the safety is dang near unusable. I'm thinking of perhaps a Remington 1100 with a 20"ish barrel and ghost ring sights, but I am a poor college student after all, so price is a bit of a factor. Any thoughts?

Coffee Houses and Being a Coffee Snob

So I went to Starbucks earlier to show my thanks, and to be reminded that their coffee is still (no offense) mediocre and overpriced. Bland with a noticeable aftertaste. And their internet is less than easily accessible. I guess you have to buy some card and start an account, something I don't want to do, especially since I don't go there often. (This is only the third time I can think of ever going there)

So after a cup and a couple chapters of John Carter's adventures, I find myself once again at the hippy hideout, er Emy J's. Unfortunately, I'm inside a magic school bubble, so the Sig's in the trunk, but the coffee tastes better and I can get the internet without registering with them. Is it bad that I sacrifice a little bit of personal safety for a better cup of coffee?

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Home Defense Thoughts

So on SayUncle the other day there was a link to an article in which the author explains why he thinks the Mossberg 930 series is a good home defense gun. This of course lead to a few comments, some of which were disagreeing with the article for a few reasons.

Of course there was a question on why people think rifle sights on a shotty is a good idea. Well, a little bead is great for shooting little fast moving things where you want to keep things simple and fast. Hell, I've shot trap with a gun with no bead, and done just as well as I did with one. You want to cover the bird with the barrel, and some of the young scouts were getting distracted by the bead, so we took it off, and scores improved for some of them. Point is, it works great for fast instinctive shooting.

But a combat shotgun isn't used for shooting little fast moving things like birds or rabbits (although I have used my 20" 590 for trap once, and did pretty well, only had a bead at the time though, haven't tried it with the red dot). You're using buckshot or slugs, and shooting at bigger targets that aren't moving as fast generally. 00 buck has only 9 balls standard, and a target load has... well, a heck of a lot more. That translates to a bigger cloud of lead flying through the air with the birdshot, usually a good size larger in diameter than the bird. Close enough is close enough in that case. The smaller number of balls means you need to be a little more precise in your aim, and if you're using a slug, well, duh, one round. Unless you shoot 1,000 rounds a day or something, I doubt your cheek weld is going to be consistant enough to get the same accuracy off a bead as you would with ghost rings or rifle sights. Not to mention that they're adjustable too.

But the comment that really got the little wheels spinning in my head was the comment that one reader would rather have a pump for reliability reasons. Makes sense, at first, a light load won't keep you from racking it, and most semis are dirtier inside due to gas systems and whatnot, not to mention touchy to light loads. All problems that those of us who shoot regularly are quite familiar with.

However, I started thinking about the kind of people the article is really writen for. Us gunnies that shoot quite regularly already know what we want and what works for us. The kind of people that this article is for are those who don't shoot regulary, and are looking for their first home defense setup. When you start thinking from that perspective, the advise starts to look much more sound.

Semis generaly have lower recoil than a pump, which makes for faster follow-up shots, but more importantly, is more condusive to more practice. If it hurts the user less, they'll be more willing to take it out to the range more often.

Semis are simpler for a new gun person to operate. Fresh rounds go in the tube, rack it once to chamber a round, pull trigger as needed. Nothing in between. No pump to short stroke. Literally point and click. In a high stress situation with a person who's not well rehearsed with a pump, that seems like a good idea in my mind.

This also carries over to the reliabity issue. The biggest cause for stoppages in a semi are low powered loads. Simple enough fix, just use standard 00 or slug loads. That's what you should be using on a man-sized target anyway. (If you're worried about shooting through a wall and into somebody's bedroom, you should consider the 4 rules and learn the layout of your house better, not hope a few rounds of birdshot are gonna stop a detirmined bad guy) The other cause main cause is a dirty gas system. Just like any gas driven semi-auto system the dirtier it is, the more sluggish the system will get, until it locks up on you. So clean your gun. I doubt a decent semi shotgun will get so fouled in a single magazine that it will stop funtioning. Clean it as soon as you get home from the range, and unless you're fighting off a zombie hoard numbering in the hundreds (a situation where a rifle is a much better idea anyway...) it's not going to get so gummed up it'll stop working in a standard home defense situation. If you can't take care of it with 6 rounds of 00 buck, bust out the holy water.

Anyway, that's just my $.02 on the subject. My only shotgun at the moment is a pump with a micro red dot, but it's not for home defense either. I'm a carbine person.

