I'm not addicted...

Wait, no, I am. I was bored, so I figured I'd run up to Gander Mountain, see what's around, and expand my OC trekking. Normally I prefer giving money to local-ished owned shops (there aren't any for at least 20 miles from here though) but Gander does have a decent amount of used guns and their somewhat recent sign change (they now specify that firearms legally carried for self defense, open or concealed, do not need to be checked or cased, as OC friendly as you can get) has made me a little more friendly towards spending money there, despite previous experiences.

So wandering around, seeing what's there, and notice that a friend of a friend looking at hand guns. Turns out he's there looking to buy his first handgun, and asks if I have any (like I said, friend of a friend...). In his defense he wasn't on my strong side, and I'm not a little guy, so he didn't see the full size 1911 in the tan Serpa on my belt. We talk a little, he's already done a bit of research, and I reassure him that I've heard good stuff about the Springfield XD series, and he starts paperwork on a standard 9mm type. Score one for the good guys, and hopefully I can suck him into the regular range group.

On to my addiction. I've mentioned before that I'm in the market for a semi 12 gauge, so I spent most of my time on the shotgun side of the gun section, and noticing a distinct lack of semis. Drool over the Benellis, way out of my price range. Well, hidden amongst one of the used racks, next to a $1000+ (used) Benelli left handed field gun of some sort, is a pretty decent looking Mossberg 930 for a price I'm willing to pay. Look it over, 24" ribbed and ported barrel, threaded for the accu-choke, and a nice little red fiber optic bead. Very nice finish (well, good condition, just the standard Mossberg park job) and the chamber looks like it's had maybe 100 rounds through it. Track down an employee, fill out papers, and head out the door.

(forgive the mediocre photos, it's dark outside, and my light box is a whopping 2'x2'... long guns don't fit)

It came with a Mossberg 670 XX-F Turkey choke and another one (pictured above) marked PF1-XX-Full, along with a couple bags of stock shims. Guess I'm going to have to do some research, as I know next to nill about shotgun chokes, despite being rated an Expert shotgun shooter by the NRA. (Hey, just 'cause I shoot it good, doesn't mean I know jack about how it works) But overall, not a bad haul for a gun I didn't plan on buying this morning, or this month for all that matters.

Looking at extension tubes now, the ones from Nordic look promising (with the 24" barrel I can squeeze a +5er under there!) and contemplating some other 3-gun type aftermarket parts, like a bigger charging handle and more pronounced safety switch. Any advice on that front is welcome, especially when it comes to chokes. This will be getting setup for 3-gun type use.

Oh, to top off the day, AMC's totally rockin' the Pale Rider.

More decent press.

Of course the "other side" continues to cling to empathetic views that have no real substance or proof, but hey, it's the best they've got.

Anticipation

I shivers with it.

Just sent a 2022 magazine down to Ohio to the folks at Raven Concealment Systems so they can mold me a single magazine holder to match the light compatible holster I have on order for the Sig. Of course, as with any high demand semi-custom product, the wait time is a bit over a month at present.

I do like my Serpa, but I can't have my light on the gun, which kinda sucks in my opinion, and they only make them in black. Black is so 2001 when it comes to tactical stuff. For a little extra, the Raven Concealment stuff comes in Coyote/FDE/tan/mocha/whatever we're calling it this week. More importantly, my belt is brown leather, so it matches better.

I'll be posting more about the stuff when it shows up and I get a chance to put it through it's paces.

BBC + OC in Wisconsin

And even though they're carrying in a grocery store with a camera crew in tow, nobody freaks out. Amazing. (Doesn't appear as though BBC will let you embed videos...) The report seems pretty neutral too, which is a nice change.

I wonder if they let the crew shoot a couple mags.

Also lots of Serpa's. Apparently I'm not alone. They are a pretty good deal though, simple retention and a decent price.

Guns are like E. Coli?

Well, the Brady Campaign thinks so.

Starbucks owns more than 8,800 coffee houses worldwide; including licensees, there are more than 16,000 locations. If the company were to have a policy that, say, resulted in tainted food and drinks that sickened its customers, we would all agree that such a threat should be communicated to the American public.

Well, there is a policy that is just as dangerous.

So I guess just touching a gun will kill you now.

