9mm LCR

Not gonna lie, I kind of want one.  I know my .38spc J-Frame is probably the better choice ballisticly, but there's some strange sort of appeal to this as a range toy.

Teaser

Editing some photos (apparently PS Elements 10 no longer recognizes NEF Raw, yay extra steps!)

Here's a teaser of the newest addition to the armory.

J-Frames

Caleb posted about why he tends to default to his the other day, and it made me think about why I have been doing the same lately. Depending on clothing, since I've been back I have been mostly bouncing between the LCP and the 442.

VZ Grips for the win!

My holster taste is a bit different than his, I mostly use a custom Kydex rig from White Dog Holsters (as seen on his site here, review to come;) but I've been wearing my Crossbreed SuperTuck a bit this week (the leather is more comfortable when I start to sweat.)  I also tend to drop a reload in my pocket in a quick-strip of some sort (I forget who makes it and I'm in public at the moment.)  Not because I'm super-fast reload guy, but I figure it's better to have the option and it's not much weight.

As I've mentioned in the past (I think,) VZ Grips makes a great product, as seen on both my J-Frame and my 1911.  I love how G10 feels, it looks great, and takes plenty of abuse without coming apart or scaring up and looking like garbage.  I can carry it all day on my sweaty self, and even with the minimal texture on the above gun, still have tons of control.  Plus it looks tons better than the factory black rubber.

In my quiet medium-size town I've never really felt that under-gunned with it either (I can think of one time I may have, if I wasn't carrying my M&P that day, but that's another post.)  Given the political climate of this city, I could probably carry it empty and still have the desired effect (I doubt many bad guys around here would expect their mark to be armed at all.)  However if it came down to it,  I do tend to shoot the little thing pretty well, the hammerless frame lets me get a crazy-high grip with a lower bore axis than any auto, even the LCP, and the Apex J-Frame kit is the best $26 I've ever spent on gun stuff.

Then again, maybe I'm just a tacticool hipster, I am wearing low-top Chuck Taylors today...

Range Photos

Fun times.  Went out to the range with Dan and another coworker yesterday to try out the micro-pistol and Dan's new toy.  It was good, aside from the sore everything.

Dan picked up a Saiga-12 (he may or may not be in the middle of reading the Monster Hunter series...)

It'll be getting a new stock sooner than later.  In the meantime, not quite my cup of tea but it still a bit of fun, and quite giggle inducing.

Dan also brought out the S&W .44mag (I'm wondering about his fascination with self punishment...)

And, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the tiny little thing pretending to be a pistol worked too.  Surprisingly accurate, despite its lack of sights (one of the few times I'm probably going to put a laser on something.)

I did come to the conclusion that with my hands, the tiny bit of concealability I loose is a worthwhile trade-off for the controlability of the finger rest extension.

Monday Morning Recycling

Lots of .44 and .38 bullets.

Speaking of Shotguns

Vuurwapen Blog sums up why the Taurus Judge isn't one, and sucks at pretty much everything.  This is the same stuff I've been saying since the stupid thing came out, and am still amazed at the sales numbers.

VZ Grips (J-Frame) Range Report

Put 50 rounds through the other day while we were at the range.  To me, it seemed like there was more felt recoil, but it was more controllable.  The new grips are just a little bigger, a little grippier, and the finger groove all do a much better job of keeping the gun firmly planted where it belongs. 

Also, despite the grips being more efficient at transferring the recoil energy, my hands still felt better than they did after the 40 rounds a few days before with the factory rubber.

These are definitely worth looking into if you have a J-frame.

Irish Coffee and J-frame

Another "Guns & Coffee" photo.

Got a new Irish Coffee Mug (from the dollar store, and made in the USA!) and new grips on the J-frame.  Half a pan of mint frosted brownies to complete the picture.  It is March after all!  Also a 5 round Tuff Quickstrip.  The new grips work a lot better with traditional Speedloaders, but the strips lay in a pocket a lot better.

Why Revolvers are Boring, Antiquated, and Stupid

J-Frame & Apex

I just finished installing the Apex J-Frame spring kit in the 442, and for now let's just say, it's pretty sweet.  Where there once was stacking and a pretty heavy trigger, there's now a somewhat lighter one, that's smooth and consistent throughout.  (Need to find my trigger gauge to see how much lighter it is now though.)

I followed the two videos Apex has on YouTube, and they're pretty good for walking you through the install.  I will also second the advice that you invest in this tool if you plan on doing the install.  My thumb would have thanked me, rather than had a screwdriver blade jammed under the nail.  First time in a while I wanted to pass out while doing some gunsmithing.

