Check out Zombie Tools, blades for the profoundly disturbed. I'm going to order a Zack Ax...wait...does that make me, uh, profoundly disturbed...well, never mind! You can never have enough blades! And check out the Great Zombie Invasion of 1865 in the Gallery section! Next season on COWBOYS...LOL!
Battle Mug starts as a 13.5 pound solid block of 6061 T6 billet aluminum before it enters a state of the art CNC facility in Huntsville, Alabama. This facility produces specialized parts and equipment for the U.S. Department of Defense, major weapons manufacturers, NASA, and a host of other companies working at the U.S. Rocket and Space Center.
Built to military specifications, Battle Mug features a M1913 rail interface system which allows the operator to mount a standard issue M4 carry handle, tactical light, laser device, holographic sight (we call them “beer goggles”) or even a bayonet for close quarters, high risk operations.
Each individually serialized Battle Mug features Mil-Spec Type III anodizing and a crenelated base and is built with the operator in mind.
Whether you are fighting drug lords deep inside the jungles of Colombia, stomping out Al Qaida terrorists in Falluja Iraq, or eradicating no-good hippies in Berkeley, California…
What's it supposed to do? Encourage people to think "Well, it's okay if I point this thing at Cletus over there because the loaded chamber indicator says it's empty..."?I agree totally.
Its very existence betrays a bad mindset to have around guns, which is the idea that "This one's loaded, so I'll treat it with extra special caution!" The problem is thinking that way implies the unwritten corollary that "I don't think this one's loaded, so I can handle it sloppily..."
Police officers armed with submachine guns are to be deployed on routine patrol of Britain's streets for the first time.A hand-picked team from CO19, the Metropolitan Police's elite firearms unit, will walk the beat in gun crime hotspots where armed gangs have turned entire estates into "no go" zones.CO19 currently provides armed support in volatile situations like sieges and terrorist attacks, with its officers on constant call in vehicles around London.
Local politicians and anti-gun campaigners have reacted with anger at the news that the officers will carry Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns – capable of firing up to 800 rounds-per-minute – and Glock semi-automatic pistols.
But this is the first time that armed officers will be sent on permanent foot patrol anywhere in the country outside Northern Ireland.
The ACR, or Adaptive Combat Rifle, has been an ongoing collaboration involving Bushmaster, Magpul and Remington for the past two years. A quick rundown of features includes: a two-position (suppressed and non-suppressed), short-stroke, gas-piston system of operation; modular, interchangeable bolt heads, barrels, magazines, buttstocks (one of which is a six-position side-folder) and handguards; an aluminum upper receiver and a polymer lower receiver; a cold hammer-forged, free-floating barrel; and ambidexterous controls. In short, it's innovative and badass.
Have you ever seen the sights on a pistol from the 1930s? They barely even exist on a lot of guns. The sights on a military issue 1911 from back then were among the best sights in the game, and they’re not even close to what I’d consider an adequate sighting system. So it actually makes sense that for close range combat shooting you’d adopt a school of thought that taking the time to acquire the itty-bitty-teensy-weensy sights isn’t really worth the effort, because the sights were just awful.
The issue of course is that times have changed, and we have modern, quality sight systems for handguns that allow the shooter to rapidly pick up the sights and place accurate hits on target just as fast as someone using a point shooting method of looking over the gun. Teaching the flash sight picture isn’t even that difficult for most people, especially if you’re using a gun set up with Express sights.I don't necessarily agree with this viewpoint, although it has its merits. I think "point shooting," that is, non-visual body index shooting (okay, so that's my definition) works perfectly within context, which is close-in reactive shooting. It works because monkeys can point real good! You can try it yourself right now at home! Stop reading, pick something in your environment — say, a wall switch — and point at it. I'll bet that 99.99% of you were able to successfully point at the object. Wow!
Point shooting relies on the body's instinctive ability to point at nearby objects with reasonable accuracy...It is so natural and so well engrained that it is not greatly affected even when the body is suffering reactions from extreme stress...Again, I believe point shooting is limited (as, indeed, are all tools). But I have proven to my own satisfaction that I can reliably hit a close-up target from a retention position and/or from any point on the drawstroke as the gun is driven out and upwards toward eye-level.
Rightly or wrongly. I don’t think it’s effective marketing. Simply, I don’t think the plan of acclimating folks to handgun carry by exposure will be effective. That’s based on my own experience with open carry. My experience seems to indicate that most folks won’t even notice. Or, if they did, they didn’t say anything. Conversely, no one flipped out either.Follow the various links, especially the one to Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell. Start with today's post and work your way though his comments. He is easily the most articulate of the "moderate voices." I don't necessarily agree with him because my experience in media has shown me almost exactly the opposite...our first big successes in media came when we stopped carrying about what the other side thought of us and quite literally got "in their faces."