I wonder if Starbucks has any legal ability to get them to back off. It seems that the Brady Campaign has decided that if they won't do what they want, they'll try every little dirty thing to hurt their sales.

New York Times & OC

Here.

I have been noticing that as of late, especially with the Starbucks issue, that it seems to be harder and harder for the media to show OCers in a bad light, and are really making the Anti's look more and more like idiots. I do enjoy that.

Patches

That are quite relevant to the blog. 3.5 inch ones too. I really wish I had come up with the idea a year ago when I was hashing this thing together...

Oh well. I'll probably end up ordering a couple at least, $2 of each patch goes to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

pic

M16A2 clone now with correct handguards.

If I'm ever in a horrible accident...

and confined to a wheelchair, please God, make it this one.

Update on the Wisconsin Carry Inc. Vs. Wisconsin

I first mentioned the case here, and the first ruling has come down, and we win.

IT IS ORDERED that judgment in the amount of $10,000.00, inclusive of

attorney’s fees and costs, is entered in favor of plaintiffs, Wisconsin Carry, Inc., and

Frank Hannan Rock and against defendants, City of Racine, Sgt. Nethery, and R.

Prince, as to all claims of said plaintiffs, state and federal, respecting this action.

The school zone issue is still up in the air, but a win is a win. It's good to see Wisconsin Carry Inc. is fighting the good fight, and I'm proud to be a member.

More OC-ness

I think it's a pretty positive one for us.

More M&P15-22 and Magpul mash-up advice

Another question popped up on ARFCOM in regards to Magpul components on the little .22

The MIAD and MOE series grips are pretty sweet, I like the simplicity and fuller size of the MOE, and since my full size carbine has one, I needed to put one on the Smith.

On the 15-22 the rear take-down retaining pin spring is held in place by the pistol grip since there is no traditional buffer tube or rear plate. No biggy with the standard A2 grip, but the MOE and MIAD grips have some gaps in that area and don't support the spring like the A2 grip. If you're running the MIAD with the large backstrap, all you need to do is get the AR-10 gapper from Magpul, and not only will it fix the retaining spring issue, but it'll fill the gap between the grip and the receiver.

If you're running the MOE, from everything I can find, the gapper isn't compatible. So you need to add a block to the inside of the MOE grip to support the spring. I grabbed some plastic sprue chunks from a Games Workshop kit (hey, it was handy) and glued it in and trimmed it to match up with the top of the grip.



You can't see it from the outside, so I didn't bother coloring the block. I still have the gap between the receiver and the flared top of the grip, but it's purely a cosmetic problem, so I'm not in a hurry to fill that yet, or put much thought into how I'm going to do it, but someday I'll get to it.

Starbucks Round-up

Well, a couple things anyway. A Google News search for "Starbucks" gives you an editorial from the University of South Carolina's paper for the first result (plus over 70 more articles about the Brady Vs. Starbucks issue). A pretty pro 2A one too.

No matter what states allow, there is no reason to ban the ownership and carry of firearms in this country. Being allowed to openly carry a firearm in public does not make the citizenry violent, and guns only become dangerous when they aren’t handled properly or someone has intent to harm others. Situations can arise where law enforcement is unavailable and the influence and power of a firearm is needed. And guns don’t have to be fired to keep a violent criminal from hurting innocent people. The display of a firearm is quite enough to deter that intent.

I've also been pointed towards a segment from Fox News's "Red Eye"

The host seems pretty cool about it, but his guests (with the exception of the hamster) are what I have come to expect from the media when it comes to guns. The... guy (trying to keep it family friendly here) at 3:30ish is an idiot. Everyone that I know that OCs, including myself, do not want places making a big deal of it and kicking us out. When I stopped at Fleet Farm today I didn't want to have a long conversation with the manager and possibly the SPPD, I wanted a couple boxes of buckshot, some drill bits, and a tackle box to organize my various extra AR parts. Thankfully I was simply able to walk in and get my stuff, like every other time I've been there, and the check-out girl seemed flirtier than normal, despite the full size 1911 riding in plain view on my right hip.

If I wanted to make a big deal of it and get the cops called, I'd get an AK pistol and sling that baby while I'm out shopping...

That hamster, on the other hand, is probably one of the most intelligent commentators I've seen on the news in a gun related story.

