Top Shot episode 2

Holy drawn out Blue Team shooting... well at least for Jim.  That just felt like they were milking it for every second they could.  On the other hand, good to see Blue Team dominating once again.  Can't help but cheer for Caleb.  I'm know he's not going to tell anybody, but I'm pretty sure he got pretty far in the contest.  There's been so little of him (heh) off the range that I'm sure they're saving up his airtime for later in the series.

I did like the challenge, everybody shooting the same gun helped to even things up.  If the sights were off they were off for everybody.  Not a fan of the M9, but that's just preference.  They do work, and they are pretty dang accurate if you know what you're doing.  I just don't like the grip, and I have big hands...

The more indepth coaching before the elimination challenge was nice too.  The challenge itself was... interesting.  Finally a scenario where you may get some benefit from Magpul's Aerial Platform Ops dvd?  I'd give it a try though.  Could be fun.

Looks like longbows next week.  I'll probably watch, but I can't get too excited about it.

Gun Laws...

Really don't seem to work.  A look at European gun laws and mass shootings.

H/T SayUncle

BCM Gunfighter

One of the often overlooked problems with the AR platform is the lack-luster GI charging handle.  Way back in the day, the manual of arms would have you operate the handle with your right hand, one finger on each side of the handle.  While this works fine, the in thing these days is keeping your hand on fire controls during weapons manipulations (clearing, reloading, etc.), using your left hand (for a right handed shooter) to grab the latch side of the charging handle.  This keeps you in position to engage targets as quickly as possible after fixing the problem, as well as keeping your eyes downrange and nearer to the sights.

This is where the problems inherent with the GI handle start to show.  It's actually rather flimsy feeling, and I've handled Army issue M4s where I could not even operate that way without the charging handle twisting and binding halfway.  GI handles also have rather small latches that tend to bite your hand, and all the stress during use is funneled through the little roll pin holding the handle in place.  There are a handful of replacement latches available, but this does not fix the rigidity issue.

Enter Bravo Company Manufacturing and their Gunfighter series of charging handles.

What's With Short Frenchmen?

French President Nicolas Sarkozy doesn't want tall bodyguards.  Seriously.  We know the guy is short (5'5"), but from a straight up security standpoint, it's a horrible move.  Tall security guys can see better in a crowd, and tend to be a bit more intimidating.  But leave it to a Frenchman to be so insecure about his hight to compromise security so he doesn't feel too bad.

Testing something...

Here's a picture to make it worthwhile though.

Fair Warning

Blogging may be a bit hit or miss for the next few weeks starting Monday.  Going to be out of town on work related stuff and may or may not have easy internet access.  We'll find out.

All the cool kids are doing it...

Uncle's doing it, ENDO's on there, even The Firearm Blog.  So I've taken the leap and started a facebook page for mine.  So far I'm the only one who likes me... you should change that.

Impromptu Range Trip

Cro called to let me know he was heading to the range, so I threw some ammo in my range bag and headed out to meet him and one of his coworkers.  Here's some choice pics(more after the jump.)  Aside from the disgusting humidity and mosquitos, it was a good time.  Anyway, pics(as always, click to make full size):

Poor Brady Bunch...

New icon from Sharp as a Marble to show the current state of affairs.

Wolf and ARs

So my A2 finally started acting up after a couple thousand rounds of Wolf without any serious cleaning yesterday. (Not quite as bad as this one though...)  She started failing to extract, and unfortunately my spray can of CLP in the range bag also found that it was time to run empty.  Grumbles.  Busted out the toothbrush to scrub off the bolt face a bit and did my best to squirt the last of the CLP into the chamber, followed by a couple passes of a bore snake to clean up the chamber a little (not much really though.)
Started working fine after that, although it's still quite disgusting in there, and I probably really need to scrub out the chamber with a dedicated chamber brush (had a couple stuck cases the first few shots that finally came out covered in big chunks of carbon) but it is kind of interesting to see how long it'll go, especially while being horribly abused (it's been probably 2,000 rounds since a real cleaning.  I should start tracking it...)

New Comp on the Market

Saw this over on WEVO, the BattleComp, a 5.56 muzzle brake that looks like a simplified KAC Triple Tap, and a much cheaper option at that. ($150ish)  The videos in the WEVO thread are pretty impressive, including some full-auto M4ness single-handed with little muzzle rise.

I just may need to pick one up to try out.  Pretty impressive.

Tactical Energy Drink

Perfect for washing down your Tactical Bacon.

Somebody's having a bad day...