That doesn’t mean I think it should be banned. Or that I think you’re stupid to do it. Or that you should stay in the closet.
Going to spend a couple of days with my friend Gene Pearcey, "Evil Roy," in one of his cowboy shooting classes. Sort of a busman's holiday...get a couple of days off, take a shooting class! Heck, I'd take a class every month if I could. Probably wouldn't help me be a better shooter, but it'd be fun, wouldn't it?Which raises the question: Eight years into the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, do U.S. armed forces have the best guns money can buy?There are rifle tests going on right now, my little cherubs and seraphim tell me, and I've heard of a bunch of high end troops training with SCARs.
Despite the military's insistence that they do, a small but vocal number of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq has complained that the standard-issue M4 rifles need too much maintenance and jam at the worst possible times.
[...]
Complaints about the weapons the troops carry, especially the M4, aren't new. Army officials say that when properly cleaned and maintained, the M4 is a quality weapon that can pump out more than 3,000 rounds before any failures occur.
The M4 is a shorter, lighter version of the M16, which made its debut during the Vietnam war. Roughly 500,000 M4s are in service, making it the rifle troops on the front lines trust with their lives.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a leading critic of the M4, said Thursday the Army needs to move quickly to acquire a combat rifle suited for the extreme conditions U.S. troops are fighting in.
U.S. special operations forces, with their own acquisition budget and the latitude to buy gear the other military branches can't, already are replacing their M4s with a new rifle.
Don't quote this as fact, but I think there is a good chance we will finally see the launch of the civilian Remington / Bushmaster / Magpul ACR at this seminar.
Why do I think this?
Firstly, Remington unveils their exciting new products at this event. In October 2007 we saw the launch of the Remington R-15. October last year was when the .30 Remington AR cartridge was launched.
Secondly, a few months ago Magpul said we would see the rifle unveiled late this year.
And my final reason for thinking it will be unveiled this week is that a semi-automatic version of the ACR is already in the hands of a civilian. At the recent AAC Silencer Shoot, AAC (now owned by Remington) auctioned off an ACR. The proceeds went to the Wounded Warrior Project.
The system is designed to use a low-profile gas block, and allows your AR15/M16 to be broken down into three major components, for quick barrel changes, as well as covert concealment (DISCREET CARRY), or storage. A 16-inch barreled AR15/M16, with a collapsible stock, red dot sight, and two 30 rd. mags. can be carried in something as small as a briefcase. Full assembly and loading to firing condition can be accomplished in less than 30 seconds, with ease. This conversion replaces the existing barrel nut and fore end.
Which leads us to the new paradigm. The AR-15 model is so popular for so many reasons that we are now seeing it available specifically in "hunter" versions--AR rifles in calibers that are great for North American big game hunting. We've had ARs in .308 (7.62 NATO) for a long time. We've added things like the 6.8mm SPC, the .243 Winchester, the .338 Federal, 7.62x39, .450 Bushmaster and there are more lurking out there.
The options to equip your AR make the old hunting rifle choice of "what kind of scope" look like the amateur hour. Worrying about rings and bases to mount that scope? Not with an AR. A simple mil-spec rail system lets you take any of the menu of optional pieces out of the box and clamp it on the rifle securely and ready to take to the range. Choose a lightweight variable power scope designed for the combat rifle and you've got great optics with the plus of an illuminated reticle that doesn't need batteries. "Light" years ahead of that old scope. Smaller too.
Surefire snuck out two new 5.56mm suppressors at Modern Day Marine Expo. The Mini and the Micro are stubby little suckers that add barely 3.6 and 2.6 inches to a weapon’s muzzle but cut down weapon signature and improve unit communication.This is interesting, since SureFire's regular-sized 5.56 suppressors are in short supply — at least, for civilian buyers. On the subject of suppressors, Advanced Armament Corp. has been acquired by Remington, part of the Cerberus/Freedom Group monolith. From Defense Review:
Remington’s decision to purchase AAC stems from recognition that future military weapons selections will almost unilaterally require sound and/or signature reduction. Our military has been at war for over 8 years now and experience shows that there are significant tactical advantages associated with suppressor use; hence the military’s interest in adopting this new requirement.Rumors about this have been flying around for months and methodically denied by AAC and Remington.
Well, works for me, but I'm obviously twisted when it comes to Big Boomers...plus, I'm up for the Jurassic Park solution to the shrinking population in the midwest...cook up some dinos and let 'em rip!Let me talk a little about my love for doubles, for a moment.Amen, brother! Why I have a Ruger #1 in 450/400 3-inch Nitro Express. And $4K for a double seems imminently fair (and attainable) to me. For an extra grand you can sign up for my good friend Jim Clark of Clark Custom Guns newest blaster, a handbuilt double rifle that can be had in a number of calibers, including 45-70 and 450/400. Jim called me up a couple of weeks ago to fill me in on the project, which he tipped me off to at the NRA Show a couple of years ago. Now this gun would be an heirloom!
