A Nice Cheery Little Sunday Post

The board is set... the pieces are moving

Gandalf, LOTR

First, read this piece by Mark Steyn from NRO:

A government that lies to its own citizens should command no respect. To accord them any is to make oneself complicit in their lies, which is unbecoming to a free people. 

Which brings us to that other death of November 22: Aldous Huxley. “Don’t you want to be free and men?” rages a dissenting voice. “Don’t you even understand what manhood and freedom are?” Gee, he sounds like a talk-radio guy demanding to know where the outrage is. 

Written in 1931, Brave New World isn’t as famous a dystopia as Orwell’s 1984 — because it posits tyranny not as “a boot stamping on a human face” but as a soft, beguiling caress of a human face, a land in which enslavement takes the form of round-the-clock sensory gratification: drugs, sex without love, consumer trinkets, sensory distractions . . . Crazy, huh? Like that’d ever happen.

Read the whole thing, of course. So gosh, what have our busy little Orcs in Washington been doing this week, since they're already wrecked our healthcare and driven the economy in a near-death stupor?  Well, they did manage to work out a deal that will ultimately allow those rollicking, fun-loving mullahs in Iran to go nuclear. Super! Is there anyone with an IQ greater than a snowball's who believe that the kids won't use the fire once they have? Come on now, raise your hands...sorry, you don't count, Mr. Kerry! You never counted...

Oh yeah, completely remaking the Senate! I know the Repubs are salivating at the chance to use the changes in rules when it's their turn at bat, but it got me thinking about John Stuart Mill and his essay On Liberty, specifically this part:

The third, and most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government, is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power. Every function superadded to those already exercised by the government, causes its influence over hopes and fears to be more widely diffused, and converts, more and more, the active and ambitious part of the public into hangers-on of the government, or of some party which aims at becoming the government.

So why "go nuclear" over 3 judges added to the D.C. District of the U.S. Court of Appeals? That's the court that will be ruling on what I expect to be a flood of regulations to be coming out of the White House over the next 3 years. Let's face it, Obama is a broken toy; his legislative agenda is pretty much finished. But Kings govern by fiat...not the car, either. And oh baby, the regulations will be coming!

And I believe this will have a direct effect on us. We've already seen moves on ATF regulations both on Firearms Trusts and FFL regulations. I mentioned the other day the new proposed BLM regs forcing shooters off public land, a policy USFS has been beta-testing for several years. If you recall, initialy there were repeated reassurance to the hunting community that it was only those damn recreational shooters. You'll notice the BLM regs no longer make such a distinction...conclusion? The Feds feel the once-insurmountable "hunting lobby" has been neutralized.

Sebastian at Shall Not Be Infringed had been doing the heavy lifting on the rise of antihunting sentiments...this from his excellent post "Hunting is Doomed, Part B:"

This kind of attitude [I'm a hunter, but I don't support...] is what’s going to kill hunting, because hunters still think it’s OK to argue about what hunting is and isn’t. This guy has just giving close to 6000 people, on a page “liked” by millions, moral cover for their outrage at a fellow hunter. Hunters will sell the animal rights movement the rope they will use to hang them. If you want to understand why in the shooting community, we’re so quick to knife traitors, this is why. Hunting has to develop the same kind of message discipline if they want their pastime to survive.

Yes, we in the shooting community have our "litmus tests," but quite frankly we have had to develop them to survive. I mean, "divide and conquer" may be one of the oldest, and still the most valid, piece of military wisdom on the planet. The reason that it is still valid is that it works. We have decades of our blood enemies trying to shave off little strips of the gun culture and either turn them against the majority or destroy them outright — "Saturday Night Specials," "cop-killer bullets," "assault weapons," "AR-15s," "handguns," ".50 BMGs," "sniper rifles," "stand-your-ground," and on and on and on and on.

Ironically, one of the areas most exploited by the antigunners was the perceived split between hunters and shooters (hence the development of those litmus tests I spoke about). Now we see, as Sebastian noted, the same tactics being used against hunters.

In the shooting community, we eventually adopted what I think is a very simple trope, "All guns are the same." Whether you shoot a specialized O/U for sporting clays, a .50 BMG in long-range competition, a bolt action hunting rifle,  a CCW handgun, a vintage Sharps rifle, your grandfather's double-barreled shotgun, a USPA Open gun, a .22 plinker, or an AR-15, an attack on one is considered an attack on all.  If you say you own "X" but you don't mind banning "Y," you can and should be considered a pariah to our community. Harsh rules, but these are harsh times. Our enemies will accept even the slightest gain as a huge victory and look toward more such victories in the future.

I think it's time for the hunting community to step up and say an attack on one is an attack on all. Read the brilliant South African article by Ivo Vegter that Sebastian linked to in his post:

The knee-jerk reaction of the chattering classes is that you don’t protect animals by killing them. That seems self-evident, but, as Mark Twain said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” 

The notion that hunting harms the survival of species, or the environment more generally, happens to be false, and demonstrably so.

 As a commentator to Sebastian's post noted, hunters have allowed themselves to be lulled into the "pseudo-hippy 'moral' position that only the mythical 'Native American' model of 'using every piece of what we kill.'" That's because the position is super easy to defend to our enemies who will happily concede that subsistence hunting is A-Okay with them...for today. Let's table the issue of whether any pseudo-hippy mythology is true, although I do notice the paucity of North American Mammoths and giant sloths (other than our veteran dopers) up here at the Secret Hidden Bunker and if you'd like a glimpse into the past of Native American buffalo hunting, I refer you to the magnificent and troubling bronze casting Buffalo Jump at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

The point is that hunting is now where we were in the 1970s...remember, shotguns were A-Okay! Hunting rifles were A-Okay! Handguns...you know those Saturday Night Specials are only meant to kill people...so maybe if you'll help us get rid of Saturday night specials, we'll leave you grandpa's double barrel and that squirrel gun. We as a culture now understand and accept that the only agenda the antigunners have is confiscation.

"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them . . . Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in, I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here."

— Senator Dianne Feinstein

February, 1995

As I've written before, after Newtown, when our enemies incorrectly believed the national "landscape" on guns had changed, the first word out of their collective mouths was, "Confiscate!" When it became obvious they'd overplayed their hand, it was too late...genie...bottle...etc.

One thing we saw in the Colorado battle was the extensive use of "false flag" hunting groups, most of them generated by Michael Bloomberg's organization, in favor of gun bans. It is time we learned that the only agenda for antihunting groups is the complete elimination of hunting. That's it. When they say anything else, the other side lies.

In war, the end justifies almost any means.

—Saul Alinsky, 1972

Do you doubt we are at war?

Confederates in the Attic

“No one makes a big deal of it, but if you’re a fly on the wall in any of their homes — I’ll tell you what: If you track the Confederate Army to the Dixiecrats, to the conversation of the Republicans, to the districts that were affected, you may be dealing with different labels, but if they were ever able to track down their ancestors, there’s a Confederate general in every damn living room."

— Charlie Rangel

(D-New York)

So I spent the day looking for the Confederate general in my living room...under the couch, behind the television, in Pokkee-San the Tailless Manx's bowl...nothing...nothing, I tell you. Paging Stonewall Jackson! Where are you, dude?

Today was a bitch, and I didn't expect it to be a bitch. I expected to spend the whole day working on my Ruger SR-762, getting the Giselle 3-Gun trigger in, changing out a couple of other parts. Instead, it turns out that I'm a television producer, which actually requires me to occasionally produce television. Who knew? I also did cleared snow out of the Secret Hidden Bunker's driveway, but that was the fun part.

