Win Mel Gibson's Voice on Your Answering Machine!

Okay, I made that up...but wouldn't that be great?

"&%^^%!!! This is Mel. %&^%$% Michael isn't at his &^(&^^ miserable piece of rat ^&*^^%& Secret ^&*((&& Hidden Bunker! So #%%#% YOURSELF, you %^*&^% &^%$#@! Leave a ^%$#%$ message, you $^&^%$, and I hope a gang of %$#$$%% shoves your phone up your ^%$#$% #$^%$#$!!! Have a nice day."

I may be onto a million dollar idea here!

Yesterday I picked up my Remington R1 1911. "You got another 1911?" my Sweetie asked incredulously? Not another 1911, I said, but one with a totally different name roll-marked on the slide! "Well," she said, "that certainly explains it!" I think I detected a note of sarcasm in her voice.

I will say it is one beautiful gun. Fans of retro will be blown away. I might be able to get to the range today and out some rounds through it.

Caleb has a long piece on the Ruger SR9c compact, the gun he's using in his Quest for Master Class.

I received a PM from a friend at the Indiana Gun Owners forum about how I’m liking the Ruger SR9c that I’ve been shooting in the Quest for Master Class at DownRange.TV (latest episode here). So far, I really like the Ruger SR9c – as I’ve said in all my pieces on DRtv, it’s easy to shoot, easy to conceal, and generally a good gun. But let’s look at some specifics about the little 9mm. First off, it’s not really a little gun, but it’s not a big gun either. In terms of size, it’s smaller than a Glock 19, but bigger than a Glock 26. That’s nice, because it has a little bit more gun to hold on to than a Glock 26 when you’re actually shooting the thing.

The whole Ruger SR9 project has been pretty interesting to watch. I got an advance one, went through the GUNSITE 250 pistol class with it and stacks of 9mm Hornady self-defense ammo, had zero failures and shot pretty much the same score as I'd shot with a 1911. I made 2 changes on the pistol ay GUNSITE — I removed the little dohickey that enabled the magazine safety and I put some electric red nail polish on the front sight, a concession to my old eyes. I've had 2 of the post-recall guns, and the triggers are quantum better than Ver. 1.0. The SR9c has the best trigger yet, is accurate, easy to shoot, light and best of all THIN!

Yet the SR9 series of pistols has taken a huge amount of heat, largely from people, largely from people who haven't shot one (or, heck, haven't even seen one). Yeah, the manual safety — a feature I really like  on striker-fired safe-action style pistols — is a little hard to engage. It is, however, very easy to disengage. The magazines have gotten easier to load over the generations, but 17 rounds in a new, narrow magazine can be a challenge.

I've been carrying the SR9c and I like it...10 + 1 9mm, thin, light and accurate...what's not to like? The only thing that keeps me from exchanging my Sig Sauer 226 9 mm bedroom gun for a Ruger is the Crimson Trace LaserGrips on the Ruger. My cherubs and seraphim tell me that the CT for the Ruger is under development...soon...

Just When I Think It Can't Get Any Weirder...

Well, I smell ACADEMY AWARD!!! For the S&W .500, of course...Best Performance by a Penis Surrogate with Lindsay Lohan's Tongue. This is actually for a movie that, I can assure you, every one of us are going to queue up to see: Machete. How can it miss? Lindsay Licker, Robert DeNiro, Don Johnson (Don Johnson!?!?!), Steven Seagal, Michelle "Don't Let Me Drive" Rodriguez, Jessica Alba (be still my beating heart!), Jeff Fahey, Cheech Marin (not "yeah," but "HELL yeah!") and the incomparable character actor with knives Danny Trejo, one of my personal heroes, all directed by the Lord of Mayhem Hisself, Robert Rodriguez.

And machine guns...oh yes, machine guns...

It's Plot 2, BTW — REVENGE! Bring it, dog!

Meanwhile, in the important news, I've mentioned this before but it certainly still seems germaine, and that's Tactical Corsets.

Admit it...you'd pay money to see Jessica Alba in one of these things, if, of course, you could hide the expenditure from your Significant Other. It's available in both overbust and underbust version, there's also a tactical corset for menfolk, but believe me, I'm not going there! BTW, in addition to holsters and flashligh carriers, there are pouches for handcuffs (natch) and an "Interrogation Pouch," which holds the cutest little tactical cat-o-nine-tails...I wonder if the cat is from Blackhawk?

I was reminded of this today by a cool post on Tacticalgear.com titled "13 Ridiculously Tactical Items." One of the commenters suggested this Tactical Sporran, in which you can keep your Tactical Cheese Holster. Of course, now I've got to figure out where to get some Tactical Brie.

BTW, do you think I should start wearing a tactical kilt on SHOOTING GALLERY, to match my Hawaiian shirts? Too much? Scratch the plaid beret?

With visions of a corseted Jessica Alba in my head, I gotta go reload some .357s...

Sorry About Yesterday

With a day if running around in the studio planned, I put off blogging until yesterday evening...Denver had close-to-record heat, the grid hiccuped and the local power went out until the wee hours of this morning. I got up in those self-same wee hours to finish some work on today's video and audio podcast, so I'm nice and groggy this AM.

I note that my friend Buz Mills has suspended his campaign for Governor of Arizona...too bad...he would have been an excellent one.

I also note that Washington cartoonist Molly Norris, who thought up the May 20 "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day," has been warned by the FBI that Islamic terrorists have targeted her for death. Welcome to the 21st Century.

In gun world, Masterpiece Arms, which builds the surprisingly good Mac 10/11 clones, has jumped into the Great .380 Sweepstakes with their Protector (via The Firearm Blog):

Looks like the North American Arms Guardian, a great little gun, which of course looks like the Seecamp LWS .32, which started the whole thing. I've carried .32s as pocket pistols off-and-on for years, both the NAA and the Kel-Tec...will probably do so again. With Corbon DPX.

Welcome to Reality Television, Dude!

Oh Monty, Monty, Monty, I am walking down your hall

Got beat, lost my seat, but I'm not a man to crawl

I didn't get rich. son of a bitch

I'll be back just wait and see

Cause my whole world lies waiting behind door number three

Yes my whole world lies waiting behind door number three

Jimmy Buffett

"Door Number Three"

My friend Caleb Giddings at Gun Nuts Media got voted off the island on Top Shot last night, but you can still follow his Quest for Master Class over on DRTV. Don't worry, Caleb...you're safe on our island! In all honesty, I've sorta lost interest...they're doing some cool stuff, but it seems to move with glacial slowness. I'd have edited it a different way, but that's a Jealous Executive Producer talking!

Anyhow, not much going on yet this AM. Did a long hike with Alf the Wonder Beagle yesterday — she's getting her strength back after her paw injury. Speaking of "glacial slowness," stitched some more on my Taylor's Model 3 rig belt...believe me, hand-stitching a double-layer gunbelt causes one to have fantasies about sewing machines, even ancient ones.

