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...

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.

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.

Pic-O'the-Day

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

Pic

Daily Picness

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...

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)

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.

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)

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)

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.

Finally

Will be making the 40+ minute trek to the gun shop to pick up the M&P15-22 after my Glacial Geology class tomorrow. Look for initial thoughts in the evening.

Not the first time I've heard of this...

The U.S. army medic also told members of the research unit that she and her colleagues had to explain to a local man how to get his wife pregnant.

I don't know if the female medic in the article is the same one I deployed with, but I know one of ours had this exact issue down at one of the ANA bases. Apparently he was boinking the wife the only way he learned as a young Pashtun, and that's not very conducive to procreation.

Post Gun-show chat

Me: Guy had an MP5SD there... wouldn't take my left nut for a trade though...
SB: I'd rather have an M16 if I was getting into FA, the upper possibilities are just too cool.
Me: Yeah, but there's just something too cool about the MP5SDs... when your gun goes "clackity-clackity-clack" instead of "bangity-bangity-bang"...

Question of the Night

Why hasn't anybody or when will somebody come out with rechargeable 123A batteries?

Disregard, my Google-fu was weak a little earlier. I guess the bigger question is why don't they market them to us gun people?

Upgrade pron

Got an Eotech to put on the carbine today. Looks pretty sexy.



Tried to take a picture of the reticle, and apparently laser generated holograms really freak out my camera. Any idea why it does this?



I've also added a FDE Magpul AFG, and will be swapping the CTR for an ACS when that shows up. I'll get some new pictures when there's actually a sun out so I can get some good ones.

More than I can keep up with.

Soldier Systems has a bunch of A-TACS pictures from Shot.
The more I see it, the more I like it.

Food for thought.

Well, a video anyway. Care of Breda.

The continuing M&P15-22 Saga...

Back in late September, I sent in my order form for a Smith & Wesson M&P15-22 on their military discount program. Just as a general disclaimer, I'm not blaming them, or the shop I'm going through. I'm simply venting some gunny frustrations.

So anyway, just before October I send out the form, and it even says up to 6 months for long guns, so I'm being patient. Well, December rolls around, I get an email from S&W, "your dealer's FFL we have on file is expired, can you have them fax us a new one?" No big deal, call up the shop... "Huh. We just got a pistol from them this morning through the same program. Weird. We'll fax them it again just to make sure."

Cool. I sit back and wait for the charge to come through on my card, and dream of cheap AR fun.

Little did I know, the gremlins have intercepted the fax somewhere between the shop and S&W's Mil/LEO dept. I get a phone call from S&W mid-January, "Hey, we still don't have an up to date FFL for your order. The newest one for them expired in '08. We've got the guns in stock and I want to get it shipped out to you!"

Sweet. Grumbles...

Well, I'm not sleepy, even though I worked 11p-7a for the last week and a half straight, so I get in the car and drive the 45 minutes to the shop. Watch as they fax it in, again, and then talk with the guys there, fondle a SCAR (hadn't seen one in person yet, neat, but not for me) and finally get back in the car 2 hours later. Call up S&W to make sure it's on the right guy's desk.

"Yup got it right in front of me."

"Good, I'm sitting in the lot at the shop, so I wanted to make sure before I drove home."

"Ready to bust some heads huh? Ha."

"Guess I don't have to. Thanks again for helping me get this straightened out."

Go home, card's charged the next day, wait a few days, call up the shop to see if it came in.

"Oh yeah, I remember seeing it come in... not sure where it is though, we're in the middle of moving right now."

"So when are you guys gonna be settled in at the new place?" (I knew about the move, so I can't be mad about that. The ATF was dragging their feet on the change of address, go figure, so it was "any day now" planning. Just shitty timing for me.)

"About a week and a half."

"...Alright, guess I'll see you then...."

So now my new little .22 is sitting in rifle limbo. I'm glad it's a long gun. I don't think I could take a 3 day waiting period on top of all this.

Over 14 million guns sold in 2009

Only through NICS. So not counting f2f or states that allow you to skip the NICS with a CCW permit. Awesome and ridiculous all at the same time. Of course I did my part... one Henry .22, an AR, and the Sig... maybe a couple others I'm forgetting.

Today's blog coming to you from Emy J's

I picked up an Eee PC yesterday since my financial aid came in, and I have an online class this semester, so I claim it's for educational purposes. I'd much rather do the bulk of it from a comfy couch in a coffee house instead of at home where I have 35,897 distractions.
The side effect of course, is that hopefully I'll do this more, and add more coffee content, something I've been meaning to do.
Right now I'm on my second cup of the Latino Blend at Emy J's, a wonderfully smooth, somewhat dark roast with a nice bright finish. At least to my slightly educated tongue. Anyway, it's a very clean flavor, and quite good, especially for a blend.
There's also the side note of siding in one of the hippie havens of town wearing an Army Engineer t-shirt, writing about guns and military stuff, reading First In, and carrying my tiny PC in my fag-bag covered in my various Army patches. Needless to say, the lid of the tiny computer is adorned with a giant Magpul 10th anniversary skull and crossbones sticker. It fit perfect.

Compared to my freakin' 17" widescreen Toshiba, tiny PC is tiny! One of these days I'm going to take a picture of it sitting on the other one just for laughs. The supposed 11 hour battery time is insane-o awesome though.

Well I think he's a fantastic author.

And so does Sarah A. Hoyt. I pretty much cut my science fiction teeth reading Heinlein, and can pretty confidently say I have read almost everything he has written, most of it several times. (I'm on my third copy of Starship Troopers... I keep wearing them out, and I don't know how my copy of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls is still in one piece, it's beautiful testament to whatever publisher put out my particular copy...) To say he is my favorite author of all time would be an understatement.

Apparently there are people out there that don't like him. I think they're the same people who say Glocks are better than a 1911. And Sarah Hoyt seems to be in the same boat as me, only she's a much better writer than I, and put together a nice piece on the very subject.