I'm trying to get the last episode of SHOOTING GALLERY 2014 to miraculously fall into place...it's another one of my nitwit ideas, recreate a scene from one of the greatest "gun movies" of all time, WAY OF THE GUN. I have actors...I have locations...I have guns...hopefully, by tomorrow, I'll have FX. Did you know blanks cost $1.05 apiece? I sincerely hope we can pull this off...it will SO rock!

I'm paying close attention to the savage wave of anti-hunting sentiment that is sweeping the Internet. Given that Matthew Inman is a brain-dead scumbag, it's a little frightening to see the crucifixion

of Melissa Bachman, who in fact has done nothing wrong, illegal or unethical. Indeed, as was the case of Mike Baker with Under Wild Skies. For years, we've said that hunters needed to stand with shooters; ironically, it's time for shooters to stand with hunters. An attack on one is an attack on all. An attack by a piece of crap like Matthew Inman on Melissa Bachman is no different than an attack on the ownership of ARs or .50 BMG Barrett rifles.

And speaking of pieces of crap, as I predicted years ago, the Interior Department is taking steps to force shooters off public land. The greenies in USFS have always had a hard-on against shooters, using whatever lies and misrepresentations they could come up with to shut down recreational shooting. It's going to get much worse...according to U.S. News:

Gun owners who have historically been able to use public lands for target practice would be barred from potentially millions of acres under new rules drafted by the Interior Department, the first major move by the Obama administration to impose limits on firearms.
...
If the draft policy is finally approved, some public access to Bureau lands to hunters would also be limited, potentially reducing areas deer, elk, and bear hunters can use in the West.

In our brutal battle with USFS' jihad a few years back, I predicted that the fight was a trial run for nationwide rollout. I was, unfortunately,  right. 

Revisionist History of the AR-15 Pistol

Interesting to see the AR pistol being seriously considered as a self-defense tool as opposed to the "range toy for stupid fanboys" meme that has held sway for years. I recall being flayed alive a few years back when I mentioned that the AR pistol seemed to fill a PDW niche pretty well, especially in the constrained space of a vehicle.

RRA piston pistol

I've used both a Rock River piston pistol (RRPP? Hmmmmmm), which does not have a buffer tube, and a Spike's Tactical 9mm pistol as PDWs when I was on the road. [Aside...I've been using the DoubleStar C3 recently in a Comp-Tac Sports Bag].

Spike's 9mm

I mentioned Gabe Suarez's work on the AR-15 pistol:

We have also found the M4 Pistol to be an excellent vehicle weapon, being extremely light and handy and capable of maneuvering in the close confines of a Tahoe, Jeep, BMW, or similar sized automobile.

Matt at Jerking the Trigger, a daily read, is building up an AR pistol to test it out, and today he clears up a lot of misconceptions on building and owning AR pistols:

I wouldn’t say that I am anti-AR pistol and I also wouldn’t say that I think they are a great idea. I guess that I am somewhat agnostic toward them. However, what always bothered me was casual way that they were written off by many “experts” who sneered that they were toys without ever really backing that up with actual data. So, in an effort to find out what is really up with AR pistols, I am planning on building one and putting it through the wringer.

Definitely read the whole thing, and I look forward to his report. I do plan to build up a .300 Blackout pistol, then put in the paperwork to SBR it. Ideally, I'd like a lower that was already engraved with the Class III info and have the front of the magazine well checkered, which, of course, does NOT describe any of the lowers I've got here at the Secret Hidden Bunker. A little voice inside my head keeps telling me to suck it up and pay extra for the BANE Firearms "Fidelis" lower because...c'mon, you get it! Hey, how many gun companies share your last name, as well as the name of Batman's nemesis???They'll also engrave the Class III markings. Having trouble rationalizing $285, however, for a lower, even one this cool...

BANE Firearms "Fidelis" lower

All this implies that I have enough time to put together an AR lower, which does take about 10 minutes longer than grilling salmon. In the meantime, my recording studio is waiting for me...

...before I go, read this great article on Real World bug-out bags from my good friend Tim Wegner of Blade-Tech fame in American Handgunner:

The problem when traveling via the airlines is you don’t have the luxury of toting a full blown “End of the World, Zombie Slaying” B.O.B along with you. However, there is more a compact alternative I call the BMGB or Bare Minimum Go Bag. This is a small but well stocked emergency kit weighing in at 9 lbs. packed and locked securely in my checked bag after I check in at the ticket counter and go thru TSA to declare my firearm.

Read the whole thing...then go buy some of Tim's "Top of the Food Chain" seasoning!

One Last Grilled Salmon

Spent the afternoon writing up 2 executive summaries, one for a  30--minutes special on the Philippine typhoon disaster, the other for a new 2014 series I've been noodling on. Then I had totally wonderful remaining afternoon putting the snow tires (Bridgestone Blizzaks, the best snow tires I've ever used) on my aging Honda Element, lovingly referred to as the "Boxcar." Afterwards, I grilled some salmon outside on the, since big time snow is on the way and grill days are ending.

Interesting study referred to in U.S. News on violence in Chicago:

Typically, Papachristos says, there are traditional factors that put a person at a higher risk of becoming a victim of gun violence homicide - African-Americans are more likely to be killed than whites; men more likely than women; gang members more likely than non-gang members; and those who come from low-income neighborhoods more likely than affluent individuals. 

But even more than any of those factors, Papachristos says, a victim's social network was a better indicator

Let me be clear here...if you 're a member of a gang in the Thug Life Paradise of the Windy City, you're about a zillion times more likely to end up inside a chalk outline than not. Wow, let's think about that...if the city of Chicago cracked down on gangs, it would save lives. But the gangs are quite simply part of the power structure, no different than the City Council or the police department. That scumbag Rahm Emanuel rails on and on about guns. Bought and sold.

So remember John Farnam's world-class advice for staying safe in an unsafe world: "Don't go stupid places and do stupid things with stupid people." This is a good summary.

BTW, if you want to read something from a person with the IQ of a endangered frog, check out this piece from HuffPo titled " Have a Right to Hate Guns." Hey Tom, I hope you don't mind when  say I have a right to have your stupid butt. Your ramblings are pretty much on par with a BB rattling around a empty container...have you every considered immigrating to, say, Somalia? Or maybe Chicago...you could be a Vice Lord, or a Latin King, or an Insane Satan Disciple, or even a City Councilman!

Quickie Catch-up Edition!

Am at the Austin TX Airport waiting, as they say, for de plane de plane, and I've got a lot of catching up to do. Let's bullet-point it:

-- BIG OLE CONGRATS to Mike Seeklander, who with the SHOOTING GALLERY cameras rolling, won the inaugural IDPA Back-Up Gun Nationals at S&W last week. Neither Mike nor I have seen official results, but we got a text from IDPA marketing guy and old friend Paul Erhardt. In a world of brand spanking new mini-9mms, Mike won with a decidedly Old Skol Rock Island Armory compact 9mm 1911.

-- The IDPA back-up gun format is just spectacular. Five - shot strings, no holsters, intelligent stage design clearly built around Real World problems, only 2 divisions...semiauto and revolver, a simple straightforward wan to integrate a buck-up gun match into a regular IDPA match. This is yet another home run for Joyce Wilson and IDPA.