I also sketched out my next project, a leather pouch for the Ruger LCP and other small semiautos. If it works out as well as I hope, I'm going to pass it on to my friends at Ted Blocker and see if they want to offer a version. Of course, the speed at the speed I do leatherwork projects (slightly slower than the speed at which I write new books), it'll be done when the glaciers start moving south. I'll post pixs of the Taylor's rig when it's finished...

I'm going to spend the week working with a double-barreled shotgun and see how that feels. If I'm not a complete monkey with it, I'll try it in a club cowboy match this weekend. If I like it, I'll start shopping for a good solid double for me to abuse to death.

Is It Sunday Already?

This being off the road is confusing me. I usually blog when I get back to my hotel room after a day on the set...I've got to figure out the old non-road blogging waypoints! LOL! It'll be all too short...I glanced at my August calendar a couple of days ago, and it's back to the road. Sort of like a country song...

The results from last week's Hell On Wheels up in Cheyenne were posted yesterday, and I couldn't be happier. I finished 78 out of 241, 9th in my division (out of 23). I'm creeping my way toward competitive. In fact congrats are in order for the whole COWBOYS team — Indiana Jackson and Pic-Y-Une — who turned in impressive performances.

Of course, you've couldn't have seen me creeping toward competitive at yesterday's club match in Boulder, where I once again proved conclusively that if you pull the trigger when the sights aren't on target, you will, amazingly, not hit the target! Another LOL! My Sweetie, OTOH, watched the sights, shot fast and clobbered me. Congrats due on that!

Gonna have to address a shotgun conundrum. As you all know I had that solid-frame 1901 vintage Winchester '97 overhauled as my back-up shotgun. It has a 24-inch barrel that, for me, points a little faster than the short-barreled Chinese guns (which are not availble with longer barrels). However, after 2 years of waiting for the gun to come home, it is still a thorn in my side. It's a bundle of doesn't-work-right quirks...occasional failures to eject, leaving the shell in the gun; failures to go completely into battery; and a new one yesterday, the carrier failing to completely rise even with the pump fully forward, requiring me to use thumb-power to shove the carrier back up so we could continue running the gun. The key word here is "occasional" — if it did the same thing every time one could diagnose it and maybe fix it. Intermittent problems are bears!

Winchester 1897 shotgun

Joke! Joke! A Super-Soaker is a lot more reliable than an 1897 Winchester! I keep working with it because I kept trying to separate my failures with the gun — and old '97s are WILDLY susceptible to operator-induced errors...hey, my gun is more than 100 years old! — from the gun's failures. I swore yesterday the thing would be on Gunbroker.com by this morning, but now I'd feel guilty if I pawned my problems off on anyone else. I woke up this morning and decided to clean it and relegate it to the back of the gun safe...maybe a few more years will improve it's demeanor.

In the meantime, I need another back-up '97, since the odds of a Chinese clone running 100% for any length of time are pretty much on par with the originals running 100%. Sometime in the next few days I'll either get a Cimarron '97 clone or try and find an original that isn't a complete and total POS, then send one or the other to "Jim Bowie" at the Cowboys and Indians Store with a whining note and my credit card number.

This week, I'm going to start tuning up for the Wild Bunch World Championships in August in New Mexico, which we'll be filming for SHOOTING GALLERY 2011. My plan right now is to run the Para 1911 A1 copy from C&S. I've been talking to Remington about running an R1, but I'd need a couple of weeks with it to see how it runs with lots of ammo. I'll be shooting the 1911 from the Ted Blocker 1911 rig. I'm not crazy about the flat spring mag pouches (wasn't crazy about them when I was using them in IPSC back in the day, either, although Mike Dalton swore by them), but I've tortured them into shape. I will probably use the Taylors 1866/Long Hunter .44 Special lever gun (which I use regularly in my club matches) and '97#3, an old Norinco "Trench Gun" that I'm very careful not to run too many rounds through, saving it for the big Wild Bunch matches.

The "New Normal"...

...is spreading like peanut butter over warm toast. This from the National Review at no less than NPR, National Pubic Radio's website:

The Supreme Court's rejection of Chicago's handgun ban in McDonald v. City of Chicago is more than a recognition that the Second Amendment applies to the states as well as the federal government. The McDonald decision is a harbinger for the end of gun prohibition as an idea. The simple, undeniable truth is that gun control does not work.

McDonald brings the law up to speed with reality, where advocates of gun control have been wrong since the issue became a national discussion.

Strict gun-control policies have failed to deliver on their essential promise: that denying law-abiding citizens access to the means of self-defense will somehow make them safer. This should come as no surprise, since gun control has always been about control, not guns. 

[...]

A generation from now, legal and policy discussions will look back and see gun control for the sham that it has always been. The real shame is that it took decades of political action, millions of dollars in litigation, and thousands of lives lost to end the preposterous idea that governments can reduce the number of victims of violent crime by first taking away their means of resistance.

IMHO, the challenge for those of us in the gun culture is multiple:
• While our organizations continue the attack on restrictive gun laws at state and municipal levels, we need to be vigilant on a local level. Gun control advocates know they've lost the war, but it doesn't mean they can't win battles on a local level. And blocking the passage of local antigun legislation is both faster and a heck of a cheaper than fighting those laws all the way through the court system!
• We need CCW reciprocity. I personally favor the "Constitutional" permitless carry of Vermont, Alaska and Arizona, but that isn't going to fly (at this time) in many states. Reciprocity would be the next best thing. I think we'll probably get this in 2011.
• We need to focus our organizations on egregious anti gun laws that fly under the radar, For example, the fact that New York, Boston and Chicago airport jurisdictions have decided on their own to ignore federal "safe transit" laws and jail unwary travelers who get stuck in their cities while carrying guns is completely unacceptable. This needs national legislative remedy.
• The main battlefield is now access. The Second Amendment becomes meaningless if we have no place to shoot, to introduce the next generation to our gun culture. This is both for shooting on public lands and formal ranges.

America In SHOCK!

...as our beloved "Little Tramp," yes, Lindsay Lohan, was bundled off to the slam for doing the same thing 11 million illegal aliens do every day — pretend U.S. law doesn't apply to them. I was glued to the All Lindsay All The Time channel yesterday as our own Little Curly Top — no, wait, that was Shirley Temple, who gave her name to an non-alcoholic drink — okay, our own little whatever wept, wept I tell you, as the evil judge, who clearly needed a Hollywood Makeover, sentenced this cherished, talented actor to the place where they seem to send all the cherished. talented actors.