I have, since I was old enough to remember, loved fine rifles, and especially doubles. I had read ‘Use Enough Gun” at the local library at ten or eleven and was hooked. I started my collection of firearms, the first firearm I ever purchased, was a double shotgun. I took it afield and took shots at birds, imagining i was Ruark, holding a fine english double on the ear-hole of a grazing elephant with tusks the size of my calves. I looked at every book that had guns in it. I read every article about double rifles I could find. It wasn’t exactly an obsession, but no double ever escaped my gaze. From the 9.3×74r cartridge in “Snows of Kilimanjaro” above, to the 450 nitro express in “Ghost and the darkness” I lusted after fine doubles. Figuring I’d never have one, I looked constantly at large bore bolties and single shots,. and have been looking at a Ruger #1 in 458 Lott or an Enfield 1917 in 416 Rigby. I’m a recoil junkie anyway, and these just seemed fun.
On the third hand, I am yet to be convinced that the usual AR shooter requires a piston gun. The only reason I would choose one is if I regularly ran the gun with a suppressor. Otherwise, and this is some gen-u-ine gun-guru wisdom I’m about to drop on y’all, but if you want a truly reliable AR, get a 20″! A 20″ rifle with a rifle length gas tube, a chrome lined chamber and bore, a correctly dimensioned 5.56 NATO chamber, a correctly aligned gas tube with staked carrier key screws, using Magpul PMAGs, and a fresh extractor spring with black insert will be as reliable a rifle as you could ask for.I'm trying to decide whether to pop the bucks to keep the Ruger gas piston gun...I had myself all pumped up on the FNH bullpup, but when it came right down to it I let it go. Caleb was with Frank James at S&W's annual event at GUNSITE, running the new flavor of their M&P-15. Here's his take:
Okay, I've had three days of high round count training with the latest version of Smith & Wesson's M&P-15 and a few of you are wondering, "What does that old idiot think?"My experience with the older iteration of the S&W, which I bought, is that it runs and runs. Of course, I have to say it's been awhile since I saw anything short of a badly assembled parts gun that didn't run. ARs are seriously debugged technology, which is why I think everyone should have at least one.
Since I accept no advertising, my critics won't be able to say I was influenced by dollars. (Well, they can, but they won't have a leg to stand on. I'm still the blunt S.O.B I've always been.) In a short phrase I liked the gun. I put close to 800 rounds through the gun that was assigned to me over a short three day period of time and had zero, to repeat ZERO, malfunctions or any kind or issues with the firearm.
The comparison between Gorbachev and Obama is apt on few levels. The chief difference is between the U.S. of 2009, and the USSR of 1985; between a huge, decentralized, open economy, and the society it serves; and a much smaller, very centralized, command economy, and the society serving it. These circumstances are not even remotely comparable, and one must be a fool indeed to play with a moral, economic, or ideological "equivalence" between the two old superpowers. Which is not to say such fools aren't numerous.Am shooting a cowboy match up in the cowboy paradise of Wyoming tomorrow...
Nor are the two men, themselves, remotely comparable in their backgrounds, or political outlook. Gorbachev, for instance, had come up from tractor driver, not through elite schools including Harvard Law; he lacked the narcissism that constantly seeks self-reflection through microphones and cameras, or the sense that everything is about him.
On the other hand, some interesting comparisons could be made between the thuggish party machine of Chicago, which raised Obama as its golden boy; and the thuggish party machine of Moscow, which presented Gorbachev as it's most attractive face.
The latest example of the Roberts Court's activist ambitions is its quick acceptance, for decision next year, of a gun-rights appeal from Chicago. Last year the Court ruled 5-4 that the right to bear arms flows to and from individuals, even though it is mentioned in the Constitution in the context of a "well-regulated militia." Reading the Constitution in that way, the court struck down a handgun ban in the District of Columbia. But there was some doubt about whether the court's reasoning would apply in a state, as opposed to the federal District of Columbia, and how the enunciation of a new fundamental, individual right should be applied. Now the court will take up the appeal of a case of a handgun ban in Chicago to clear things up.
Expect another sweeping smack down. First, the court has already laid down a new principle -- which, believe it or not, had never been directly addressed. Second, if my sense of the Roberts Court is correct, they are going to seek the most sweeping rulings they can manage to get on what they regard as their key Bill of Rights issues -- gun rights, freedom of the marketplace from federal regulation, corporate rights to free speech and official public religious expression, to name four -- before the arrival of a moment they dread fear: when President Barack Obama get's the chance to nominate an ideological tide-changing justice.
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