-- I shot my ancient STI LS9, a platform I'll have some more info on in a minute. I remembered belatedly there were a couple of small things I was going to do to the gun when rotated the gun "out of service" years ago, and they came back to bite me. I did have a wonderful time, and I remembered how great the little gun shot. I may be doing a bit of shuffling on my carry guns as a result.

-- Jesse James is a very nice guy, and quite frankly his inaugural guns look great. Obviously, you don't get a chance for any serious gun-handling at a party, but his launch guns handled great and showed showed what one might expect from a master machinist...an intense, relentless attention to detail.

-- The first 2 guns to reach the market from Jesse James Firearms Unlimited will be the stainless steel Cisco 1911 .45 and the Nomad 5.56 AR.

-- The 1911 is being manufactured by STI...you guys already know what I think about their guns. I believe I've called them the best about-of-the-box guns in the world. At last night's party I talked at length to both Tim Dillon, CEO of STI, who's factories are 20 minutes from Jesse's house, and Jesse. Both are very happy with the relationship and happily admit that both butted heads about the 1911 specs.

-- The AR line is based on Jesse James' spec 'd uppers and lowers from Houlding Precision Firearms in Cali (?!?!), a family company with a reputation for high-end precision (and expensive) ARs. Once again, I talked at length to Todd , the company's founder, about James' input into the design process, and Houlding said it was extensive. The Nomad features a James-designed muzzle brake, a Wilson Combat barrel and a full line of top-end parts.

-- Jesse and I talked extensively about his new and patented AR suppressor design, which looks uncannily like a sweet potato (yes, I'll get pixs loaded when I get to my my office at the Bunker). "Dude," he said, "what have I been doing for my whole career? Building intake manifolds and exhaust systems...I understand exploding gas." The specs on the suppressor are truly impressive, and who wouldn't want a sweet potato on the end of their gun?  Seriously, I'll be back in TX in a month and have a chance for hands-on with all the guns and the silencer.

-- There will also probably be a Jesse James signature FNH FNX-45, which I'm pretty much down with. the heavily engraved proto they showed at the party absolutely rocked, and I told Tabor Bright from FNH that I'd be standing in line for that one.

-- There will also be a JJFU full custom shop, which I suspect to be swamped with work from Day One. The cherubs and him tell me that History Channel is sniffing around for a JJFU gun series, but I threw my hat into the ring anyway.

-- You can see the guns at SHOT, and, yes, they will be the Higher Priced Spread.

--Tim Dillon and I talked STI SHOT Show releases, which I can't get into for now. He did promise me hat the LS9, which he and I 100%agreed was a gun before its time, will eventually be back in the line-up in its "perfected" form, that, is with a skinny light-weight aluminum frame ranther than the beefy steel of the original (I called for in the beginning!). I believe that will be a home run gun, but I'm prejudiced.

-- Austin has gone to hell on cowboy hats...hipster culture mandates fedoras...I, of course, have nothing against fedorss...I have many. But come on! Texas? Austin? My love of cowboy hats started when I was hanging around the Austim music scene Back in the Back When. One hipster girl quizzed me so much on my hat (a Sunday-Go-To--Meeting Ritch Rand western fedora in a cream color) that I wished I had an order blank for her.

Sorry for the crappy pixs...we'll have real video on DOWN RANGE ASAP!

Busy Busy...

...shot first IDPA Back Up Gun Nations at S&W Academy. Big fun. Shot my old STI LS9 9mm. More when I get back to the bunker...lotsa pixs!

Veterans Day, 2013

And in the nights of winter, 

When the cold north-winds blow, 

And the long howling of the wolves 

Is heard amidst the snow; 

When round the lonely cottage

Roars loud the tempest’s din, 

And the good logs of Algidus 

Roar louder yet within; 

When the oldest cask is opened, 

And the largest lamp is lit;

When the chestnuts glow in the embers, 

And the kid turns on the spit; 

When young and old in circle 

Around the firebrands close; 

When the girls are weaving baskets,

And the lads are shaping bows; 

When the goodman mends his armor, 

And trims his helmet’s plume; 

When the goodwife’s shuttle merrily 

Goes flashing through the loom;

With weeping and with laughter 

Still is the story told, 

How well Horatius kept the bridge 

In the brave days of old.

My everlasting thanks to all of you who have held the bridge, stood between those of us at home and anarchy. 

God bless you all.

Remembering Robert R. Bane, USN, who served in the Pacific, WW2...and the flag was still there...

Be Still My Heart

ABBA mulls possible reunion

The legendary Swedish pop group ABBA is mulling a possible reunion next year, singer Agnetha Faltskog said in a German newspaper interview Sunday.

Can you hear the drums, Agnetha?

Completely Boring Computer Stuff

I upgraded phones to an iPhone 5s...of course my GPS turn-by-turn no longer works. Well, I'll torture it into submission tomorrow. The Sweetie and I slept late late late today, and as a consequence I feel...oh, what is that word??? Ph yeah, rested. I could get used to this, except that it's time to start the serious run to the SHOT Show. And Glock still refuses to tell me what their super deluxe new product intro is going to be! Maybe a Glock coffee grinder?

After just a few shots I've convinced myself to keep the Ruger SR-776 and shoot Heavy Metal all next year. Couple of immediate changes — Geissele 3-Gun trigger and some sort of muzzle brake replacing the perfectly serviceable flash-hider. I'm think an AAC brake with an eye toward a single solution to silencing my growing horde of .30 cals. I mean, if everything had the same muzzle brake/ratchet-on suppressor mount, I could move a single can to whatever I was shooting at the time.

BTW, while I was getting ready for recording Wednesday's podcast, I came across this gem on a site titled "Facts Are Facts:"

The modern, rhythmic music that we like and don’t particularly want to give up wasn’t exactly inspired by one of the seven heavens. English musician and mystic Cyril Scott—who was among other things a pupil of the “Masters of Wisdom” known as “Mahatmas”—wrote in his inspired book Music—Its Secret Influence Throughout the Ages about the forerunners to rock ‘n’ roll and their effects on society: “After the dissemination of Jazz, which was definitely ‘put through’ by the Dark Forces, a very marked decline in sexual morals became noticeable. Whereas at one time women were content with decorous flirtation, a vast number of them are now constantly preoccupied with the search for erotic adventures, and have thus turned sexual passion into a species of hobby.

Damn! I knew that Negro music was sexing up the womenfolk! Now I have proof. Admit it, doesn't Miley Cyrus make a lot more sense now?

And speaking of the womenfolk. they're doing a lot more hunting these days. National Geographic says the number of women hunters is up 25% since 2006:

One male hunter, Fred Williams, speaking to NPR, says, “"women tend to be actually better hunters because they tend to be a bit more patient, and oftentimes are a much better shot, because they tend to be a bit more focused." 

In Wyoming, Marilyn Kite, the state’s first female state Supreme Court justice, helped come up with the idea of the Women’s Antelope Hunt. 

"We've found it to be just great recreation, lots of fun, and the camaraderie of it is why you do it, really," Kite told NPR. "But we also really like the meat."

Cool.

Interesting Article on Spree Killers

From The WSJ, titled What Mass Killers Want — And How to Stop Them. This covers a lot of ground we've already covered over the years. The media and spree killers are involved in an intricate dance...they love each other; they nurture each other. We've known for years how to stop, or at least reduce, mass killings, but we don'd do it because it would require the MSM to act like human beings instead of the whores they are.

