Sorry for the Absence!

Had to whip, whip I tell you, to Tulsa to spend the day on the range with Marshal for DRTV. Got to meet "Rastus" from the DRTV Forums at the U.S. Shooting Academy...cool! Have to go take a pick-axe to the drift in the driveway, but before I do, some links for the day:

Brother Ted endorses Romney:

The “Motor City Madman” threw his considerable weight behind Romney’s campaign Friday, hours after this column was tipped that the endorsement was imminent, during Thursday evening’s Romney fund raiser at Bellevue’s Meydenbauer Center.

I've told you I will support the nominee. Lemme think about this over the weekend.

From the Washington Times, (via the inestimable Say Uncle) a D.C. city official has his take on what we need to do to protect ourselves in an increasingly dangerous world...submit:

...Paul Quander, the District’s deputy mayor for public safety and justice, responded that crime victims should give the criminals what they want. Mr. Portman protested, saying, “But how do you know you’re going live and survive? You’re completely at their mercy.” 

Mr. Quander thinks victimhood is preferable to self-defense. “The problem is, if you are armed, it escalates the situation,” Mr. Quander told residents. “It is much better, in my opinion, to be scared, to be frightened, and even if you have to be, to be injured, but to walk away and survive. You’ll heal, and you can replace whatever was taken away.”

That is so true! You can always have another child, or find a new spouse! And if you have to spend what is left of your life in a wheelchair, as a friend of mine did after a brutal D.C. mugging, hey, take those lemons and make lemonade! At least he got to park in the Handicapped Zones!

I am not one to wish ill to people, but there's a little voice in my head that whispers the hope for the future that Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Quander has the wonderful, wonderful opportunity to test his beliefs in the real world. Just lay back and enjoy it, Mr. Quander...the pain only last for a little while...

I strongly recommend that the GManCasefile blog, written by a former FBI agent, become one of your regular reads. It's not often that one blog can wax poetic about exotic Scotch in one post and neatly skewer the TSA in another, This is from the TSA: Fail post:

I sometimes ruminate while standing in line waiting to take off my shoes, remove my belt, laptop, iPad, etc., etc., about the improvised weapons I saw in prisons and how hard they were to find. It’s fascinating what weapons prisoners can make out of plastic forks, newspapers and toothbrushes. Ask any prison guard if an inmate can make a weapon out of an everyday item, and how long it would take them. Approximately 99% of what the average traveler carries on a plane would be considered contraband in a maximum security prison, due to the fact that it can easily be converted into a weapon. Toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks, pens, pencils, anything with wire (iPod headset), any metal object which can be sharpened, etc., etc. is a potential weapon. Carried to its logical end, TSA policy would have to require passengers to travel naked or handcuffed. (Handcuffing is the required procedure for U.S. Marshalls transporting prisoners in government aircraft.)

Read the whole thing!

You might also catch up on C.J. Shiver's, author of The Gun, the history of the AK-47, take on the new AK-12, the replacement for the venerable AK-47, over at NPR.

More likely, Chivers says, the redesign is motivated by a desire to help save "the Detroit of the modern rifle world."

 "The main Kalashnikov plant for the Russian Federation is the same as the main Kalashnikov plant during the Soviet Union's time," Chivers says, "and that's located out in the Ural Mountains in a city called Izhevsk."

The fortunes of Izhevsk have risen and fallen with the popularity of the Kalashnikov. Today, it can be characterized as a struggling factory town, but orders for new Kalashnikovs could help change that.

That should get you started! BTW, I bought a gun I didn't intend to buy because it was so damned impressive on the range! I was out shooting one of the Remington Versa Max 12-gauge semi auto shotguns because I'd really been taken to task on the blog and on a couple of the forums for always recommending pump shotguns for self-defense, especially for preppers. My rationale was that a pump would pretty much run with whatever you crammed into it, whereas semi auto shotguns were either finicky or required to to carry extra do-dads to change the gas ports or bleed springs.

One commenter bluntly asked me if that was the case, why did I routinely recommend semi auto pistols for self-defense, as the newest generation of semi auto shotguns have solved the do-dad problem. Well, I shot the Beretta defense semiauto at SHOT a while back, and it did indeed run with whatever was stuffed in the tube. In talking to my friends at Remington Defense, they kept waxing poetic about the Versa Max platform and how it accomplished the same thing with a pretty elegantly simple solution:

I finally said send me one. After a day at the range filming with it, I sent Remngton a credit card number so to keep the Versa Max. It ran and it ran and it ran, regardless of the ammo. We went from Feather-Lites to sporting clays heavy loads, to slugs to hunting buckshot, mixed brands, etc., and it just kept shooting. We intentionally did no lubrication when we took it out of the box — we ran it bone dry, and it just kept shooting. The Versa Max actually shoots lighter — that is, less felt recoil — than my competition Winchester X2 semi, which is well-known for its gas system soaking up the 12 gauge hit.

It ain't pretty, but it feels like a real workhorse. How impressed were we with the gun? Not only did I buy my T&E gun, producers John Carter and Mike Long went back to their offices and order one for themselves, and two other crew members are going to follow suit. Here's the Remington specs for the guns we bought, the Versa Max Synthetic 26-inchers:

The new standard for reliability in autoloading shotguns. VERSA MAX® shatters convention and all previous benchmarks for reliability with an action unlike any that have come before it. Proven in the field and in extreme tests of endurance with thousands of test rounds, it cycles 12-gauge loads with ultimate consistency, softer recoil and less maintenance than you've ever experienced.
Any load. Anywhere. Every time - the new pinnacle of autoloader technology.
KEY FEATURES:
• Most versatile, reliable shotgun on the market.
• Reliably cycles 12-gauge rounds from 2 3/4" to 3 1/2" magnum.
• Versaport™ gas system regulates cycling pressure based on shell length.
• Reduces recoil to that of a 20-gauge.
• Self-cleaning - Continuously cycled thousands of rounds in torture test.
• Synthetic stock and fore-end with grey overmolded grips.
• Drilled and tapped receiver.
• Enlarged trigger guard opening and larger safety for easier use with gloves.
• TriNyte® Barrel and Nickel Teflon plated internal components offer extreme corrosion resistance.
• Includes 5 Flush Mount Pro Bore™ Chokes (Full, Mod, Imp Mod Light Mod, IC

I thought about getting the Versa Max Tactical,but I decided I'd rather add whatever accessories I needed down the line, and I wanted the longer barrel for clays. My friends at Nordic Components already have a magazine extension tube for the Versa Max if I want to go that direction, and Briley has a larger bolt handle and bolt release button — I consider these necessary purchases. You'll be seeing lots more on the Versa Max as I work with it...