Sunday, January 28, 2007

Kitty Kitty Bang Bang!


"Only a Sith deals in absolutes."
Ob-Wan Kenobi
Star Wars — Episode Whatever


I'm feeling relatively Sithish today, probably due to a lingering need to go shoot something. I considered going to a revolver match this AM with machinegun guru Alan Samuel, but it would have involved getting up before 9AM and driving roughly 1000 miles across the prairie, probably causing the radio in the Boxcar to automatically tune to "A Prairie Home Companion," which I actively despise. I'm sure host Garrison Keillor must at some point have had more of a brain than Scarecrow, but apparently it dried up to dust and blew away in some Dustbowl duststorm. I inadvertantly read one of his syndicated columns, and it was like watching a chicken scratching out interpretations of Robert Frost poetry.

I've got the paperwork started for a hella-cool Tactical Solutions titanium suppressor, which I plan to use on one of the great Tac-Sol 1911 conversion units and a Mark II Ruger to be obtained in some sort of trade. and overhauled. The suppressor will, of course, be chronicles on DOWN RANGE WITH MICHAEL BANE. I'm also thinking of filing the paperwork for building a replica of an Ithaca Auto & Burglar, which I believe to be one of the Five Coolest Guns Ever Made. Since I'd probably be lynched for taking a hacksaw to the barrels of a vintage Ithaca double, I'm looking at some of the el-cheapo "scratch and dent" Spanish 20 gauge doubles at Century Arms. Paperwork wise, it means filing an ATF Form 1 (Application to Make and register a Firearm), all the other paperwork associated with such — fingerprint cards, photos, etc. — and ponying up the $200 tax.

That actually looks easier than finding a stockmaker to duplicate the unique A&B grip. I could go with a rounded buttstock, but I'd love to match teh original if I could. This will be another DOWN RANGE project.

BTW, here's what I've got in the works for DOWN RANGE right now:

BUTT UGLY GUNS...the Cz-52
Salvaging a MINI-14 and runing it against the new MINI Target Model.
Some AR-15 modifications you can do at home, including the new Timney drop-in trigger.
Shooting the S&W M&P .45
What can you REALLY do with a Taurus .410 pistol?
Lemme know what other kinds of videos you're looking for and I'll see what I can get in the works.

I'm going to try and get more than 10 feet away from my computer today, althought I do have to do a re-edit the SIGARMS 556 stuff from SHOT...I waqnt to get the re-edit up on DOWN RANGE by the end of this week. I also need to give my Sweetie anti-lion lessons in the wake of this story from California:
The man's wife is being credited for saving the his life, according to NBC11.

She said she picked up a tree limb and started to beat the animal.

During the attack, her husband also told her to grab his pen, but it broke off when she stabbed the mountain lion so she said she went back to using the tree limb again.
I roiginally thought this was some bizarre homage to the film Say Anything, where Ione Skye gives John Cusack a pen and says, "Write me." Since I never carry a pen when I'm hiking, I suggested my Sweetie just point the .44 at the lion's hips and squeeeeezzzzzzeeeee the trigger. The lion will let go of my head to ponder its former hip joints...I suggested my Swetie then point the .44 and the biggest part of the cat she can see, then keep pulling the trigger until the Smith runs out of bullets. Ought to work better than a big stick!!!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Greetings from DIA, in transit to MD.

Like you, I am in desperate need to go shoot something. Sadly, in ND where I live, even on nice winter days, say 20 degrees, the wind is usually blowing at about 50 knots, making the temperature feel like, what, minus forty?

And, unless you're shooting with th4e wind, the bullets tend to make a 90 degree turn about 10 feet downrange.

Nice scattergun shown, nice history too. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Really don't like those wrists do you?
Mine still hurt sometimes from reloading adventures with a 629 that were the equivalent of trying to launch a bowling ball at the speed of light.
And that was 20 years ago!

Some of the boomers you shoot make me cringe.

KM

Anonymous said...