There is one paragraph in the article that struck me as somewhat humorous:

Instead, massacre killers are typically marked by what are considered personality disorders: grandiosity, resentment, self-righteousness, a sense of entitlement. They become, says Dr. Knoll, " 'collectors of injustice' who nurture their wounded narcissism." To preserve their egos, they exaggerate past humiliations and externalize their anger, blaming others for their frustrations. They develop violent fantasies of heroic revenge against an uncaring world.

Holy crap! Does that remind you of anyone we all know???

That's right! Ole Barry "Hey...I'm A Stone-Drone Killah" Obama! The White House Liar-In-Chief perfectly meets the profile for a spree killer, which probably explains why he has so much fun dropping drones on jihadists, innocent bystanders, children, anyone else he can figure how to kill and get away with it, then brags about how much fun he's having:

The president’s specific words: I’m “really good at killing people,” authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann write in “Double Down: Game Change 2012."

How's that for hope and change?

BTW, remember Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938...the Night of Broken Glass. Stephen Halbrook has a new book coming out, Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and 'Enemies of the State'. In a recent article in the Washington Times, Halbrook wrote:

This week marks the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass, the Nazi pogrom against Germany’s Jews on Nov. 9-10, 1938. Historians have documented most everything about it except what made it so easy to attack the defenseless Jews without fear of resistance. Their guns were registered and thus easily confiscated.

Funny how that works!

Metcalf's Lame Response

Published, quite properly, by Jim Shepherd in THE SHOOTING WIRE:

In today's political climate within the community of firearms owners, even to open a discussion about whether 2nd Amendment rights can be regulated at all, is to be immediately and aggressively branded as anti-gun and anti-American by outspoken hard-corps pro-gunners who believe the answer is an absolute "NO!"

I'm going to leave the reasoned, nuanced discussion to Bitter at SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED, who does a superb job of disassembling Metcalf's sad comments:

Ah, yes, rather than address the specific issue, he resorts to implying that those who disagree don’t believe in freedom. This is a message to Dick: The Bill of Rights is a limit on government powers to silence you (in the case of the First Amendment), not a promise for any job you want with any private company you desire to work with and a free pass to say anything you want or behave any way you want without consequence from other private citizens. By trying to play this card, Metcalf is going into what I like to call Full Dixie Chicks Mode. The Chicks were outraged that their political rantings weren’t fully accepted by their audience and were stunned that the same audience simply decided not to buy future products. It’s the same situation here. The Bill of Rights does not provide a guarantee that someone has to keep giving you money when you say something that they fundamentally disagree with.

This is not, as Bitter so lucidly notes, a "free speech" issue. Let me go a step farther than that...as I noted in my earlier post, we have been having a "dialog" about the role of firearms in American society at least as long as I've been alive. IMHO, the "dialog" ended when the war began.

Let me say this again...we are at war with a segment of society whose sole goal is total civilian disarmament. We are not in a dialog. We are not in a debate. We are not in a healthy give-and-take in the Cornell University academic lounge. The primary weapon used by our blood enemies is the Big Lie.

It works like this...our enemy states a Big Lie, and I could list dozens, and we run around like little bitty chickens with our heads cut off, marshaling our arguments, footnoting our learned responses, bullet pointing our facts...and after the whole charade is over the enemy repeats the Big Lie, the lapdog media reports it as truth, and WE LOSE AGAIN!

Look at the thoroughly discredited "a gun in the home is 43% more likely to harm rather than protect the homeowner." Probably more words have been written debunking that fake piece of trash than all Shakespeare's plays and the complete transcribed Wikipedia, yet 2 weeks ago I read it presented as gospel truth in a daily newspaper website.

During the fight on the Colorado gun laws earlier this year, thousands of us came with our carefully prepared remarks, charts, studies, bullet points, facts — real honest to goodness facts. Our blood enemies, most notably Michael Bloomberg, shipped in a parade of liars...heads of fake organizations created by Bloomberg, a presentation of "polls" that wouldn't meet even the most basic rules for polling, etc. We had the "indisputable" facts; they had the Big Lie. Who won?

Hint: It wasn't us.

Note to future Metcalfs...you want some healthy give-and-take, go back to your academic lounges. The arena is for fighters.

Metcalf Canned

Intermedia moved quickly to protect their flagship Guns & Ammo property and capped longtime editor Dick Metcalf after his inexplicable, profoundly stupid column on the Second Amendment:

Couple of personal points here...Dick Metcalf and I have been friends for 30 years...that's a lot of adult beverage under the bridge. We have shot together, competed against each other, run matches, exchanged lies, and on and on. But the cold hard truth is he had to go. You can't spew the kind of nonsense Dick wrote and expect to walk away from it unscathed.

The very best thing I have read on the whole imbroglio comes from my friend Paul Erhardt writing in The Shooting Wire:

It's hard to tell exactly why Dick Metcalf chose to write what he did. Even harder still to understand his embracing of regulations as both needed and fundamentally the cornerstone of the framers' intent when they wrote "a well regulated militia."

Paul quotes from another column by our mutual friend Paul Markel from Student of the Gun:

The reasonableness approach is seductive and genuinely the default of most people. Were we living in a different time I might be willing to acquiesce to Dick's many reasonable points. However, for at least a century, as far back as the questionable passage of the individual Federal Income Tax, we the people of the United States of America have indeed been reasonable. We have accepted restrictions on our liberty a tiny bit at time. A minuscule amount of arsenic will not kill you, but it builds up over time, slowly.  

Decade after decade, we are treated to just a bit more gun control, just a bit more restriction in the name of public safety. To argue against "public safety" makes you unreasonable and modern man fears that label. Individual liberty and freedom will not be killed by a single, decapitating blow, that would be far too obvious. Instead, the body of liberty is being slowly but very deliberately bled to death one tiny cut at time, the cuts being so small as almost not to be noticed.  

When it comes to liberty, we, the reasonable people, have given and given and given, but it is never enough. The beast of the authoritarian state will never be satisfied. I, for one, am finished willfully surrendering my liberty. Don't come to me asking for "reasonableness" I'm all out and if you took a moment to be honest with yourself, I think you would be out as well.

We are playing a deadly serious zero sum game...every time our blood enemies win a point, we lose a point...and move closer to the abyss The concepts of "reasonable," of "national dialog," of an "open conversation" are nothing but false flag operations to reel in suckers.  We've had a "national dialog" for half-a century, and all we've done is lost ground. Hey, the facts are all on our side! The numbers are all on our side! The laws are all on our side! How can we lose a national dialog?

"If you like your health policy, you can keep it...period! If you like your doctors, you can keep your doctor...period!"

Here's how. Folks, our blood enemies lie. They are not misinformed...they are not operating on incorrect or incomplete information...they are not misinterpreting data...they are intentionally NOT speaking the truth because they know that low information voters have the attention span of gnats. They lie, because they understand if you keep telling the lie it wraps itself in the veneer of truth. As Adolf Hitler, the master of the Big Lie, wrote in Mein Kampf:

All this was inspired by the principle--which is quite true within itself--that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.

The concept of "reasonable" is flypaper for smart people. Smart people — and former Professor Dick Metcalf is indeed a very smart man — find the idea of debate virtually irresistible because they believe they can't lose. I am reminded of the head of a gun company whom I counseled not to appear on a weekly network news show. Do you think I can't handle myself, said the exec, a trial attorney by trade? No, I replied...I said the game is rigged...you cannot win. I quoted Leonard Cohen — "Everybody knows the dice are loaded; everybody rolls with their fingers crossed..."

He ignored me, and a quote taken out of context cost him his job.