A sad day for America. I think there's a silver-lining to this dark, dark cloud, though. I believe Lindsay-In-The-Big House could totally re-invogorate the flagging "women in chains" B-movie genre. After such classics as Girls in Chains (the great granddaddy of them all), Women in Chains, The Big Dollhouse, Chained Heat, etc., the genre seems to have wound down...maybe because of all the Pop Tarts in Real Chains. Reality can be a bummer, to be sure.

Anyhow I'm seeing Lindsay in the role Pam Grier role, struggling to survive in the Big House, with Martha Stewart as the head of the biggest prison gang, Aryan Bitches, and Paris Hilton as her enforcer. Of course, Charlie Sheen — the greatest living American actor — shines in the role of Big Richard, the prison warden. Watch for an unattributed guest appearance from Miley Cyrus in the hilarious "conjugal visit" sequence.

Maybe I need to get back on the meds...in the meantime, from Say Uncle, a pix from the upcoming Green Hornet movie scheduled for next year:

Dare I say it? This is the future of defensive handguns! There'll have to be a whole new category in IDPA for these bad boys! I do have some technical questions...does the trigger fire each upper alternately, or is there a selector switch of some sort? Can you get them with different calibers on each upper, say .45 ACP on the right and 5.7 X 28 on the left? Does Crimson Trace make a LaserGrip (LaserGrips?) for it? Is there a bayonet option? Will the movie suck? Well, I think we can safely answer that one...

Interestingly enough, the MSM is in full howl on the Utah CCW, which is reciprocal in 30 states. Both the NYT and WaPo (via a Reuters wire service article) are baying at the moon, insinuating that reciprocity will certainly result in millions dead, hours-long firefights in the streets and blah blah blah. The interesting thing is timing on the stories and the subsequent Brady release...obviously, Brady shills contacted their pet "reporters" and handed them them the story on a platter. Since the reporters are in the tank, they did as they were instructed and bleated like goosed sheep.

This amazing journalistic convergence does tell us what Brady is worried about in these post-Heller, post-McDonald days. You can bet that reciprocity is going to keep coming around until it becomes the law of the land.

Finally, when I was up at the Cody Firearms Museum filming for COWBOYS, I lusted for the beautiful Dardick pistol they had on display. In case you missed it back in mid-1950s, the Dardick shoots triangular cartridges, called trounds, holds 20 trounds and is the ne plus ultra firearm for repelling aliens of all sorts. Now Mechanics Illustrated (tip of the hat to The Firearm Blog) has their 1957 article on line:

I wish I'd written the lead: "The revolutionary new Dardick open chamber revolver is as versatile as a six-armed monkey!" Says it all...

Make my day, you bug-eyed six-armed alien slimepot!

One HELL of a Pro-Gun Article...

...in an amzingly surprising place...the Daily Kos, bastion of liberal commentary. Every one of you needs to read this brilliant summation of the Second Amendment:

We talk about the First Amendment as a unique and revolutionary concept -- that we have the right to criticize our government. Does it matter whether we do so while standing on a soapbox on the corner of the street or on a blog? No. Because the concept, not the methodology, is what matters.

And the Second Amendment is no different. It is not about how much ammunition is "excessive" or what types of guns are and are not permissible. Liberals cling to such minutia at the expense of understanding and appreciating the larger concept that underlies this right.

So.

What is the point? Is this a rallying cry for liberals to rush right out and purchase a gun? Absolutely not. Guns are dangerous when used by people who are not trained to use them, just as cars are dangerous when driven by people who have not been taught how to drive.

No, this is a rallying cry for the Bill of Rights -- for all of our rights.

This is an appeal to every liberal who says, "I just don't like guns."

This is an appeal to every liberal who says, "No one needs that much ammunition."

This is an appeal to every liberal who says, "That's not what the Founders meant."

This is an appeal to every liberal who supports the ACLU.

This is an appeal to every liberal who has complained about the Bush Administration's trading of our civil liberties for the illusion of greater security. (I believe I’ve seen a T-shirt or two about Benjamin Franklin’s thoughts on that.)

This is an appeal to every liberal who believes in fighting against the abuses of government, against the infringement of our civil liberties, and for the greater expansion of our rights.

This is an appeal to every liberal who never wants to lose another election to Republicans because they have successfully persuaded the voters that Democrats will not protect their Second Amendment rights.

This is an appeal to liberals, not merely to tolerate the Second Amendment, but to embrace it. To love it and defend it and guard it as carefully as you do all the others.

Because we are liberals. And fighting for our rights -- for all of our rights, for all people -- is what we do.

Because we are revolutionaries.

Yo, July!

Amazingly, there's no snow left on the property surrounding the Secret Hidden Bunker in the Rocky Mountains! Ah...this must be what they call summer...I wonder how long it will last?

Had a great weekend...my Sweetie and I shot the cowboy action shooting regional, Hell On Wheels, up in cowboy world in Cheyenne. It's always a great match, and we had a couple of good days pulling the trigger. My Sweetie shot the best match of her career (so far), dropping only 1 shot in the course of 12 stages...her times were about half what they were in last year's H-O-W.

I shot the match clean with pretty good times. I did fumble a couple of shotgun reloads with my '97 clone. I've been focusing my practices on marksmanship with the pistol and the rifle. Say what you want about cowboy targets being big and up close...the ability to deliver the shot is central to any shooting sport, not to mention the Real World uses of firearms. One of the tricky parts of cowboy action shooting is the different shaped targets — diamonds, spades, buffalos, the iconic cowboy, etc., like these from Action Targets. When we look at those targets, which are usually about 16 inches at their widest point, we tend to reflexively see a 16-inch diameter circle.

The Evil Little Shooting Demon in our head says, "Big target up close? Point-shoot that bad boy!!" Since we typically train on round or square targets, the Evil Little Shooting Demon gives us a nice 16-inch circle to shoot. Except it's not a 16-inch circle, and those curving bullets my friend Todd Jarrett talks about slip between the legs of a cowboy or right through that little crease in the middle of the heart.

In my training I try to see the small circle in the center mass of the target, and that center mass circle is more like 6-8 inches. I also have to remember that sport shooting augments my Real World training, and in the Real World (to borrow a cowboy quote), "Speed is fine; accuracy is final." Push the speed but keep the accuracy. Your results may vary...objects in the rear view mirror, etc.

Seeing the "real" target in the larger target obviously has major application in the Real World. Should we have to use our weapon to defend our lives, there will be a tendency to see our aggressor as a Really Big Target. However, the "real" targets — targets that will lead to incapacitation of the aggressor and a stopping of the threat — are much smaller.

Our close-to-the-match training sessions were on an MGM Targets "Whirlygig" — the MGM version of the Texas Star.

These are great training targets because they're designed to play against some of our hard-wiring. Our monkey vision is designed to pick up motion very quickly...we are drawn to moving objects. Comes from being purpose-designed as a predator. Hit the first 8-inch plate and the start begins to move...if, however, your vision gets sucked into watching the targets, you can't hit them. Tricky tricky...