On cows and such...

I was right by the way, making a map of the data is much more interesting.



Waiting for ArcGIS to run a buffer model... should take about a half hour... hooray homework.
(Map data is percentage of cows by county area if you care)

'Nother Pic



Tam has a stripped lower and is a little undecided. One of her possibilities is an M16A2 service type rifle.
Well, my first AR build was exactly that. I set out to build an AR as close to the rifle I carried overseas as I could, and with the exceptions of a full length heavy barrel, slightly wrong shaped handguards (these are the oval ones, my Colt had round ones. One of these days I'll track down a set of the right ones) and obviously the lack of a fun switch, it's pretty damn close. Tracking down that buttstock mag-pouch was a pain though. I had no idea who made the ones our unit had, I think it took me like two months of internet searching to actually figure it out.

Here's another pic of a friend shooting her.

Daily Pic-ness

Robbery Stopped by Open Carry

A little anecdotal evidence presented over at Sharp as a Marble. Seems they sent in their scout, he saw two patrons with .45s openly displayed, and decided to pass. Fortunately a cop noticed a couple suspicious cars full of guys in masks with rifles and caught them.

It's not too often that you do get solid proof of a firearm preventing a crime. The baddies usually don't report when their plans are foiled.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Gun Pron

My dad's .38spc Colt Diamondback. Beautiful pistol, and the reason I have been spoiled as far as double action pistols go. I mean when the first one you ever shoot looks and feels like this...

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

It's about time!

The Army approves Multicam for OEF.

I never liked the ACUs, I complained loudly about them, as did everyone I knew in the Army, and thankfully was participating in OEF while DCUs were the standard. Maybe if I get back in I can get some free cool camo.

In case you haven't heard...

To all retail customers:

On January 2010 American Tactical Imports Inc received official notification from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and explosives that the original barrel shroud (aka: fake suppressor) supplied with your GSG 5 SD model must be replaced. It has been determined that this shroud is regulated under the National Firearms Act. American Tactical will provide a replacement shroud at no charge for each GSG 5 SD model sold or currently in inventory.
Consumers in possession of a GSG 5 SD model with the original shroud in place on the firearm are now in violation of the NFA. To avoid continued violation of the NFA, ATI asks that all persons in possession obtain a replacement shroud as soon as possible. We anticipate arrival of the new shrouds to begin by the middle of February 2010.
IMPORTANT: THE ORIGINAL SD MODEL SHROUD MUST BE RETURNED ACOMPANIED BY THE FIREARM SERIAL NUMBER BEFORE A REPLACEMENT SHROUD IS ISSUED. THE DIAMETER OF THE SD SHROUD IS 1-9/16”. DO NOT RETURN THE SMALLER CARBINE SHROUD.
WHAT TO DO:
If possible return your old shroud to the dealer where purchased and show him this notice. The shroud will be returned to ATI along with a list of serial numbers from the guns that the shrouds were removed. ATI will send replacements to the dealer for pick up at your convenience; ATI will be sending replacements as fast as logistics allow. If your dealer is out of business or difficult to reach, or you purchased your gun used, from a consumer, return the shroud directly by US mail or UPS to American Tactical Imports Inc. 100 Airpark Drive Rochester, NY 14624.
PLEASE TRY NOT TO CALL US. We will provide comprehensive information on our web site www.americantactical.us , and www.ar15.com or by e-mail to atiexchange@americantactical.us
REMEMBER, INCLUDE THE FIREARM SERIAL NUMBER WITH EACH SHROUD OR A REPLACEMENT WILL NOT BE ISSUED.
This action IS NOT being instituted through any fault and is strictly due to NFA compliance. American Tactical will assume the responsibility to satisfy the requirements in an effort to minimize the impact on our customers and protect your investment.
We at American Tactical Imports Inc. sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by this unfortunate situation.

Sincerely,
Anthony DiChario
President C.E.O. retailcandoc.021210


The ATF, after looking at them and OKing them for import, has changed their minds and deemed the barrel shroud for the GSG-5SD to be close enough to a suppressor that they're to be considered cans. So if you have an SD model with the bigger shroud, you need to remove the shroud, return it to the dealer you bought the gun from, along with a note with your guns serial number, and wait for a new ATF approved shroud.

Massive pain in the butt hassle? Yes.
Retardedness on the part of the ATF? Hell yes.