(I am also performing a face palm for the guy that showed up with a shotgun... not helping.)

The Wall Street Journal also ran a story today (well yesterday now) in regards to how Starbucks is asking to be left out of things. I agree, they didn't ask for the press, the Brady idiots forced it upon them. Kudos to Starbucks for not caving and telling the Brady people where they can stick their petition. It's their business and they'll run it how they see fit. Thankfully that includes not discriminating against law abiding citizens. Also, thankfully, the poll attached to the article shows most reader's feel the same. (Granted I'm sure there's is a bit of padding going on with linking and whatnot from the gun community, it's not like we've never done that before...)

Some bits-

Allowing customers who are armed with unconcealed guns on the premises "can't be good for business—it galvanizes people, and some of them won't patronize Starbucks after this," said Joshua Horwitz, executive director of the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, a gun-control organization in Washington, D.C.

I have to think that Starbucks, being the large corporation that it is, put thought into this, and decided that it's not going to hurt their sales enough for this to be an issue. Heck, I'm sure that they've seen an increase the last few weeks with the number of pro-gunners "showing their support."

I've also noted quite a few people suggesting that this decision is placing Starbucks employees in danger.

Indeed, not all baristas agree that the Starbucks policy protects them. "I think the policy shows complete disregard for the safety and sentiments of their workers. The only thing worse than a yuppie upset with how their frappuccino turned out is a yuppie with a gun who's unhappy with how their frappuccino turned out," says Erik Forman, a Starbucks barista and union member in Minneapolis.

Well, it hasn't been an issue before, otherwise they would have had a no gun policy a long time ago. What I wonder is what Starbucks's policy is on employees openly carrying. I also didn't know that they had a barista union...

Of course there's a few rather skewed articles in the mix, I made the mistake of clicking on the editorial from the Los Angeles Times written by some idiot who assumes all OCers just never grew up and still want to be cowboys (good god what would they think if they ever saw a SASS gathering?) Some people make my head hurt.

M&P 15-22 and the BAD

I've noticed a few hits on the blog with searches similar to the post title, and I just had a message on ARFCOM about it as well, so I figured I'd go a little more into what I had to do to get it on there. I eluded a little to it with my first range report here, and it works perfectly. So here's a more in depth look.

*Keep in mind, I don't know how S&W would view this in terms of warranty service, and I am not responsible for you buggering up your rifle or slicing off a finger.*

Here's some mediocre photoshop skills at their best. The red area is where there used to be plastic.


As you can see, it's a pretty good chunk. I used a pin vise (tiny hand drill) to roughly plan out where to cut, and to make sure I wasn't cutting too much, and some nice fresh exacto blades. I was going to use a jeweler's saw, but mine is MIA. It would have been faster and probably a little cleaner looking, but what is done is done. The BAD still drags a little on the front of the trigger housing, but it's not enough to hinder operation, and cutting any more out of there would result in a much thinner spot on the mag well than I would be comfortable with. As it is, I did get a little too deep in the top corner, and there is actually a hole there.

If you want to do this to your gun, keep in mind that I have no idea how Smith & Wesson feels about cutting that much out of your lower, and I'd imagine that I've voided the warranty, but I'm comfortable with that. If it breaks because of me doing this, it's my own dumbass fault, not theirs, so I'd fix it or replace it myself.

As it sits now though, it functions just fine as a rifle, and the BAD functions just like the one on the "real" gun, thanks to the functioning bolt catch.

Again though, I don't know how this will effect your warranty. (Just felt like I needed to say it at least three times...)

But here's a less obscured picture of the finished result.

A Classic

But still great.

More Starbucks stuff

Starbucks is very understandably asking to not be the center of the issue. They are still standing by their original decision and allowing those who can legally carry to do so in their shops.


I don't blame them for their request though. They didn't ask for the press, the Brady idiots brought it down on them. I think it's pretty fair of them to ask to be left out of the politics and to continue to run their business the way they want to.

Bleh.

Post have been light, and so has my sleep this last week or so.

Hard convincing myself to get to sleep till nowish or later, and then the alarm goes off way to early for my liking. Convince myself that I need to get to sleep earlier tonight, and then when tonight comes around, I forget that promise, and have a hard time getting to sleep when I finally do get there. Rinse and repeat.

Anyway, that's my excuse for things lately.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.