To borrow a phase from our Liar-In-Chief, let me be clear...our blood enemies have one single agenda item  — one single item! — that has remained unchanged for half a century, and that is complete and total civilian disarmament. Or, to phrase it another way, door-to-door confiscation of every civilian-owned gun in America. That's it, folks.

Recall how that for the last decade as support as support for gun control waned we heard more and more about "reasonable" and "common sense" gun control laws. Don't be silly, we were told...no one wants to take away your guns! The moment Newtown happened and our blood enemies thought — incorrectly — that the national landscape for gun control had changed, it was confiscation time, baby! Hey, San Francisco started the confiscation of magazines with a capacity greater than 10 this week. The end game is ALWAYS confiscation!

For more than a decade Paul Erhardt and I have taught that whomever gets to define the game will ALWAYS win said game. When a high-visibility "gunnie" like Dick Metcalf decides to validate the other side and by stepping into their arena, it does untold damage to our cause.

Dick, Good Lord, what were you thinking??? 

We don't need a new dialog, a national discussion, a third way, a new beginning or common sense anything...we don't need "reasonable" — we need to hold the damn line against people who would happily load us into boxcars and send us east! We need to say no to the people who destroy our heritage, spit on the Constitution and unleash their thugs. 

No compromise.

That clear enough?

 

TOMORROW'S THE BIG DAY!!!!!

Live "studio" filming of SHOOTING GALLERY openings and closings...the Ben Avery Range...Phoenix, AZ

Two sessions...9AM and 1PM..."goodie bag" including books, videos, assorted swag...

We'll be giving away a certificate for a Ruger Take-Down 10/22 as soon as Marshal'ette figures how how!!!

NO TICKET NEEDED!

The range is closed, so we'll be using the main range area.

SEE YOU THERE!

I Feel Smarter Already!

Always great to wake up and learn something new! This from Business Insider, everything you ever wanted to know about the AR-15!

Very little separates a civilian AR-15 from the M-16s that are the standard-issue rifle for the American military. The military versions are semi-automatic, but also come with the ability to fire in a three-round burst; this feature is rarely used.

Well, who knew? I was handling a modern military M4A1 last Friday morning, and to my uneducated eyes it appeared to be full auto. In fact, I thought the 3-round burst went away when the M4 upgraded to the M4A1. I guess since the President lies on a daily basis, it sets the tone for his busy little bee minions in the media. Using the same logic, I'd say very little separates my Grey Parrot Ripley from Business Insider correspondent Brian Jones, except that Ripley is smart.

Since When is it Friday?

I guess 4 days of filming — 2 for SG; 2 for TBD — and a travel day in the middle pretty much takes care of the week. The days were long, and I just went to bed. Sorry.

I will say the Kodabow crossbow is just the bee's knees! It's like the shooting equivalent of popcorn...you cant just shoot one bolt. We were all amazed at how hard this thing hits...the bolts went roughly 60 percent into the target (a standard Bulldog arrow target). I'll have it in Phoenix next week, and maybe we can get some audience members on it.

Remember...

SHOOTING GALLERY 

LIVE AUDIENCE FILMING

PHOENIX, AZ

BEN AVERY RANGE

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5

9AM and 1PM SESSIONS

FREE STUFF!

And while I'm thinking about it, I note that Jesse James, the motorcycle Jesse James, is launching his Jesse James Firearms Unlimited in Austin this month:

Following in the footsteps of his worldwide success with West Coast Choppers, Jesse James Firearms Unlimited brings his renowned level of craftsmanship and detail to a new industry and product. "It's taking the same theory behind my world-famous bikes and applying it to another passion of mine, which is guns," he explains.  

 Jesse James Firearms Unlimited will debut with an initial offering of a 1911 pistol and an AR-15 rifle. The guns will be available for purchase as early as January 2014 online at www.jjfu.com. Ultimately, the brand will offer a full span of guns that appeal to military and law enforcement as well as to the individual gun enthusiast.

Sounds cool to me! We'll keep you posted...especially if we can get painted on flames! I like flames.

A Quickie Before I Race Up To the Studio and Finish the Podcast

I went to the Ruger website to vote for the newest Ruger 10/22 50th Anniversary design. There were some definitely cool design, but I went with the one from Gary in Michigan...it's a 10/22 designed for the Appleseed Project. As you guys know, I unconditionally support the Appleseed Project. I think 1 10/22 designed as the Appleseed "Liberty" rifle would help boost the program. Check it out for yourself!

Other good news on my long distance rifle project is that CDI Precision Gunworks now has the bottom metal to convert my FNH TSR .308 to the AI magazine standard. That'll make the TSR consistent with my Ruger Gunsite Scout on mags. Yes, the mags are expensive, and yes, they are bulletproof. I'll be interested to see if the Ruger polymer versions will work as well (the Rugers, duh, work fine in the Ruger).

Time to get to pod'ing...LOL!

Sunday Catch-Ups

After a few days in Santa Fe catching my breath, I'm gearing up for the long run to the SHOT Show. For an ep of SHOOTING GALLERY, I'm looking forward to doing some filming with Mike Hughes, CEO of NextLevel Training and it's great S.I.R.T. laser training pistol and rifle. My friend Paul Markel of Student of the Gun and I were joking on the phone a couple of weeks ago that if it wasn't for the S.I.R.T. pistol there are weeks when we wouldn't have any training at all. Both of us keep a S.I.R.T. pistol on our desks and the walls of my office have different-sized IDPA targets and pictures of plates thumb-tacked up.

The SG crew is also building a nice arbalest, a siege crossbow, for our episode on What To Do Until the Ammo Returns. It's about quarter-scale, so I need a quarter-scale castle to assault. Or a quarter-scale troll...

On the road I carried the usual assortment of armament — an LCP in my pocket, my Perfected LC9 (thanks Galloway Precision) in a SafePacker (with extra mags) and the DoubleStar C3 AR in a Comp-Tac Trojan Horse rifle case. BTW, the Trojan Horse case works exactly as billed, a great AR carry system that raises no eyebrows.

Couple of articles that are well worth reading. The first is from Afterburner's Bill Whittle, one of the most thoughtful commentators on politics, survival and just plain clear thinking. It's called Bamboo Spears, and it's from his personal blog, now called The Common-Sense Resistance:

Not long ago, the man who made my career possible – Glenn Reynolds, aka The Blogfather, aka Instapundit, wrote a simple, throw-away sentence that went through my forehead like a diamond bullet. It fundamentally changed the way I see things, and like a diamond bullet through the forehead – it hurt. 

Glenn was talking about the pummeling the GOP was taking in the polls during and after the latest “government shutdown,” which was in fact caused by President Obama but which was reported in the press – universally – as being the fault of the Republicans. He wrote: 

The GOP has to deal with the problem posed by a hostile media. It’s like trying to mount an invasion when the enemy has air superiority.

Read the whole thing, please! I've been saying for a couple of years or so that the loss of the free media in the United States is a disaster of as-of-yet unplumbed proportions. Consider the staggering scandals of the Obama administration — Obamacare, Benghazi, the IRS, the NSA, overtly snooping on the media, Fast and Furious...and no doubt I'm missing some. A Republican President could not have survived even one of those scandals! Not one, much less 6 in the span of 2 years.