I've seen one commercially made at a local show for $600-$800 plus BATFE transfer fees. I suggest shopping around for one already made. Doing it yourself means getting a Mfr license and so on.

Check out Small Arms Review mag for sellers.

I might just have to buy one as well. A very good "wascally wabbit" gun.

To explain, after I left LE, I was still working in the same un nice neighborhoods. Among other guns carried was a short barreled 870. Problem was, sometimes the threat failed to "see" that it was indeed a shotgun. I then bought and used a coach double 12; reasoning the dumbest guy out there has watched enough Bug Bunny-Elmer Fudd cartoons to instantly realize I was pointing a shotgun at him. It worked!

Walt

PS: the short double works better in the confines of a vehicle too.

Jerry The Geek said...

Unfortunately, I share your lack of affinity for the Prairie Home Companion.

Garrison K. is an accomplished author and speaker, but I do not care for his politics. Were he less mean (a characteristic typically, but falaciously, attributed to Republicans), I would be able to appreciate his work.

Unfortunately, he's not as much a Will Rogers as he would like to be.

As for the shotgun essay, I can only say that it would be 'nice' if the ATF efforts to enforce the laws against a "sawed off shotgun" were pointed more toward collecting the arbitrary tax penalty than toward making felons out of otherwise honest folks. If nothing else, it would have avoided the entire Ruby Ridge tragedy.

Please stop me before I become political.

Anonymous said...

Gee, I always thought Prarie Home Companion was entertainment, and an enjoyable mileage killer.

Beats listening to all the "knowledgeable" health, sports, social and political running mouths who call in on "talk radio".

Attended Garrison K.'s one-man show, and his satire on both sides of the aisle was timely, humorous, and well received. Didn't know he was such a bad guy.

Anonymous said...

I had a friend who took an older, cheap double and had it cut down to 18 inches. He added and express sights with a big ivory bead and sling swivels. It looked like the shotguns from the Godfather that Michaels bodyguards carried(lumpa?)

It was the best deer gun in thick brush I ever saw when we hunted with dogs in VA swamps.

Does anyone know who could do a job like that?

Anonymous said...

Only a Sith deals in absolutes..........unless, of course, we're talking about jedi masters with funky long hair braids who start sweeping statements with the word "Only."

Anonymous said...

Michael, Just thought you would enjoy this on your post from a few days back on the shot duck, seems it has 9 lives, oh well here it is:

Updated: 3:36 a.m. CT Jan 29, 2007
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Call her Lazarus — and then some.
The ring-neck duck has been shot by a hunter, rescued from two days in a refrigerator by his wife and — in its latest brush with death — resuscitated on a veterinarian's operating table.
The one-pound female duck stopped breathing Saturday during an operation to repair gunshot damage to her wing, said Noni Beck of Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary. Veterinarian David Hale performed CPR and managed to get the fractured fowl breathing again after several tense moments.
"I started crying, 'She's alive!'" Beck said.
Perky grabbed national attention last week after a hunter's wife opened her refrigerator door and the supposedly dead duck lifted its head and looked at her. The duck had been in the fridge for two days since it was shot and mistaken for dead on Jan. 15.
Perky, who now has a pin in hers wing, will probably not undergo any more surgery because of a sensitivity to anesthesia, Hale said. The duck is recovering from its latest ordeal.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Not Available said...

Franken Duck!

She's Alive! Alive, I tell you!

Scary.

Anonymous said...

The word is "lupara", per Mario Puzo. IIRC, The late great Col Cooper suggested one with hammers as a good "house" gun, as the hammers could be let down and all the springs left relaxed, avoiding spring set problems.

Anonymous said...

Something for your video requests. How about doing a piece on the rise of the Home Videographer like me? Go to Google video and search ANPRACS. That is the name of my club. You will understand once you get there.

Anonymous said...

Seems the N.F.A. wannabee`s on here, appear to know naught of S.B.R. and S.B.S. Either to Purchase or Manufacture. To bad for them, it`s all so much fun once you pay ATF`s secretary Fee.