As most of you know already, a guy down in the Milwaukee area was OCing and done got his gun stole.  Of course there's all sorts of criticism flying around the interwebs, from both sides of the fence.  I'm going to refrain from harsh judgement until I hear more about it (the media being the media means the news stories so far have been crap...).

Of course Concealed Carry would have been a better idea in the situation, but please keep in mind that up here in Wisconsin Open Carry is our only option(941.23).

1941 Lithgow SMLE

Pulled down one of my Enfields and took some pictures.  1941 Lithgow No.1 MkIII, with a Sanders 1907 pattern bayonet, an imposing piece of steel to be sure. I can only imagine what the rifle experienced over it's lifetime, and the bayonet would have an even more amazing story I'd bet.  I picked it up, along with few others, from a bazaar in Afghanistan.  Needless to say, I'd bet it got around.

15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee

From The Oatmeal.

Excuses

Nothing's really jumping out at me to talk about today, and it's the first day in like a week where it's relatively warm and not raining, so I'm going to put the boat on top of the car and head to a lake.  The wind is gusting pretty well, but meh.

Might get some motivation to take some pictures or something later though.

M&P15-22 update-ish

She's still going strong, tried a couple lower end red-dots on it, nothing I'm happy with so far though. (XPS clone that had more glare than... well anything I've seen short of a frozen lake, and a Primary Arms MRD that just isn't bright enough for much of anything.)  Probably end up breaking down and finding a cheap real Eotech to put on there.

7 mags through it on Saturday, 2 mag induced jams.  I've been using Shooter's Choice grease on the action rails and whatnot after just wiping down the components and running a bore snake through it.  So far pretty dang reliable for a .22lr auto (beats the snot out of my 10/22 in that dept...)  Breach face is getting pretty gross though.  We'll see how long that takes to become an issue.

Still undecided on attempting to thread the barrel.  It just looks wrong (especially since Dan's got one with the FH...) but I've never really done something like that before and I'ma skerd to mess up my gun I guess.  It would be fun to throw a brake on it though.

Oops

It's pouring rain, my car is all the way across the parking lot, and my rain coat is hanging up at home.

Guess I'll have another cup of coffee...

Why Join the OC Movement?

Because we've got the chicks.

Strawberry-Kiwi

That's one of my favorite flavors of Kool-aid.

Magpul just filed for a patent on what may be my next favorite flavor.  A Quad-stack AR magazine. (QMag?)

Interesting follower design to say the least, but I'll be watching with much interest.  No word on capacity, guesses are 50-60 rounds (looks around the same length as the PMag 40s due out later this year though, suggesting 60ish.)
Full application after the jump-

Rhinos

Weer'd Beard has a couple pictures and words about the new Chiappa Rhino revolver I think I've mentioned in the past. (Hum.  Guess not.)

I like the looks of the 5" setup.  Might have to keep an eye out for one.

Top Shot

Watched it last night like everybody else.  Overall, it's nice to see our sport in a somewhat more positive light, but at the same time, I'm reminded why I avoid reality TV.  Too much edited drama.

Good to see Caleb not sucking though.

If you missed it, it's up on Hulu.

Shotgunnin'

Just some cool pics from Saturday.

D-Day

Was going to post this yesterday...

Anyways, the annual fly-in/airshow at the Stevens Point Airport was yesterday, and the start of the event was once again the B-25 Mitchell bomber, "Miss Mitchell"

Gotta love the sound of a large-ish bomber doing some low passes.

I do need to get a good zoom lens before I hit another airshow though... despite how much I love my 35mm primary, it's just not cutting it for this kind of stuff.

Not Broke!?

After 12 hour+ break in service, looks like Blogger is running again.  About time.

Contemplating moving to wordpress if this keeps up...

Blogger not letting me write any posts... Grr.

1,800+ views...

in a matter of days, primarily due to Tam.  The squee inducing fawn from Wednesday has quickly eclipsed all others to become the most viewed post on my entire blog.  Not sure what to think... quite school and take up wildlife photography?

It's the simple solutions...

that tend to rock the most.  BLOCS Quick Eject Tourniquet Carrier.



Via Soldier Systems
I'm gonna have to pick up a couple.  Great idea.

What's a good way to set your coffee shop up for a hold up?

By actively making cops unwelcome.  I guess they just hope their karma will keep them safe (although I'd imagine that treating a human being this way simply because of their profession doesn't help out your karma much...)

My usual caffeine distribution center is all sorts of borderline new age and hippie-ish, but not too long ago they hosted a "morning coffee with the SPPD" sort of event, where the general public could come chat some of the city's finest in an informal setting. (I had classes, so I missed out on it, but the concept seems like a great idea.)