Saturday, November 05, 2016

Who Shocked the Monkey?

As we all slouch toward the Apocalypse, my favorite headline of the week;


More Tampa Bay area residents report seeing mysterious monkey

Note to locals…"Tampa Bay" is a body of water. If the monkey is in Tampa Bay he/she is swimming, or perhaps sailing to Tampa. Anyway, I am concerned that this monkey is the beginning of some discount Florida "Yeti" mythology when the simple answer is that it's one of Hillary's surrogates, gotten loose from the circus.

Oddly, I discovered that in 2001, Peter Gabriel, who wrote "Shock the Monkey," spent some time at Georgia State University trying to teach 12 Bonobo apes to play keyboards. This explains much about the present state of popular music.


Instead of reasoned political analysis, I'm spending the morning watching the DeanMartin/Robert Mitchum barnburner "5 Card Stud" and tinkering with my match Glock, which I will put to use tomorrow. It's the G19 with the Suarez top end and RMR. Since I want to shoot this in USPSA Carry Optics, I pulled the Suarez trigger and put in a Vogel trigger from GlockTriggers that I had lying around the Bunker. The Vogel uses a stock Glock trigger and highly polished internals, so there is no exterior modification to the gun. Still an excellent trigger pull! Now, if I can just make myself shoot it as well as a 1911.

I managed to humiliate myself on camera last week with some really crappy shooting on close-in targets with a couple of Glock. Granted, I was filming, but there's no excuse for snatching that trigger the way I did, not once, but twice. Ironically, I changed to a box-stock 1911 Sig shooting .45 ball and everything went back to hunky-dory. Tom Yost, one of the best shooters I know (3rd in the IDPA Nationals, just behind Vogel and Seeklander…they don't keep HOA score that way, but there it is), says of course, all those hundreds of thousands of rounds through a 1911 over the years has a lingering effect.

Met with my orthopedic surgeon yesterday…not the news I hoped to hear, but not unequivocally bad. The 3rd surgery on my shattered right leg still hangs in the air like a malevolent moon, shedding a nasty light on 2017. Fingers crossed that I don't have to go there. He also ix-nayed any more weighted squats, which have kinda been my foundation exercise.

Busy weeks ahead, with filming for both SHOOTING GALLERY and SGO. Have some cool guns to feature on SGO, including the new Ruger American in .450 Bushmaster (there's a hig-buster for you! Damn, but I wish it was in .458 SOCOM, a caliber I reload!), the new Galil ACE in 7.62 X 51 (a gun I've shot a good bit and really like, BTW…as I think I mentioned on the podcast recently, I am considering making the Galil the "house carbine," because I live in a rural area…depends on if I ever get the .30 cal suppressor that's in the queue) and my choice for USPSA Pistol Caliber Carbine, an IWI X95 in 9mm! The Quarter Circle 10/Dead Foot Arms 9mm AR build is continuing apace.


I'll also finish my review of the Honor Defense 9mm, which I remain impressed with. It is a sold little gun that runs like a top. I would not hesitate to carry it. It's an ounce lighter than a G19, but you give up  some capacity (7+1 or 8+1 for the Honor Defense). I'm reaching out to Galco for one of their paddle holsters to give carrying the Honor Defense a try.

Finally, the inevitable political plug…for your own sake, for the sake of the Second Amendment:

VOTE! 

14 comments:

NJ Larry said...

Weighted squats? ... with all due respect you have to be certifiably nuts. At 66 yrs old? Jack LaLanne gave up such things in his youth and lived by the light weight high rep concept until he died at 96. Performing miracles of strength and endurance into his late 80s. See if the doc will allow light leg extentions and curls building to high reps.

I find myself more and more spending time away from Fox et al and watching 1950 Westerns on MeTV. This morning was Richard Boone on HGWT. Tuesday can't come sooner. Pray for this nation. I do believe in miracles.

Anonymous said...

Vote for Trump! Period!

EVERYTHING IS ON THE LINE!

Life Member

P. S.: Michael, triggers have gotten into your head. Try to look at this way: You only have the gun and can have nothing else but ammo and a cleaning kit. What do you do? You suck it up and learn to work with what you have. Those triggers aren't THAT bad. Sometimes, as my best friends grandmother used to admonish: "You have too many things!" And as the infamous character "Curly" said in the fine movie "City Slickers"; "Happiness is ONE thing." You do have the gun. And for now, you're also free!

Anonymous said...

Anon, you are, of course, RIGHT. World class trainer Dave Spaulding and I shot the GUNSITE 250 class a few years back with out-of-the-box Ruger SR-9s. The triggers were...less than optimal. Our scores were pretty much identical to the scores we shot in that class with tuned, big-dollah 1911s the year before. So yeah...think of it as me feeding my "tinkering" gene! LOL!

Seriously, my goal for the next 12 months is to be able to shoot the G19'as well as I shoot a 1911. It's good for me. I'm using Mike Seeklander's book and training program, YOUR COMPETITION HANDGUN TRAINING PROGRAM as my guide:

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Competition-Handgun-Training-Program/dp/144996642X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1478402366&sr=8-3&keywords=Mike+Seeklander

And Larry, you are, of course, also RIGHT. High reps with just body weight. My problem is that I remember what I USED TO DO to jack up my conditioning before a big event, and my mind makes bets my body can't cover. I've NEVER been seriously injured before, and some stupid part of my head still thinks I can overcome my shattered right leg by force of will. I keep proving myself wrong...

THANK YOU BOTH!

ANd pray for us all...

mb

DMD said...

Vote for Trump; and pray for our beloved USA !!! DMD

Anonymous said...

Not bad but I'll offer what I think is an even funnier headline from The Washington Post a few days ago:

Policeman shoots self fighting racoon

I wonder if he used isocoles or Weaver.

Anonymous said...

Note to self: Have my sweetie read my blog posts for spelling errors before I post them.

Mike Burbank said...

So, you have a 450 and not a 458. Buy a set of dies. As for me, I buy the dies and then get the rifle. LOL
Mike Burbank

Anonymous said...

Michael-
Leave the spelling errors, they add flair. Like "Hig" which is obviously the mutant cross between a Hog and Pig!

Anonymous said...

Michael, how is it that Peter Gabriel is in the RNRHOF as a solo artist and the great prog rock band Yes is not? Also, do you read Tim Dorsey? This monkey headline sounds right out of a Serge and Coleman adventure.

DamDoc said...

After this election, we may cut the cable, meditate for calmness, and play Yes 24/7... Paramahansa Yogananda may be reserected.

Anonymous said...

DamDoc,

After this election, prepare to "gird your loins".

If Trump wins, it will be constant attacks on him and us. Our lives will be challenging. The Dems will also force a "poison pill" on the economy just before he takes office, just to make him look bad. That's what they did in 2008 and Bush was the target and you-know-who offered to save the world. Suckers voted the latter in.

If Hillary gets in, they'll put us under attack like we can't even imagine. It won't just be gun owners. It will be everyone else that believes in the Constitution and God. Get ready. There will be no time to relax in either case.

Stay up for the fight. Never give -in!

Life Member

DamDoc said...

ill be involved! just wont listen to the ministry of propaganda... off point, but fascinating read.... maybe not so off point!

http://blog.joehuffman.org/2016/11/06/guns-and-crime-in-england/

Unknown said...

Glock or Colt mag with X95 conversion?

Michael Bane said...

X95 = Colt mags...not my first choice...

mb