I'm just glad I got through the match without my main match guns tanking. I ground on my Cimarron 1873 rifle's ejector, which was acting up, and luckily I was able to get it running and ejecting, definitely a plus. My Cylinder and Slide match Blackhawks — I don;t shoot puffball loads — are starting to show the wear of tens of thousands of rounds, and they definitely need a minor overhaul.

Today being a holiday — or so I'm told — I'm going to finish up the leather rig for the Model 3 break-top .44 Russians. If I get real ambitious, I might eviscerate my 1866 .44 Special and torture it into running with the shorter .44 Russian, thanks to an Adirondack Jack .44 Russian carrier. Pass the Dremel and heaven help me...

Happy Birthday, America!

I am struck on this 4th of July that today is a holiday for Americans, and that really doesn't include many of the people inside the Beltway. Oh, inside the Beltway they wave Old Glory like crazy, wear red, white and blue shirts and blouses and loudly proclaim their commitment to "American values" or something equally vague. But inside the Beltway, they look on the Gadsden Flag with a a feeling of uncomfortableness bordering on fear. They see in the Heller and McDonald Supreme Court decisions not a reaffirmation of fundamental American liberties  but the stirrings of some rough beast; in the Tea Party movement they fear a rising of "the rabble," the unlettered, people who foolishly believe that they are better suited to control their own lives, their own fortunes, than those wise ones inside the Beltway who so obviously know better. They dream of a world of cameras, of papers, of control, a world where American exceptionalism is a failed dream and all the reaffirmed liberties so eloquently stated by the Founders are words, only words.

Out here in the hinterlands we're celebrating, and part of what we're celebrating is that for the first time in many many years, America is awake — and angry. So you faux-Americans over in your little enclave keep waving the flag and telling us how much you care — really care — about us little people. Out here in the boonies, a tidal wave is building...

Happy Birthday, America! It's a great time to live in this country!

Light Blogging Alert!!!

I'm going to slide a little over the holiday weekend, although I'll probably get all antsy and post something anyway.

Whatever, but I'll be back to normal on Monday...

THANKS!

NEW SEASON STARTS TONIGHT!

For COWBOYS and TBD/SURVIVAL!

This week's video podcast

The New Normal

This is an excellent piece on America post-Heller & McDonald from Glenn Reynolds, who runs InstaPundit. Here's the punchline:

Nonetheless, the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment decisions have made a major difference. In particular, they have offset the gun-control community’s longstanding effort to “denormalize” firearms ownership — to portray it as something threatening, deviant, and vaguely perverse, and hence demanding strict regulation, if not outright prohibition. That effort went on for decades, and received much media support. Two decades ago, it seemed to be working.

But with the Supreme Court saying that it’s clear the Framers regarded individual gun ownership as “necessary to our system of ordered liberty,” that effort must be seen as a failure now. Gun ownership by law-abiding citizens is the new normal, and the Second Amendment is now normal constitutional law. It will stay so, as long as enough Americans care to keep it that way.

Read the whole thing. I think the legal decisions are emblematic of the overall social change we've been talking about for the last year or so. We — the gun culture — are the new mainstream, the new "normal."

Rand Custom Hats...

In Billings...the Mother Church...



-- Post From The Road

SCOTUS Rules! Second is Fully Incorporated...

...into state law via the 14th Amendment. This is huge, as is the opinion (214 pages). It'll takes us days to digest this, but Chicago's gun ban is toast as of this morning. Here's the statement from the NRA's Wayne LaPierre:

Today marks a great moment in American history. This is a landmark decision. It is a vindication for the great majority of American citizens who have always believed the Second Amendment was an individual right and freedom worth defending.

[...]

Victory is when law abiding men and women can get up, go out, and buy and own a firearm. This is a monumental day. But NRA will not rest until every law-abiding American citizen is able to exercise the individual right to buy and own a firearm for self defense or any other lawful purpose.

Justice Alito wrote the decision on the 5-4 (the Heller majority) vote.

On the way to the airport...more as our experts have a chance to analyze the decision...

There's a Zombie on Your Lawn

Custer lost...

...again. Hey, immortality is expensive!


-- Post From The Road

Real Bird Reenactment...

...on the banks of the Little Big Horn...freaking incredible!



-- Post From The Road

Update from the field...

-- Post From The Road

Meanwhile, Back in Montana

-- Post From The Road

Michael's Last Stand...

At least this week! Am on the way to Hardin, MT, to film the reenactment of Custer's Last Stand...I have ti on good authority that the 7th. still wanting for Gatling guns, will once again go down in flames. I'll keep you posted.

Was surprised and pleased with End of Trail, which topped out at 541 shooter. Next year SASS may have to cap the match if they want to keep it on a single weekend format. As I said earlier, I saw more women and young people than I've seen at any big match. SASS appears to have weathered their flat spot and gotten back to their fast-track growth. I know the local new shooters' seminars are pulling 60+ people, and my friends in Cali tell me their running cowboy new shooter orientations once a month at 50+ shooters. We're averaging more than 100 shooters at the monthly matches (and there's a cowboy match every weekend somewhere in the Front Range) and next week's regional championships, Hell on Wheels in Cheyenne (see you there?) will draw more than 300 competitors. It all bodes well for cowboy and competition in general.

Next Wednesday marks the new season for both COWBOYS and TBD/SURVIVAL.

Both shows have been completely "retooled" for the new season...I'll be talking about the changes in the shows on this week's podcast and video blog. So first listen in, then tune in to see what you think of the new season. On the whole, I'm really pleased...our goal is to raise the bar every season.

Gotta go get on the toy airplane for the flite to Billings...

A Quickie Before I Pass Out from Exhaustion

No SCOTUS McDonald decision today...expect it Monday...

Some thoughts on the Potterfield/Midway big contribution to the Bianchi Cup...first, Larry is to be hugely hugely congratulated for backing the shooting sports. Everyone in the industry — everyone in the culture — benefits from the growth of the shooting sports. Larry has set the bar, and I'd like to see the parts of the industry who have had a hands-off relationship with the shooting sports, even as they benefited from our money, step up and follow Larry's example.

I totally agree with his decision to focus the money on Production...unlimited/open shooting has proven itself to be a dead end. Aside from a dwindling number of participants, no one cares. In all the sports, production, stock gun classes are booming.

Will the Bianchi Cup achieve the national success that's envisioned? You tell me...since John Bianchi conceived the Cup, the landscape of sport shooting has fundamentally and irrevocably changed. When the Cup started, the practical shooting sports were in their infancy; now action shooting sports rule the roost. Based on participation, the top shooting sport in America is trap, followed by cowboy action shooting, sporting clays, Glock Sport Shooting Foundation and the various flavors of practical pistol.