ATI is rather miffed, to say the least (apparently the ATF won't tell them why they changed their minds either), and those of us with the regular carbines are probably going to have to jump through the same hoops in a matter of weeks I'd bet (and so does quite a few others).

Anywho, just in case you haven't heard, and have an SD model, for your dog's sake, bring in your evil baby killing tube.

Starbucks Appreciation Day


At least for us gun owners and self defense advocates.

Sunday, Feb. 21st, is apparently the chosen day.
I've never really been a big Starbucks fan in the past, in fact I've been quite anti-Starbucks in the past. (Overall their coffee has always struck me as overpriced and mediocre. Not complete truck stop sludge, but nothing to write home about either.) And I'll more than likely continue to frequent the locally owned, roast our own in house, coffee place, despite it's location (inside a magic 1000' school zone bubble),because their coffee tastes better and I'd rather give my monies to a locally owned place.

But, I will be stopping by the Starbucks out in the Crossroads Commons area in Plover to sit down for a cup or two and write up a couple posts that have been bouncing around inside my head and being deflected by diary cows and earthquake data. (Stupid homework taking up my time...)

Although some people are a bit against the outward statement to the local employees (and for some good reasons), I'll be the one with the Sig on my hip and the netbook with the Magpul 10th Anniversary sticker. It's not like I can hide my gun in this state after all.

Monday, February 15, 2010

So many cows...

I just spent the afternoon making about 20 or so histograms in Excel all graphing the number of milk cows per county in Wisconsin every 5 years since 1982. Marathon County was leading until somewhere between 1997 and 2002, but for whatever reason dropped down just below Clark County(from 65,857 to 60,591). To put that in perspective, the county's estimated human population in 2008 was 130,962. In 2007 the survey found that Marathon county had 62,840 milk cows. That's only about 2.08 people for every cow. Milk cows. That's not counting beef heads or breeding stock.

But that's not really what I learned from this assignment. I already knew they had a crap-load of cows up there. What I learned is that I hate Excel, and I hate making histograms. Maps are so much more fun to make, and are definitely more impressive when they're done.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Pic-O'the-Day


Pietta built Remington 1858 .44cal revolver. One of the prettiest $200 guns I've ever seen.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

I would like to take a minute...

To thank the Brady Campaign for increasing my site traffic the last day or so. There's been a lot more referrals from Google searches for "Guns and Coffee" than ever, so hopefully some of those people will come back.

Posting has been/will be a little light, school's back in full swing for the semester, and most non-geography people are less than interested in GIS and whatnot.
That and one of my friends pointed me to Fallout 3, and it's been sucking up a lot of my free time. A lot of my free time...

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Update on Starbucks

Apparently Starbucks is less than impressed by the Brady Campaign.

I may need to rethink my opinion on Starbucks.

Also, I just noticed the version of the Starbucks logo the Bradys used... I just may need to steal that...

(H/T to ENDO)

Saturday, February 6, 2010

I must be a former Engineer...

Cause this is just plain Awesome.

(H/T to ENDO)

More on yesterday's range trip.

So on top of putting the new 22 through it's paces, we also had the mission of testing out some things with the full size ARs. Nothing major, but I'm feeling proud of myself, so I'ma brag a little.

First off, and the most pressing thing on my mind for most of this last week was making sure Will's AR worked. I did some work on it for him the last couple weeks, including installation of the excellent ASAP (Ambidextrous Sling Attachment Point) from Magpul and a new gas block, in the form of a flip up front sight assembly from Yankee Hill Machine.

I have a YHM block just like it on my middy, and find it to be a perfectly acceptable BUIS. It accepts standard AR front sight post, and adjusts just like any standard AR front sight. My only complaint is the button to unlock and lower the sight tower is tough to get to with how I have my light mounted on my rifle. Not YHM's fault, and I can live with it. I figure I'm not going to ever be in a hurry (read life or death situation) to lower the sight.

Anyway, I was a bit nervous to test out the rifle, as this was the first time I did any work on the top half of an AR. I was 99.9% sure I had it lined up right, but I don't have x-ray vision, so there was that slight possibility.

Well, she ran like a dream.


I did run 10 rounds through it quickly to make sure it was holding up and cycling fine before I passed it off to him, so if anything blew up, it would have been in my face. It was my handywork after all.

Anyway, he's quite happy with how it turned out, and very happy to not have a front sight post in his sight picture anymore.