I can see the meeting...

"That Judge is selling like hotcakes... but I wish it was uglier..."

Some trends need to go die in a hole.

.40S&W Rhino Coming

Will be at 2012 SHOT.  More info at Gun Nuts Media.

Ruger LCR-22

That's right, .22lr!

Photo from, and more information at GunsAmerica.

Now if S&W would make a .22lr version of the 442 for a similar price...

S&W 442 Video

Short video of a few rounds from this morning.



Yeah... I need to work on reloads a little, and I am not responsible for the actions of Fudds in the background.

Overall, most round hit the little steel Practical Plinger, although a few went just left (need more dryfire time.)  I've got a little tender spot on the base of my right thumb that may or may not bruise, but really not too bad after 105 rounds (only 5 +P though.)

Now to get some dies and whatnot to reload for it.  Already have a bullet mold...

J-frame Range Report

It works! And 100 rounds, while not pleasant, isn't as bad as I expected.

Video to come as soon as I can find a free video editor I don't hate.

J-Frame!

Back in the Ancient Blogosphere days of 6 months ago or so, there was a massive re-hashing of the old "S&W J-Frames are great first guns for women!!" fallacy and a general discussion of the ups and downs of the classic Snubby.

Generally I agree, they're full powered center-fire feather-weight guns with low capacities and are slow to reload when compared to a modern auto.  They're thicker too, since they have the "revolver" thing going, and are almost always higher priced than their comparable auto brethren.  Combine that with the fact that I'm really not a big revolver guy, there never really was any reason for me to get one.

So... I ordered one anyways.  Figured it would make a good B.A.G. Day gun, and I wanted to try doing business with a newer local(ish) dealer.  Well... eight months later the stupid gun finally showed up, and I'm probably not dealing with him again.  Something this simple shouldn't have taken so long...

Yup.  A basic S&W 442.  Same thing I've looked at longingly in the cases at the big-box dealers the entire time I was waiting for mine.  Lesson learned about said dealer... On the upside, I paid for the silly thing so long ago it almost feels like I got a gun for free!

Anywho... I do love how light the little thing is (15oz. empty) and the shape of the frame lets me really choke my grip up and get a pretty low bore-over-grip height.  I'm hoping that will let me negate some of the jump inherent with hot loads in the little thing.  We'll see how that works out on Thursday when I duck out behind the barn at Grandpa's to pop a few rounds of and see if it actually works.

The original plan was to attempt to "master the snubby" over the summer, but it just means I'll get plenty of dry-fire practice and hopefully get my reloads down while combating cabin fever up here in the frozen north.  Also it'll give me a chance to get an Apex spring kit and drop that in (the stupid little thing feels so good in my hand that it's a shame the trigger is so "meh.")

Now if only Smith hadn't drilled a stupid hole in the side of the thing.........

Underwater Gunplay

If you're not watching Smarter Every Day on youtube, you need to fix that.



Destin risked a Ruger auto and a small frame revolver of some sort to show us where the gasses are coming out and where they're going by firing them in a tank of water and filming with a high speed camera.  Then he explains what happened.  Cool stuff.

Charter Arms Rimless Revolver

Is actually a real thing, and actually for sale, and TFB has a review.  The .40S&W chambering itself doesn't really excite me, but the idea of a revolver firing rimless cartridges without using moon clips is pretty cool.  Hopefully they'll do one in 9mm or .45acp before too long.

Darwin Sighs...

...As another slips past.  Not to hate on stereotypes, but they apparently live in a trailer, so there's bound to be many more chances down the road.

Guess I'm Not Going to Get a Rhino...

At least not until Chiappa fires their PR guy and pulls their heads out of... Anyway, not too long ago they announced they were going to put RFID chips in their guns, and since American gun owners generally don't like that sort of thing, the gunbloggosphere kind of light up over it.

Apparently they put out a press release.  The whole thing can be seen over at TFB, but the last paragraph takes the cake:

RFID Removal: For those still concerned you can simply remove the grip and remove the hot glued RFID from the frame in the grip area when (over a year from now) these begin to appear. Others may prefer to wrap the revolver and their head in aluminum foil, curl in a ball and watch reruns of Mel Gibson's 1997 film, Conspiracy Theory. Well, that's a plan too!

So, rather than listen to your customers, you'd rather openly insult them?  Oops.  It's a shame, because I still think the little Rhinos are an interesting concept.