The Democratic/statist administration survives and even thrives because the once much-vaunted "free press" provides cover and cover-ups, "false flag" explanations and an unquestioning recitation of administration talking points — much the same way Pravda used to dutifully report the crop and manufacturing projections from the old Soviet commissars, even though they were blatant fantasy. The formerly free press now defines its job as protecting the Progressive agenda, period. Air cover, if you will. Again, read Mr. Whittle's post and take it to heart.

On a much lighter note, my old friend Massad Ayoob has an exceptional column over at Backwood Homes that really helps cut through a lot of the current thinking about firearms why we sometimes get beyond "logic" in our firearms acquisitions:

Logic? Certainly, it can't be denied. Indeed, it has to be integral to any decision making process. Sentiment, as opposed to generic emotion? Well, one thing we all have to remember is that if our collective experience with the given thing wasn't good or positive, we probably wouldn't have developed a sentimental attachment to it in the first place.  

If you think about it, this is one of the many ways in which the world of the gun is an allegory to the rest of the world we live in.  

Sentiment and logic can co-exist comfortably. That co-existence, after we've given it some thought, can be natural and efficient...and pleasing, an element which carries an intangible value which only the individual can weigh and value.

Nicely done, Brother Mas!

Time to face another week! My Ruger SR-762 should be in this week, in time for me to show it off in Phoenix next Tuesday at the SHOOTING GALLERY Live Audience filmings at Ben Avery. Looking forward to seeing lots of people there!

What We're Up Against...

...so earlier this week I was in Santa Fe, and as usual I made an homage to the Lucchese Boots. I believe Lucchese are the best boots in the world, and over the years I've spent a good bit of money with them. I go to the store, talk to the boot-fitters who ask how this or that boot is working, and if I'm having an exceptional year, buy another pair.

This year I wasn't buying. On the way out of the store I saw an exceptional bolo tie with carved skulls...good taste is indeed timeless! I asked the clerk whether the carving was bone, synthetic or ivory. She lit up on me..."it's not ivory!" she snapped. "We woudn't have anything made of elephant ivory in the store."

Why, I asked mildly? Any commercial ivory would be legal.

"It diesn't matter to the elephant whether it's legal or not," she snapped again.

Okay, here's the punch line...I'd been looking at a belt in the back of the store. It was a great belt...elephant, of course, to match Lucchese's elephant skin boots...but I'm never going to be plopping down $320 for a belt, sans buckle. hey, it wasn't even a gun belt! Another guy was trying on a pair of crocodile leather boots, and as near as I can tell the crocodile was dead. Dead, I tell you! Ostrich leather? Dead ostrich. Lizard leather? Dead lizard. Bison leather? Dead tatonka. Hey, even just plain ole boots (like mine)? Dead cow.

How does one process that level of hypocrisy? Smugly lecturing me about ivory while selling a huge selection of dead animal skins? 

No, I didn't go all Michael Bane on the clerk...I was with my Sweetie and it was her birthday. C'mon...but I will let Lucchese know.

Register for the Shooting Gallery Season 14 Studio Audience Q&A Segments

Be part of the live studio audience for season 14 of Shooting Gallery. The filming will take place at the Ben Avery Shooting Range in Phoenix, AZ on November 5th 2013.

More info and registration form on DRTV.

What If It Turns Out we Were Right All Along?

From ABC News today:

Exclusive: After Westgate, Interpol Chief Ponders 'Armed Citizenry' 

Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said today the U.S. and the rest of the democratic world is at a security crossroads in the wake of last month's deadly al-Shabab attack at a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya – and suggested an answer could be in arming civilians. 

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Noble said there are really only two choices for protecting open societies from attacks like the one on Westgate mall where so-called "soft targets" are hit: either create secure perimeters around the locations or allow civilians to carry their own guns to protect themselves.
...
"Ask yourself: If that was Denver, Col., if that was Texas, would those guys have been able to spend hours, days, shooting people randomly?" Noble said, referring to states with pro-gun traditions. "What I'm saying is it makes police around the world question their views on gun control. It makes citizens question their views on gun control. You have to ask yourself, 'Is an armed citizenry more necessary now than it was in the past with an evolving threat of terrorism?' This is something that has to be discussed."

Read the whole thing, and give it some thought.

Alf Survives Again!!!

This time, Death From Above! Amazingly, while I was walking the Wonder Beagle today I saw a bald eagle, which migrate through the area of the Secret Hidden Bunker a couple of times a year. The eagle was circling up high when he suddenly dropped like a freight elevator, then made a swooping run above us at telephone pole level. The eagle banked, looped around and came in even lower, so low that even Alf pulled her nose off the ground to watch the bird. Of course, in Alf's World big birds deliver food and are relatively benign playmates.

The eagle apparent decided that Alf was a bit big for dinner and headed off on the thermals. I think the eagle was puzzled by Alf, who was wearing her fashionable holstein cow sweater. So there...doggie fashion as a survival skill!

The eagle was darn cool, though.

We were up on the property of the New Improved Secret Hidden Bunker with the contractor today...the blasting is finished and the house platform looks a little like Europe at the end of WW2. There a 10 foot high wall of blasted granite at the front of the house platform, which I (of course) see as a feature, not a bug! All I need is a couple of arbalests and a moat...and some crocodiles maybe. Boiling oil. The whole medieval package, so to speak. Probably pour the foundation in November, after they finish digging the dungeon and get the iron rings set in the granite.

Okay...Solerno Sunday?

“A fool may be known by six things: anger, without cause; speech, without profit; change, without progress; inquiry, without object; putting trust in a stranger, and mistaking foes for friends”

I stumbled across this listed as an "Arabian proverb." Whomever thought it up, it rocks.

Most of the morning I finished setting up the DoubleStar C3...I already added an Aimpoint Micro co-witnessed with the BUIS (via a Daniel Defense mount). Today I finished up by bolting on a little piece of rail and adding a Streamlight TLR-2 high output light with a green laser and a single point sling.

Cool!

After a long, snowy hike with the Wonder Beagle, during which Alf was NOT attacked, molested, assaulted, bitten, threatened, nipped, mugged, etc., my Sweetie suggested, strongly, that since I was definitely in town, our weekly margarita fest be moved forward — not a word from you, Worsham!

I'm still experimenting with her favorite, and I think I may have reached the pinnacle — 1 1/4 ounce Milagro Anejo, 1 ounce Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur, 1/4 ounce Triple Sec, 1 1/2 ounce lemon/lime juice (fresh squeezed, mixed 50/50). I challenge you to make this margarita and tell me that it is not the single best margarita you have ever tasted!

I'M THROWING DOWN THE TEQUILA GAUNTLET! Post your best margarita recipes, and we'll try the ones we like. In a totally arbitrary, unscientific and let's face it, completely unfair, biased and corrupt taste test, we'll pick a winner and give you one of them nice Streamlight TLR-2s...maybe in green, in you use limes instead of lemons.

I'm Cooking! Cooking, I Tell You!

If I remember how. I'm starting small with broiling some salmon, maybe done up with my friend Tim Wegner's "Tim Killer Seasoning," which is a great blend. Add black beans and rice and a glass of Boete Cheval Rouge, a peppery red from Carmel Valley, and I'm definitely home. I'll try something more exotic, maybe something Mediterranean — white fish in a clay pot with olives, say — later this weekend.

Meanwhile, read this article on women in the shooting sports from ActionTargets via Ammoland:

Here’s a breakdown of the numbers:
Younger: 66 percent of new shooters fall into the 18-to-34-year-old category compared to 31 percent in the same age category for established shooters.
Female: 37 percent of new target shooters are female compared to 22 percent of established target shooters.
Urban: 47 percent of new target shooters live in urban/suburban settings versus 34 percent of established target shooters.