On my end of things, Sigtyr is pretty much done. I have all the big things on there and setup how I want, and aside from some little things a different sling swivel on the handguard and perhaps a different light setup, it's effectively done.
The biggest changes since the last comprehensive look at the carbine are the ACS stock, EOTech XPS2-2, and the light.

I was reluctant to swap out the CTR for the ACS, I do like the look, feel, and weight of the CTR, but when I swapped out the Tango Down stubby for the AFG, I lost my battery storage. I have the bolt/firing pin core in the MOE grip, complete with a bolt, cam pin, firing pin, and two fp retaining pins, and really like that little insurance policy. So, grudgingly, I ordered an ACS stock, and set aside the CTR for when the Smith showed up. With the addition of the EOTech and the white light, spare batteries on the system were too good of an idea.

A side effect of the ACS is the improved cheek weld. It's not that big of a deal with irons, but with a raised electronic type system, like an EOTech or an Aimpoint, it's nice to have a bit more bulk there. Also it's kind of nice to have a bore snake on board too.

A Viking Tactics offset light mount and Surefire G2 were tossed on the front, since zombies don't always attack in the day time. The only complaint (other than the earlier one about the front site) is that what VTac calls "OD" green is much closer to foliage green. I can live with it, but Will says I need to change it. He's definitely more vain than I am. (And at times obviously a Lieutenant)

Then of course came the EOTech. I decided to spend the extra cash on the XPS series, so I only had to keep one type of battery on the rifle. (Both the Surefire and the XPS use CR123A batteries) With the ACS that gives me enough spare batteries to swap out both electronics twice. (2 for the light, 1 for the sight, twice equals 6) I know AAs are easier to find, and an EOTech 512 would have been cheaper, but I like simplicity.

I also opted for the two dot reticle on the EOTech, at first because I like the range compensation ability, and I am a rifleman at heart. Some people don't like how "busy" the multi-dot reticles are, but now that I've had time to play around with it, the similarity between the standard post in a ring sight picture of the irons that I have used for years on issued M16s and the "donut and dots" of the EOTech are quite similar to me. When the excrement hits the rotating air circulator," the instinctiveness of that "post in a ring," steel or glowing red, should be good for me.

Smith & Wesson M&P15-22



Had it at the range for the first time yesterday, and here's how things went.
Out of 175 rounds of Winchester Xpert .22lr bulk pack ammo, there were 3 failures to fire. Not bad at all for bulk .22lr. There were no failures to feed or eject, as long as you make sure to stagger the rounds in the mag (as seen here) there should be minimal feed issues.

Informal accuracy tests (monopoding off the magazine from the bench... forgot the sandbag) resulted in about 1 1/2" 5 shot groups at 50 yards. I expect some decent optics and a real rest should cut that down a little, but it is more than acceptable for carbine training and general plinking purposes.

The similarity in controls between a full size AR and the little made for simple immediate action when the gun failed to go bang.



Shooting buddy Will liked it as well. I foresee this little gun breaking in a few new shooters in the coming years. Light weight, manageable, and intuitive. No scary BANG! or hard recoil.



On that note, as far as the weight and the recoil go, at first the extreme light weight of the little rifle seem like it may be an issue. It feels about 1/3 the weight of Sigtyr, and switching from the Smith back to the "real" AR made you feel like you were hefting a howitzer or something.
I can see how some people would see this as a problem as far as training goes. It is a little snappier switching from target to target, especially with the AFG on there.

Light gun is light-


However I think the light weight makes the recoil a bit more noticeable. You could add weight inside the buffer tube and possibly under the handguard and beef it up a little, but that would reduce felt recoil, and if it were similar in weight to a 5.56 mid-length, I doubt there would be much, if any, felt recoil. While this could be ideal for new shooters, for a training tool, I'd rather have a bit of muzzle jump and notable recoil. Plus at it's current setup you can feel the difference between a regular shot, and bolt lock, much like you can on a full size AR.

That's right, I said bolt lock. Some people I've talked to still don't know that the M&P15-22 does in fact lock open on an empty mag and has a fully functional ping-pong paddle in roughly the same place as a standard AR. I say "roughly" as it is a little farther forward than normal, a little under 1/4" maybe, which isn't noticeable until you try to mount a Magpul B.A.D. lever. That requires some material removal from the front of the trigger housing. Worth doing in my case, as I have a B.A.D. lever on my full-size carbine, so reloading my little one is identical, and as pictured above, remedial actions are quite similar. However if you're not running a bolt assist lever of some sort, most operations will be the same as your AR out of the box. Like pretty much all .22lr ARs out there, there is no forward assist. Fine by me, I rarely use them anyway, and, in my opinion, they would be a potential hazard on a rimfire. (can you say out-of-battery detonation?)