The shooting sports that the Cup was conceived to bring together — PPC, fledgling IPSC and bullseye — have in the case of PPC and bullseye faded into relative obscurity or in the case of IPSC significantly morphed. Also consider the changes in the gun culture itself. Self-defense/CCW are the driving wheels and will be, I believe, for the foreseeable future. That's where the new shooters are coming from. And, as we've talked about before, they're not necessarily like us Old Skol Guys.

As I mentioned in an early post, I've seen more women and young people here at End of Trail in NM than I've ever seen at a big match. The big SASS clubs are running new shooter clinics with 60-100 people on a monthly basis. USPSA is experience a growth spurt and it's routinely filling out its national championships, and the Glock GSSF is huge in its own right. IDPA is rock solid, as are sporting clays.

Is there a place for a national competition that brings together shooters of all disciplines? I think yes. The question is what that competition needs to be.

Thoughts?

EOT Wild Bunch...

....had 5 USPSA Grand Masters shot it...winner was 16 year old cowboy shooting flash "Last Chance' Morales
...

-- Post From The Road

EOT

-- Post From The Road

EOT

-- Post From The Road

At End of Trail...

And there are more women and young people shooting than I've seen in years!


-- Post From The Road

Some Thoughts on the Midway USA $100,000 Bianchi Contingency Money

You probably already know this, but Larry Potterffield has ponied up $100K as contingency prize money for Bianchi Production division. Obviously, this will provide a major jumpstart for the NRA Action Pistol program, as well as drive some of the big players into Production. What I hear is that the details of how the money is going to be allocated/awarded is not yet finalized...there are a lot of ideas on the table at this point.

The top 5 Production shooters this year were:

1) Kyle Schmidt, 1856-121x

2) Enoch Smith, 1835-123x

3) Dave Sevigny, 1833-119x

4) Phil Strader, 1819-102x 

5) Vance Schmid, 1812-100x

Any of these guys could break 1900, especially with the allowed modification of match barrels. I talked to Dave Sevigny at the Cup this year, and he was ambivalent about leaving his box-stock Glock — the gun he built his sterling reputation on — behind for one with a match barrel and different sights. Still, he's too much of a great competitor not to realize that a fitted match barrel will be de rigueur for the top competitors starting next year.

Here are the original specs for Bianchi Production:

• 3.2.1 Production Firearm — The intent of this rule is to encourage the use of production firearms as manufactured and promote NRA Action Pistol Shooting at the “Grass Roots” level. Accordingly, in order to keep this class from becoming an “Equipment Match” , Single Action only pistol are prohibited.

A Production Firearm is a semi-automatic handgun or revolver which is or has been a catalog item readily available to the general public equipped with factory notch & post sights. All standard safety features of firearms must operate properly. The firearm shall have no visible internal of external modifications except as follows:

(a) Grips may be replaced or modified to fit the competitor’s hand or to facilitate loading. Checkering, stippling, grip tape and grip sleeves are permitted.

(b) Barrel length may not exceed 5.35 inches for semi-automatic pistols and may not exceed 6 inches for revolvers.

(c) Wide “target” style hammers and triggers, if included on the firearm as originally manufactured, are permitted.

(d) Only open sights may be used. The front sight must be a non-adjustable post sight. The rear sight may be adjustable if the firearm was originally manufactured with an adjustable sight. Sights may be replaced but they must use the original dovetail cuts and must retain the original configuration of the firearm. Fiber optic sights are permitted.

(e) Barrels may be replaced with original factory barrels with the same configuration of the original barrel.

(f) All production firearms must fire the first shot of every stage double action.

(g) Trigger weight may not be less than 3.5 lbs. In any mode.

(h) External finishes, either protective of decorative, or other non-functional embellishments. (i.e. Such as engraving, inlays or inscriptions) are permitted.

(I) Holsters must be designed for carry and suitable for everyday use. Competition, race type and open front holsters are prohibited.

The following firearm modifications are prohibited:

(a) Single action only firearms

(b) Custom-shop firearms.

(c) Changes in the original factory sight configuration of the firearm are prohibited. Front adjustable sights are prohibited.

(d) Peep, ghost, optical, electronic, Bo-Mar and Aristocrat type sights.

(e) Thumb rests, orthopedic grips, grip or magazine extensions. No part of the grip may encircle the hand.

(f) Compensators, ported or weighted barrels.

(g) Race type holsters.

So that gives you a pretty good idea of what the top Production shooters will be using next year as this goes forward. Of course Dave (and Women's Production champion Randi Rogers) are in the Glock camp; SG regular Phil Strader and B.J. Norris, one of the greatest shots ever, Doug Koenig, and new S&W team member Jessie Abbate will be running the S&W M&P platform. With that kind of money on the line I'd be surprised not to see Jerry Miculek running a Production revolver. If you remember, there were a few years revolvers dominated Bianchi, and a great master like Miculek is always a threat.

I'd be surprised if Max Michel, probably the hottest pro shooter this year, didn't sign on with one of Sig's trick 226s. Should be interesting to see how it shakes out!

Ruger LCR .357

Finally got some trigger time with the Ruger polymer-frame .357 LCR revolver today with Hornady 158-gr .357 self-defense loads. Yeppers, it bucks a bit. But quite honestly it doesn't buck as much as metal-framed ultralight .357 snubs. The only consensus we could come up with is that the polymer frame is absorbing  a portion of the short, sharp recoil impulse. It's not super pleasant to shoot with the heavy loads, but you don't get a snub as your primary range gun. And it's got the same superb DA trigger — the best on any snub I've ever handled, and I've handled a whole bunch.

If you're at all recoil-sensitive, I strongly suggest you chose the 17.1 ounce .357 over the regular 13.5 ounce .38, then shoot .38s in the heavier LCR. I shot 158-gr Hornady .38+P self defense loads in the .357 and it was controllable and painless. Regular .38s would be downright pleasant to shoot,. I'd kill to have one of these in .22LR (take note, Ruger...pleeeeeeeease...).

Seen in Passing...

Festive LCPs?



-- Post From The Road

The World's Greatest .22

-- Post From The Road

Ruger LCP...

..."Coyote Specials" in production at Ruger's AZ facility...



-- Post From The Road

Whew!

...made the airport with time to spare today...not like me at all. Even TSA went smoothly, more of a "Hi, Michael!" than a "We got us an AL-QUAIDA!" like the last swing through Texas. I was shocked to learn that in addition to the first day of summer and the longest day of the year, today is National ASK Day, where your William Faulkner-esque neighbors who never mow their front porch, have 3 rusting Volkswagen vans and a painfully dead snowmobile up on blocks and actually barbecued a poodle last July 4 drop by to ask if you have a gun in the house. Nobody came by my house, possibly because I only have a few neighbors, including the town marshal, and my closet neighbor once thanked me for not shooting his dog when it camped out in front of the Secret Hidden Bunker and barked for, like, 3 weeks. I was really busy today, but a visiting neighbor would have certainly provided comic relief. I have lots of answers to questions like that.