As Glenn Reynolds is fond of saying, it is all going as I have foreseen.

Had a talk with Gabe Suarez about AR-15 pistols, which I still content have utility as PDWs...Gabe's going to give some thought about how the tool might be used in that context. Be cool to take a 2-day class in using the AR-15 pistol in and around vehicles!

I spent the afternoon alternating between shoveling snow and dinking with an AR in the gun room. The dinking was more fun, to be sure.

Finally, a "bulletproof style" vest! The only difference is that, hey, it doesn't stop bullets! Still, style is tres important!

Friday Round-Up

Interestingly enough, a local man was attacked by 3 coyotes...he fought them off with a flashlight. As much as I like flashlights, I think there are better anti-coyote strategies.

“So I took my flashlight and hit it over the side of the head to get it to let go. As soon as I got it to let go then another one went to lunge at me. All I really thought to do was swing and knock it to get it from jumping at me again,” Dickehage said. “Picture closing your eyes and having the three figures, you can barely see them, and all you could do is keep your hands up and just make sure that they weren’t going for the face … You feel the initial impact, and as soon as you felt it, then you could react and go to shove, but, I mean, after that … all I could try doing was make sure I was moving backwards.”

Of course the first recommendation is carry dog/bear spray.

Let me relate an incident that happened to our hapless beagle Alf 2 weeks ago. A neighborhood dog she'd always been friendly with grabbed one of her big, floppy ears and wouldn't let go (both dogs were on leash). The woman walking the other dog pulled out her dog spray and promptly sprayed her own dog directly in the eyes, splattering Alf. Net result? Same as always...nothing. My Sweetie hit the dog twice on its head with her fist until it turned loose. Alf got stitches, my neighbor got fined and my Sweetie got dog spray off Alf all over the steering wheel of my Honda Element.

Spray, either dog, bear or people, seems to work great if the dog, bear or person is sitting around having an adult beverage watching television. I think blood chemistry and, for lack of a better word, the psychology of the animal/human are the primary factors in spray performance. A person or a bear or a coyote in full attack mode will not necessarily respond the way we might hope when popped with spray. I've done sims in a "gas environment" (where afterwards I ended up throwing away all the clothes I was wearing at the time) and I've been sprayed with various flavors in one of my other lives as a journalist who specialized in covering urban riots. As a journalist, I just worked through it...it sucked, but my head didn't explode. Interestingly enough, the gas worked best in the sims, where I knew it was coming and dreaded the heck out of it...once again, a lot of it is in your head.

This is another one of those "you pays your money; you takes your chances" situation (and we deal with it this upcoming season in THE BEST DEFENSE). We don't have a big coyote problem up high...there's just not enough food in the high alpine niche to support a pack. Typically, I'll see a few coyotes during the fall and winter and I always offer them the deal: be gone or be dead.

I would tend to err on the side of caution with coyotes...they are not afraid of us and they are very efficient pack hunters. I realize there's some controversy on this choice, but IMHO this is where the .410 pistol comes into its own. I have a Bond Arms derringer and a Taurus Judge in .410 and I think they are world-class coyote guns at the ranges we're talking about here. This is not hunting coyotes; this is protecting oneself against coyotes...different beasty.

[BTW...Alf the Wonder Beagle has taken this hellish year in stride, even though she's now 11 years old. She had major surgery and was attacked twice, both times requiring stitches, and has bounced back quickly each time. The dog's a tank!]

UPDATE: Paul Markel of STUDENT OF THE GUN has had excellent results with OC spray against both people and animals...he heartily recommends carrying spray as a "bridge" between handheld and lethal force.

Here's an excellent article on the balance of speed and accuracy from Jeff Gonzales at Trident Concepts:

Your effort to achieve balance between these two factors is the ultimate goal. The relationship between shooter, weapon and environment are constantly being challenged, but kept in check through speed and accuracy. Most shooting scenarios have a limited amount of time to respond, so speed is often the primary goal. The mistake that happens is when we are compelled to act quickly, we can sometimes emphasize speed over accuracy and actually end up missing the goal of the task entirely. You have to resist the urge to go so fast that you compromise your accuracy, this is probably the hardest skill to develop.

Read the whole thing!

Finally, from The Firearm Report, An Average Joe's Guide to 3-Gun:

The Gear: The first thing you’re going to need to know is that you’re going to have to buy a lot of stuff, and pretty much everything you buy you will immediately throw away or sell. “That holster looks like it will work” will instantly become “This holster will never work!” You can try to live by the mantra “Buy once, cry once,” but it doesn’t work that way in 3-Gun. Even if you tried to “buy once” two things would happen: you would spend upwards of a year researching everything you need to get started, and then once you figured it out you would wait another year for your custom pistol, rifle, and shotgun to be ready. So if you want to save money buying only once, bad news – you’re two years away from shooting your first match. It’s better to take inventory of what you have, and then borrow the rest.

Been Waiting for This One — Ruger SR-762!

The long-rumored, much anticipated Ruger piston rifle in 7.62/.308 arrives today!

The short story: 16.12 inch barrel; 1:10 Twist; weight coming in well under 9 pounds (8.6 on the spec sheet), probably because of the smooth-sided Ruger Adaptable handguard (which I really like on my 556). Includes 3 20-round MAGPUL PMAGs, essentially the defacto standard of the industry. The barrel is a chrome-lined hammer-forged 41V45 and is fluted. The flash hider is the Ruger Mini-14 style...paging TSD Kompressor! Hurry up with that .308 version! New Ruger comes with BUIS.

Hope to have one of these as quickly as I can get it. Been looking forward to this one! MSRP $2195.

I like the .308 cartridge and especially on an AR platform. As you recall, I shot the He-Man World Championships (and didn't finish last!) with a Colt 901 and Federal Match 168s. My FAL has been a long-time companion. Since I live in Rural Nowhere, I like the idea of a .308 at my fingertips. If ammo wasn't so DARNED expensive I'd settle on Heavy Metal class in 3-Gun, because it's just big fun. I wish GUNSITE offered their Battle Rifle class more than one a year (in mid-October!).

I've always been impressed with how easy the AR-10 platform guns are on the shoulder. Back in the very beginning of 3-Gun in the 1980s, I borrowed a friends HK-91, which was the ne plus ultra of of MBRs at the time, to shoot a couple of matches. It was like shooting with a jackhammer. It made shooting slugs out the 12 gauge seem like fun.

Home, Where My Thought's Escaping!

Survived the Long Haul! Been traveling like crazy since July...now I'm off the road for a couple of weeks, then travel resumes at a moderately sane pace.

Have to say working with Gabe Suarez was both an honor and a learning experience! Zero-To-Hero is going to be great this year. Our 2 "zeroes"  Kevin Creighton from Misfires & Light Strikes blog and Alf Sauve from our own DRTV Forums were just super to work with. I had a great time, and I hope everybody else did as well. And heck, I decided to put a Docter red dot on a G26 because...well, because!

Am doing some work on the Ruger Africa rifle in anticipation of a return to Namibia next June (with Marshal and Teresa and maybe a very special guest!). Cylinder & Slide Shop is adding a Timney trigger  and some action work to get the pull down to a crisp 2 pounds; then it's going to Falcon Gun Finishing for cerakoting.

BTW, Are You a Downrange Member????

We don't give away all that much stuff, but occasionally we outdo ourselves. Members of the DRTV FORUMS have their name entered twice for every drawing (and only DRTV FORUM members are eligible for ZERO TO HERO).