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the little rifle. So far it seems more reliable than the GSG5 (way to curse it...) and a much more viable training option than my 10/22. Smith & Wesson definitely have a winner in this little carbine.

Now back to daydreams of cans...

Less than cool...

It seems Front Sight Institute is using the dash-cam video of Deputy Dinkheller death in the line of duty in a rather blatant attempt to sell class seats. (Link straight to Front Sight, click only if you want to get even angrier.)
I don't disagree that there's a lesson to be learned from the event, show it in classes, dissect it endlessly at Law Enforcement Academies, but using it for advertising purposes is pretty disgusting. I'm not familiar with Piazza, but I haven't seen much more than a lot of references to him pretty much sucking as a person.

Dang, now I'm gonna go to sleep all grumpy.

ETA: Apparently (from forum rumblings) the NRA has pulled all Front Sight advertisements from their publications. That makes me feel a little better.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Girls and Guns

A nice little gallery from Life Magazine.

(H/T to SayUncle)

Pic-O'the-Day

Pretty cool IMHO.

(Click to make big)

Range report forthcoming.

This story is relevant to my blogs...

Although I'm not a huge fan of Starbucks for the most part. (They tend to be out of my way, and the coffee's nothing special.)
But apparently the Brady Campaign is so hard up for stuff to do, that they're trying to petition Starbucks to ban open carry in their coffee shops. If they some how manage to pull this off (hah), then Caleb needs to start offering classes to die-hard Starbucks fans.
Unfortunately my preferred off campus coffee establishment is within a magical 1000ft. bubble of a middle school, so I can't carry there, despite the fun that it could be (it's a rather hippy-ish place, see prior posts). I could start making a pit stop at the Starbucks over by Walmart when I go shopping though.
Sometimes I wish the Brady Campaign would just curl up and die, but every so often they make me laugh...

(H/T to The Shoulder That Goes Up, via ENDO)

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

I kinda want one...

even though I'd have pretty much no use for it. But then again, when has that ever been a requirement for a gun purchase? And it's got a fun name, and I'd give it a go at a round of trap every now and again.
(h/t SayUncle)

Monday, February 1, 2010

Mini-Sigtyr



Finally have the silly thing in my hands. A standard Smith & Wesson M&P15-22, naked barrel and all. There was also some material removal required in the trigger guard area to get the BAD lever to fit, but I knew that ahead of time. Of course there were a few other parts swapped as soon as I got it home, and I'm still debating what to do with the pistol grip and what to do for optics.

On to the pictures and whatnot. Here it is with the full size.

As you can see, it's a little shorter. The length of pull is set the same, but as with all the dedicated .22lr platforms, the barrel comes back into the upper more than on a 5.56, so it looks shorter. As I said, the LOP is about the same, and the AFGs are the same distance out as well.

Here's the bolt assembly-

The bolt travels along the two rails, the black chunk in back acts as a polymer buffer, and the recoil spring guide easily comes out and allows the recoil spring to launch clear to the dining room.

Bolt face-

Pretty straight forward. Extractor on your left there, firing pin up at the top of the case notch area. You can also see how the rails are sitting at 7 and 2, which kinda messes with your head when you shotgun the rifle and look at the back end. You'll also notice the lack of an ejector.

That's because it's here-

It's connected to the back end of the barrel, which is a pretty simple solution to keeping the lower receiver from getting too cluttered.

So far, the only thing I'm really iffy on, is the charging handle.

It's plastic, and not at all near the size of a 5.56 one. Did I mention it's plastic? I think I'm going to contact S&W and find out about scoring a spare just in case. I might also send an email to BCM voicing interest in a 15-22 Gunfighter. I know I'm not the only one. (Scroll down a little bit, Optimus is my handle over there)

Overall, I think the wait was worth it, especially given the price (S&W gave me a Vet. discount, and my FFL takes care of service members). Hopefully it shoots as good as it looks, and the weight difference doesn't throw me off too much switching from the "little" one to the "full size" one. I've got a nice stack of magazines too, so my stash of .22lr bulk packs should start shrinking pretty soon. That is, assuming global warming ever kicks in and the glaciers retreat from the range.

This post brought to you by awesome carpets and New Glarus Totally Naked.