I of course always ask anyone taking care of Alf the Wonder Beagle if they consider themselves liberal. Not because I don't want Alf consorting with liberals — I'm more concerned with chihuahuas, especially those nasty hairless zombie-looking ones — but rather if she has to unleash the Flashing Fangs of Fury on them I want her to be ready to deal with the nasty aftertaste.

One the good news front, my Sweetie won her category at last Saturday's cowboy action match in Ft. Collins. I am very, very proud of her. She has all the makings of an excellent competitor, as long as she doesn't pay too much attention to me. Congrats!!!

Wednesday's podcast is mostly on Wild Bill's 1860 Colt Richard's conversion I got to examine in Deadwood last week. I also talk about the holster and the gunbelt, one very similar tot he one he's wearing in the photo below:

Be sure to listen in...I did a good bit of Internet research and a quick spin through my own reference library, and I wasn't able to find any hard "gunny"stuff about that particular Wild Bill piece — allegedly the gun he was wearing on August 2, 1876 at the #10 Saloon. Hopefully I've added something original, or at least different, to Wild Bill lore.

Isn't it amazing that the gun-free paradise of Chicago is more violent than downtown Baghdad? Last weekend, 8 people killed and 52 people shot. Second Amendment Foundation EVP Allan Gottlieb put it best:

"Chicago has become a slaughterhouse," said SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, "where defenseless victims are terrorized by armed thugs who have taken full advantage of an unarmed populace. Daley and his predecessors who perpetuated this ban are wading knee-deep in the blood of hundreds of crime victims who should have had the means to defend themselves."

Amen to that! We're waiting for the MaDonald decision from the Supremes, due this Thursday or next Monday (probably), but I gotta tell you that every time I read David Hardy's OF ARMS & THE LAW, I get more and more worried. The thought of Justice Ginsburg writing on the incorporation of the Second is just terrifying.

Well, time to head on to Arizona, where even plants are heavily armed!

Sunday@Home

Got in from Deadwood Friday evening; shot a cowboy match up in Ft. Collins yesterday morning. All in all, it went pretty well. Had one stage where I forgot my Model '97 is strictly blunt trauma and worked the pump like an 870...didn't fully eject the hull. Then without looking I tossed the shotgun down on a table where, perversely, the empty round slid back into the chamber as the action closed neat as a pin. Leaving a fired round in the chamber is a penalty. So it goes...

Next week is the last push week in my hellish spring travel schedule — GUNSITE for a Ruger product introduction (and, yes, you'll see it on DRTV first!), then to End of Trail in Albuquerque for a couple of days until it's the Custer battle reenactment in Hardin, MT for the weekend. We're out of Billings on Monday. Luckily, our flight out of Billings is late enough to allow us a quick trip to the Mother Church of Cowboy Hats, Rand Custom Hats in Billings. Titch says he'll be in town and maybe we can grab a quick lunch along with a new hat. COWBOYS/SG Producer John Carter is actually frothing at the mouth. Probably the hat I wear the most os Ritch's 147 Sporting Clays, my go-to hat all summer and fall (although, to be totally honest I've been wearing the Colorado Mountain Hat Company copy of the Herbert Johnson "Poet" I had them make up for me. I like it enough that I might see one of Ritch's Western Fedoras in grey in my future.

I have to confess to a new pair of boots from a cowboy shop in Spearfish, SD — a pair of tall Ariat Hoolihans with ever-tasteful purple tops. I bought them in the morning and spent all day in a rodeo arena blowing up balloons and moving cones for mounted shooters. Seems like a fair break-in. I wore them yesterday, and they're getting there. I mean, they're never going to be Lucchese, but they don't cost like Lucchese, either.

In Deadwood I ran into Dan & Julia Schwarz...really nice people and just magnificent custom bootmakers from Montana. Check out their custom boot gallery and weep, mortals! I would kill to take their 2-week custom boot-making course...we'll see how the year shakes out...2 weeks is a long, long time in my world. Still, who else woudl do Wile E. Coyote boots?

Dead Man's Gun

Or dead woman's gun...the 1873 38/40 in my arms belonged to Calamity Jane...it might have been one of her prop guns, that she had her picture taken with, then sold to newbies in the Black Hills...easier than whoring, I suspect.



This is one of Wild Bill's guns, an 1860 Colt conversion that I was privileged to hold, albeit with gloves.




I don't mean to go all metaphysical here, but for those of us in this culture, the gun culture, these guns carry the weight of history, much like one of the legendary "named" samurai swords. The swords are called the "soul of the samurai" and are considered national treasures in Japan. Perhaps a gun like this conversion should be thought of as the "soul of the frontiersman" and be considered a national treasure in America.

When I hefted the gun and bought it to a firing grip. I felt...something. Sure, it's all in my head, but all I could think of was that this gun was the working tool of a man of honor, in a time when honor mattered. It was the working tool of a man who chose to life not only of adventure, but ultimately of service...a man who helped open the West to civilization while closing it for men like himself. It was a gun with stories it can never, would never tell. Ultimately, our history is written in steel, and I fear we have forgotten the language.

-- Post From The Road

Colorado Charlie Utter's gun...

An S&W .44 Russian, found in the woods near Deadwood in 1937...engraved Charles Utter Georgetown Colorado...



-- Post From The Road

Another Tough Day at the Office...

-- Post From The Road

Me And Bill

...in Deadwood...

Wild Bill is probably happy that people are still losing their money in Deadwood. The saloons aren't, however, what they used to be! More later...



-- Post From The Road

Global Warming Alert!

I'm actually taking ou guys' advice and have knocked off everything over the weekend to concentrate on sleep — not hard, since it has been cold and raining. I did want to post a quick note saying that, right here on June 13, it's snowing again. ARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Michael is Slacking...

...I came off the road yesterday and I felt like hammered shit...hot, flushed, feverish, blah blah...I thought that 3 months of utterly lunatic travel had finally caught up with me. I felt so crummy and ground down that since I'm going to Deadwood next week I thought maybe I'd just go to the Number 10 Saloon, order a whiskey and sit with my back to the door and see what happens.

Instead, I watched the season finale of Justified on DVR (great, BTW...will be talking about it on next week's podcast), took a handful of over the counter stuff and went to bed. I feel pretty good today, but still ground down. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll feel like shooting a cowboy match, if it's not cold and raining. As a friend of mine said today, it's great that summer came on a weekend! Wanna shoot .357s tomorrow...hopefully, this weekend I can finish up the belt for my dual Schofield .44 Russian rigs and I can shoot them after Hell on Wheels this July 4. BTW, if you're a cowboy shooter (or a DRTV Forum member) and you're going to be in Cheyenne for Hell on Wheels, look me up Friday and let's see what's up for the evening. If there's enough of us, I'm buying.