So sign up to make sure you're double-entered just in case we give away something really cool...like an African safari or something...

Just sayin'...

You're Probably All Thinking I Died...

...and I feel sort of dead, too! Spent the first 4 days of the week in Montana at Montana Rifles and Proof Research, the rest of the week (and today,obviously) at GUNSITE. Getting up every day

at zero-dark-thirty and getting back to the hotel just in time to collapse into bed.

Sorry!

To my credit, I think, I only ordered one (count 'em) gun...Montana Rifle is building a .223 bolt gun that, like the Mossberg MVP series, uses AR magazines. I really like their set-up on the mags. The only custom feature I asked for was a scout scope rail, and they said no problemo. I'm unlikely to see the gun until after SHOT.

Proof is...impressive...very, very impressive. I believe their carbon fiber-wrapped barrels do have the potential to change the game. Almost 50% lighter and crazy accurate. A lot of the proprietary technology I'm not even allowed to talk to you about, but you'll see a lot of it on SHOOTING GALLERY 1st quarter next year. The carbon fiber/Kevlar stocks are crazy light and crazy strong. One of those might be in my future for the FNH long range project.

At GUNSITE, we were doing a special event we put together. I spent some time with my friend Martin Tuason from Armscor/Rock Island...the .22 Mag 1911s are ready and waiting for magazines...expanded range of 10mm Commander-length guns....22 TCM rifles hung up waiting on wood for stocks...ammo lines running like crazy. I'll have some of my interview with Martin on the podcast next week.

Also got to spend some quality time with my old friend Tim Wegner from Blade-Tech, mostly swapping lies.

Next week is Zero-To-Hero with Gabe Suarez on red-dot pistols!!!!!

Will try to be a little more efficient on posting?

Sorry! Last Big Travel Push...

...almost. Am cruising Montana with OUTDOOR LIFE's John Snow...at Montana Rifle Co., then Proof Research, then on my own south to Arizona. Almost ran into a big beaver last night pushing into Kalispell...maybe a kangaroo, too. Getting into hotels late; leaving early... 

Snug in the Bunker...

...and it's beautiful with the aspen in full color...I'll try to grab a picture later today. Per yesterday's commenters, you will DEFINITELY see the NYC motorcycle attack next season on THE BEST DEFENSE, assuming of course that TBD is renewed for another season. We had some spectators while we were filming scenarios earlier this week, and they were amazed at how much goes into the TBD scenarios, both in debate and production resources.

As we were explaining to one of our role-players, who's an active LEO, any of the TBD team — me, Janich, Seeklander, Hayes, producer Matt Shults and DP Brandon Green — can contribute scenarios, and any member of the team can veto a scenario. Most of our scenarios come from real crimes, but there are exceptions, Next season, for example, we have a scenario based on an incident that actually happened to a much younger Mike Seeklander and a scenario built on a training exercise refined at the Firearms Academy of Seattle.

We analyze, basically deconstruct, the crimes we use, then build the scenarios from the ground up. All of us have a pretty wide range of contacts in the training community and law enforcement, and we're not shy about asking for help on constructing scenarios.

I think the system works well. Today on Fox I saw an attack that took place on a bus, which looked uncannily like the "Bus Attack" we filmed Monday for TBD (except, of course, for the "better-" and "best-" case response). The victim in the real bus attack used pepper spray on the attacker, which failed to produce the results he anticipated...funny, but that's EXACTLY the scenario we filmed Sunday night!

I was riding to the airport with Mike Janich, and he and I were talking about how proud we are of this body of work. Janich was the first person I called when I got the green light for TBD (on the floor of the NRA Show many years ago). I told him that my goal — or maybe, more appropriately, my dream — was to build a "gold standard" show on self-defense, a show that hopefully would become a leading light for trainers and for people looking for training. I think we've done that.

BTW, at Janich's recommendation I bought a Fred Perrin-designed Shark neck knife made by Boker. After you see next season's TBD knife training segments, you'll buy one, too.

There's an interesting column in the Richmond Times-Herald from a George Mason University professor, Walter E. Williams, that notes when guns were readily available at the local hardware store or through the mail without background checks, filling out forms, anything, the country wasn't nearly as violent:

Customs, traditions, moral values and rules of etiquette, not just laws and government regulations, are what make for a civilized society, not restraints on inanimate objects. These behavioral norms — transmitted by example, word of mouth and religious teachings — represent a body of wisdom distilled through ages of experience, trial and error, and looking at what works. The benefit of having customs, traditions and moral values as a means of regulating behavior is that people behave themselves even if nobody’s watching. In other words, it’s morality that is society’s first line of defense against uncivilized behavior.

Gosh, what a novel idea!

There's a new 2A news website run by the folks at Townhall.com, with veteran gun blogger/columnist Bob Owens in charge — BearingArms, and it's definitely worth a visit. They note today that the Civilian Marksmanship Program has opened a custom shop for vintage US military firearms. National Match Garands, anyone?

If you're looking to build an AR, now's a great time since the price bubble has popped popped popped and prices are sinking toward the basement. I suggest visiting AR15 News, where they're putting up new on great deals practically on a daily basis. Another great resource for the builder is AR15 Parts Finder.

I note that my good friends at Wilderness Tactical are running an October Special on their famous Instructor Belts...you know how much I recommend these guys. My 1 3/4 inch Instructor Belt was standard kit for Africa, as it is pretty much every day. I also didn't realize they made a Money Belt version...I will definitely be added a money belt to my kit!

And just briefly, I've talked about the Africa hunting kit, but to answer a couple of emails, but clothing-wise, I pretty much wore what I wear a lot — 5.11 long-sleeved shirts, REI cargo shorts, the aforementioned Wilderness Tactical belt, Lowa Zephyr desert boots (which I can't recommend highly enough...sticks great on rock, sturdy enough tread for gravel/rocky trails as well as sand, cool and QUIET!), and plain old boring Woolrich hiking socks. Add a Grenadier safari hat and a pair of boring Ray Bans, and you're good to go!

Finished THE BEST DEFENSE Scenarios...

...for next season! Filming went really well. Because we got off to a late start, we had to push it pretty hard on all the shows. As I mentioned on the podcast this AM, several of our scenarios have no "best case, " which is consistent with the Real World crimes on which our scenarios are based.

Surviving the Shutdown!

Wow! It sure is scary, but somehow I'm surviving the government shutdown! I feel so lost I'm thinking about spying on myself.

We're in the doldrums about 3 months out of the SHOT Show. Some interesting new accessories — my friends at Daniel Defense have the next iteration of their Lite Rail system. I also like the Precision Rifle Solutions maxi-tripod for shooting. Finally, Bill Wilson has the latest iteration of his superb 1911 magazine, the HD/+P.

More later!

Margarita...Saturday?

The road is calling me, so I decided on tonight as Margarita Monday. Went hi-zoot tonight with Milagro Anejo and Solerno Orange liqueur and fresh lemon juice, plus 1/4 teaspoon of Agave sweetener (depending on your lemon juice). This is the margarita you want to serve when special friends come over.

I am reading on Sports Grid that UNDER WILD SKIES has been cancelled. If so, it would really, really suck. Hopefully, the series would find a place back on OC, where we live in Politically Incorrect World. BTW, I haven't seen anything on this on the gun aggregation blogs...hey, we've asked the hunters to stand for we shooters, and they have. In turn, we need to stand for them.