Good piece on NRO from John Lott on mass shootings in the gun-free paradise of Europe and England:

Large multiple-victim public shootings are exceedingly rare events, but they garner massive news attention, and the misperceptions they produce are hard to erase. When I have been interviewed by foreign journalists, even German ones, they usually start off by asking why multiple-victim public shootings are such an American problem. And of course, they are astonished when I remind them of the attacks in their own countries and point out that this is not an American problem, it is a universal problem, but with a common factor: The attacks occur in public places where civilians are banned from carrying guns.

Read the whole thing, of course.

BTW BTW, I'm really excited about my friend Caleb from Gun Nuts Media in his Quest of IDPA Master Class with a Ruger SR9c compact and a Comp-Tac holster, to be chronicles on both Gun Nuts Media and DRTV. I like my SR9c compact a lot...at Ruger's request I've been carrying it (in an Galco Yaqui Slide and a Wilderness Tactical SafePacker) and I'v very happy with it. I got a Streamlight compact gun-mounted light for the little gun when it's the bedside gun in hotel rooms, which is a good companion for that Laser Genetics handheld green laser that has become my "go-to" light.

BTW BTW BTW, have I mentioned that I agreed to accept a slot on the Board of Advisors for the U.S. Concealed Carry Association? I met Tim Schmidt, the head guy ay USCCA, at the Second Amendment March in Washington D.C., and he impressed me. Last week I got a surprise invitation to join the BOA and I accepted. Hell, I'll probably do some senior stuff for them!

Meanwhile, I got a notice from Cimarron that their Open-Top Navy in .44 Special was on big-time sale...

...probably because I'm the only guy they could think of who'd want an open-top brass frame Navy (the lower gun in the pix) in .44 Special. The bastards! Sure, I know it won't run on a bet, but Bob Munden has a reputation for making open-tops work and he talked to me a while back about doing a gun for me. And I don't have any open-tops...get thee behind me, Satan! No...no...don't touch the checkbook...

And while I'm resisting temptation, consider this...a man open-carrying in Milwaukee got himself robbed...kids, kids, kids, when a stranger comes up to you and asks for a cigarette, for a ligh, for the time, for a dollar for his or her starving children, whatever, you are being "interviewed" for an attack! Good morning! Wake up and smell the coffee! If your awareness fails it doesn't matter if you're carrying a suitcase nuke and a pack of marauding Mongols in your  pants — you lose!

God Knows I Try to Keep Up...

But I get to working and the whole industry jumps into a game of musical chairs. BTW, the above ad is from AAC's blog.

So, quickly, Magnum Research has been acquired by Kahr Arms (via a press release quoted in the Firearm Blog):

Kahr Arms, the well known American based producer of high quality compact pistols has announced its recent purchase of Minnesota-based firearms manufacturer, Magnum Research, Inc.®, maker of the Desert Eagle® Pistol.

Kahr Arms takes pride in its ability to offer customers a selection of unique niche-type firearms, such as the world famous “Tommy Gun” and Auto-Ordnance line of M1 .30 caliber carbines. The addition of Magnum Research, Inc.® products to the Kahr Arms family will provide Kahr Arms and Auto-Ordnance customers another unique line of firearms to choose from.

Magnum Research, Inc.® was founded in 1979 and was responsible for the design and the development of the Desert Eagle® Pistol. The firearms in its current product lineup include the Desert Eagle® Pistol (available in .50 AE, .44 Magnum, or .357 Magnum), Baby Desert Eagle® “Fast Action” Pistol (9mm, .40 S&W), Desert Eagle 1911, Micro Desert Eagle™ Pistol (.380 ACP), Magnum’s BFR (Revolvers in .44 Magnum, .45 LC/.410 or .45/70), Mountain Eagle™ MAGNUM LITE® Rifle (.22/250, .223, .30-06, .280 and 7mm) and MAGNUM LITE® Rifle (.22LR, .22 WMR or .17 Mach-2).

Okay-dokey...makes some sort of sense. Magnum Research could definitely use some of Kahr's financial juice. Meanwhile. Taurus is working on a .380 revolver, according to an interview with Taurus majordomo Bob Morrison on Tom Gresham's Gun Talk radio show, as quoted in the Guns, Holsters & Gear blog. This is probably not as weird as it seems on the surface. A couple of years back Taurus floated a 9mm revolver (the 905, pictured below) essentially modeled on the old S&W I-Frame. The I-Frame was slightly smaller than the later and far more familiar J-Frame and was used on the the petite Terrier snubby and the Regulation Police revolver, both in .32 S&W and .38 S&W (which was not .38 Special). Walt Rauch got hold of one of the early 9mm Taurus revolvers and tyold me it was one of the most accurate snubs he'd ever shot — and Walt has shot a whole bunch of them!

Since the .380 is essentially a stubby 9mm (9X17 vs 9X19), should work just fine in a revolver.

A Sign of the Times

Well, of some times...


-- Post From The Road

Bob Boze Bell

At work on COWBOYS...


-- Post From The Road

Busy Busy Busy

Today was just crazy busy...had to get some more genetically engineered lubricating crap shot into my left knee...I'd be up for the permanent installation of a grease nipple so I could lube up at home.

I really liked this pix of a Remington R1 1911 with an AAC Ti-Rant suppressor bolted on. Looks almost as cool as a Maxim suppressor on a U.S. F.A. 1910 Commercial and is probably a good bit quieter (after all, it's been better than 100 years of technological development since the Maxim).

Check out this article in the NY Post...hard to believe that there are people as stupid as the idiots running New York, with, of course, the exception of the Daleys in Chicago:

The city's top cop, Ray Kelly, is inviting all City Council members to shoot guns at the NYPD's firing range -- as the state Assembly considers legislation to require police officers to shoot gun-wielding suspects in the limbs, rather than aim to kill.

"I would recommend everyone goes. It's a very eye-opening experience, especially for anyone who thinks police officers should shoot guns out of people's hands," Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens) told the Council Public Safety Committee during a budget hearing yesterday.

"They should fire a gun first and see what it's like and try to avoid shooting the birds from the recoil," added Vallone, who owns a rifle.

Shoot the guns out of the bad guys' hands...what a bunch of nitwits!

June 6, 1944...

So many years now, and so many with the memories of that day now gone. We look back on D-Day and the other horrific set-piece battles of World War 2 with an air of unreality, through goggles of the omnipresent media...perhaps the epic celluloid battles against the Sith or the dinosaurs of Jurrasic Park are more "real" to us than our fathers', or our grandfathers, great sacrifices. As Americans, I believe we cannot look back at D-Day, at the Second World War, without a sense of utmost reverence, a profound sense of the power of good to triumph over evil even in the face of unimaginable pain, suffering and death.

As those Allied soldiers and Marines fought their way east, they found the remains of an equally unimaginable evil, the living vestiges of human beings' capacity for creating a hell on earth. As we pause to honor the greatest generation we do so with a sense of rising unease, that as we watch the events unfolding on the world's stage we do so with a nagging sense we've seen it, or at least heard about it, all before...

...the rising tide of anti-Semitism...the call for worldwide jihad...the acquiescence of the major powers... and once again the assurance of peace in our time...

Sometimes in my most depressing dreams I hear the rattling sounds of boxcars headed east, and I pray that the courage, the resolve, the faith, the essential goodness of those men who rode the landing crafts to beaches whose names we could once recite from the heart still flows in America's veins.

To all who serve, our undying thanks. God bless America.

Less Than Perfect Performance....

...in Cheyenne today. The Force apparently wasn't with me...LOL!

Steampunk Revolvers and other Goodies

Say Uncle has a jackpot of gun porn today, including this magnificent LeMat, the ultimate steampunk handgun, from Blackfork. I occasionally fantasize about a modern repro  cartridge-firing LerMat...would that not be the ultimate bedroom gun in .44 Special/20 gauge?

Uncle, whom I got to spend a little time with at the NRA convention, also linked to another Czech gun company paradoxically in Nashville, Czechpoint. What's seriously cool is they have a few Czech Scorpion .32s available as SBR (short-barreled rifles), with the original folding stock.

I will, as always, grant you that the Cz61 is one of the least practical/tactical gun ever made. I will also include the little blaster in at least the top 5 of the coolest guns ever made. I've avoided the pistols by huge act of will, the the SBR may be my undoing.

There's a piece on Joe Huffman's blog that I believe everyone should read — a potentiality is not an actuality:

A potential to do harm is not the same as actually doing harm. In nearly every instance of a push for greater gun control (and, if you think about it some, nearly all government programs) those advocating more government control focus almost entirely on the potential harm if action is not taken and the potential good if the action is taken. Actual harm and actual benefits appear to be (and in many cases I'm sure it is deliberately) ignored.

Definitely read the whole thing. Aso read the Pajamas Media piece by Howard Nemerov on how FBI stats prove an armed public is a safer public:

After the Virginia Tech shooting, Katie Couric interviewed Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Said Helmke:

“While it is ‘people who kill people,’ they do so more often, and more successfully because we make it so easy to get such lethal weapons [guns].”

It’s true that NICS data show how easy it is for Americans to buy guns, but FBI crime data shows that law-abiding gun owners are not the problem.

More guns, less rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

Gotta go round enough enough bullets to shoot a cowboy match tomorrow AM up in Cowboy World (a.k.a. Wyoming). Starting to ramp up for Hell on Wheels, the big regional match in Cheyenne over the 4th of July weekend.

Wild Bill Goes Electric

That's my old pal Stuart Barber — "Tame Bill" to SASS members — duplicating Wild Bill Hickok's 75-yard shot in the gunfight with Dave Tutt, with the addition of a point-of-view camera strapped to goggles. Stuart's using his .36 cap-and-ball Navy Colts, and, yes, he rang the steel over and over again. We're filming for COWBOYS, and it's darn hot in KC, too!

Sleepy now....

Mid-Week Wrap-up

Spent most of the day in the shoot house at U.S. Shooting Academy in Tulsa filming some vignettes for Streamlight on their gun-mounted lights. We were working with John Meyer, who used to be one of the top trainers for H-K before he went out on his own...a world-class instructor, and I learned a lot just hanging around and talking. I've decided I'm going to put together an SG on low-light training with John and his guys. I also talked to Mike Seeklander at USSA about his close quarters shooting class, and I think you're definitely going to see that on SG in 2011 as well.

Then I cruised on to Kansas City to spend the evening at the brewhouse across the parking lot from the hotel with my old IPSC friend Stuart Barber, a.k.a. "Tame Bill" — you've seen him on the History Channel as one of the ranking experts on the life of Wild Bill Hickok — drinking Anchor Steam and talking about the old Kansas cow towns, shoot-outs, various miscreants, and Wild West bullshit.

Every so often it strikes me that I am one of the luckiest people in the world.

Anyhow, in other news, Todd Jarrett is teasing us with is new company, Strike Force (new rifle, above). Hey, looking forward to the new guns, Todd!

In news, Nosler Bullets in Bend, OR, blew up today...here's the news piece:

An explosion and fire rocked a portion of the Nosler Inc. bullet manufacturing plant in southwest Bend Wednesday afternoon, prompting evacuation and closure of streets in the area; despite a blast felt for several blocks, all 100 workers were accounted for.

The fire was reported initially as a smoke report shortly after 2 p.m. at the facility at 107 SW Columbia St., which was evacuated. By 2:15 p.m., there were reports that an explosion had destroyed part of the building. But by 3 p.m., reports from the scene were that all workers on scene at the time of the blast had been accounted for.

A company spokesman said he was told that around 2 p.m., work was under way in the ballistics tunnel, a testing area for ammunition, when there was a flash, followed by the quick evacuation, smoke, and moments later by a massive explosion.

Whew! More when it becomes available.

Finally, the one accessory you can't do without (and sorry to be so long in noting this one!) :

That's right...a bayonet for your laser-sighted North American Arms mini-revolver! From the guys at LaserLyte, in conjunction with KA-BAR, all of whom obviously have too much time on their hands! OTOH, I'm sure there are places in this country where rabid chihuahuas are a major issue..."Yo quiero Taco Bell' my butt!

New Alf TWB* Sighting

*The Wonder Beagle, of course. Once again, she quickly turned away before the camera could capture her face. She's recovered pretty well from her injured paw and ready to head into the mountains in search of bison, large ungulates and perhaps the occasional water buffalo, as long as she can be home in time for dinner.

Spent the day recording yesterday, the first half day audio; the second short spots for COWBOYS. Two filming days this week and a gigantic stack of meetings. I plan to get in a match this upcoming weekend and a practice day with semiautos early next week.

Joe Huffman has posted NICS data on gun sales for the first part of 2010, and as predicted here gun sales have hardly plummeted...in fact, they're only slightly behind the banner year of 2009. Verification of the offhand comment from Taurus Top Guy Bob Morrison — "Companies making good products people want to buy are not suffering." My take? Once again, self-defense handguns are leading the market as the black rifle market stabilizes.

Drop by Gun Nuts Media and tell Caleb what gun you think he should shoot next in IDPA...I was disheartened to see there was no check box for "Flintlock, Tactical." Caleb, you should hold off on Custom Defensive Pistol, essentially a 1911 .45 class, until 2011, then convince your long-suffering Significant Other that she has to work overtime so you can get the appropriate custom 1911 to shoot in the perfect category!