Yeechy Errands...

Don't you hate it when errands stack up and stack up and stack up until you have no choice? It was that kind of day...

I've been [putting off a trip to the doctor to have my right knee "shot up" with magic, genetically engineered collagen and enough cortisone for at least a high school football team, but it finally caught up with me...that bone-against-bone grinding, to use a technical term, sucks. So once every 12-14 months I go get the ole knee joint chrome-plated.

Unfortunately, I waited about a month too long this time (because I'm convinced, convinced I tell you, that it's miraculously going to heal itself). Sadly, a ll those triathlons, marathons, long-distance bike races, jumping out of perfectly good airplanes and the host of stupid things I did to entertain myself have taken their toll. I was laughing today with my SG producer, John Carter, who's a marathon guy and who was laughing at me tinkering together my knees. "Do you think this isn't a vision of your future?" I said.

I'll put off the replacement knees as long as I can!

Marshal and I are working on a couple of totally cool Internet projects, including a documentary on Project Appleseed (this will be so much fun!).

I've been doing a lot of dry-firing with the C&S GP-100. I am convinced it is the best GP-100 on earth, possibly in the Known Universe. I'll be taking pictures this weekend. Six-inch barrel, Bowen rear sights, green fiber-optic front, Hogue "camp-lamo" big butt grips...I'm loving it!

The Massive Sorting Process

It's like doing an archeological dig on a terminal ADD patient...I ended up throwing out t-shirts from dozens of triathlons, assorted marathons including New York, 3 Iditasports, swim caps from my 3 Alcatraz Triathlon finishes, a bunch of long-distance bike rides, including the Cross Florida, the Tour of the California Alps Death Ride, Ride the Rockies, and on and on. Then, as long as I was on a tear, I tossed decades of magazine articles I wrote, including about a billion gun articles for HANDGUNS, GUNS & AMMO, SHOTGUN NEWS, GUNS, GUN WORLD, AMERICAN HANDGUNNER and all the episodes of GUN GAMES I edited. I'm sure the landfill will be fascinated!

 I am amazed — well, not really — that the usual brain dead responses from our enemies on the Santa Barbara shootings — we need magazine restrictions, waiting lists, assault weapons bans, all the stuff we already have in California...

I think it's indicative of the desperation on the part of the other side. They have lied one too many times, and there's nothing left but waving the bloody shirt.

Memorial Day 2014

Now I know that things are different than they were in Daddy's days

But I still believe what makes a man really hasn't changed

— Aaron Tippin

"You've Got To Stand For Something"

I woke up this Memorial Day morning thinking about 2 of my best friends, gone now. Both came back from Vietnam changed, some ways for the better, some ways for the worse. But Vietnam was the defining event of their lives. They were both men of honor, and at some core DNA level they believed in the United States as the greatest country on earth...a country worth sacrificing their you, worth dying for if necessary. 

I honor their service and their lives, as I do the service, the lives — and the sacrifices — of all our Armed Forces, the men and women who guarantee our freedom.

And we as a country have failed them at a level that a few years ago I would have thought impossible.  

Read this Memorial Day piece from Roger Simon...for those of us of a certain age, it's worth thinking about.

Look! Ahead! Normalcy!

That's Joe with Henry Morton Stanley's 4-bore Rolling Block he was carrying when he said those immortal words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

Hopefully, I can see normalcy in the not-too-distant-future!  Has been hectic beyond words the last couple of weeks as we've raced to finish up filming for GUN STORIES With Joe Mantegna Season 4. Just came back from 4 days at the National Firearms Museum filming Joe's stand-ups, interviews with Curators Phil Schreier and Jim Supica, and my old friend Mark Keefe from AMERICAN RIFLEMAN. Also got to spend some time with Steve Hunter  (new book, SNIPER'S HONOR, now available! Buy 2, one for you; one for a friend...read the Amazon reviews!).

As always, the interviews were great fun. We've also kicked things up a notch on B-roll of firearms...pretty spectacular this upcoming season!

BTW, this came in the AM emails...I present it without comment.

For those of you who've asked so nicely, here's a picture of Newt:

Much cuter than Chelsea Clinton, n'est pas? Smarter, too...Newt's already begun her Mountain Beagle training — avoiding cacti, clambering over rocks, barking at mule deer, all the basics. Not so hot on the ole housebreaking thing, but that's very beagle. She went in for her puppy check-up and the vet pronounced her magnificent. She and Asta the Manx are working toward a relationship that doesn't involve slapped noses and chunks of hair pulled out.

I gotta spend some time today on one-shot draws with the Ruger GP-100 from Cylinder & Slide. I am putting together a full feature on DRTV on that gun, because it is simply magnificent. I had hoped to be a little farther along in training for the International Revolver Championships in June, but the move kinda chewed up what I assumed would be practice time. Silly moi.

Conspiracy Theories, Alien Abductions and Slander

"Ninety percent of science fiction is crap. But that's okay, because 90% of everything is crap."

-- Sturgeon's Law

Attributed to science fiction icon Theodore Sturgeon

I've never been a big fan of conspiracy theories, largely because I don't think most people could pull off a complicated conspiracy on a bet. It follows from that statement that I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theory movies, because I'm not able to suspend disbelief. Add to that the fact that most modern conspiracy theory movies are either wicked capitalist corporations or American veterans plotting this, that or the other Evil Wicked Deed. Which brings me around, in a roundabout way, to another pet peeve...the demonization of business in America. That's largely a function of the progressive Left a part of their core DNA: Government Good/Business Bad, sort of the Norma Jean School of Life.

So, you may ask, What the hell is he talking about?

Well, oddly enough I'm talking about the Remington R51 9mm pistol. Or rather the coverage of the R51 introduction.

The R51 production gun reviews have been disastrous...here, here, and here are samples. The production gun reviews are at odds with the pre-production/prototype reviews (including our own DRTV review by Gary Paul Johnson).

This discrepancy has led to some fairly serious churn on the Internet, from the thoughtful to the perhaps less-than-thoughtful.

Beeause we've run a review on the R51, I feel like I have a horse (well, a pony) in this race, and I wanted to make some points.

• The first is that it's darn fun to slag other people. I say this as a former music critic who once made his living criticizing people more talented than I. At some point through, it is corrosive to the soul of the slagger. All print gunwriters are NOT whores...that should be self-evident. The one writer called out, Richard Mann, for his print review in SHOOTING ILLUSTRATED, Is one of the best in the business. He is a person I go to when I have questions I can't answer. He is an honorable man. Gary Paul Johnson, our reviewer, retired from LAPD, is the co-author of the standard reference text on world assault rifles, has been featured on GUN STORIES for his depth of knowledge,  and is one of my best friends. They are experts. Period.

• All bloggers are NOT the saviors of firearms journalism. There are some good ones whose opinions on firearms I value (Grant Cunningham, Hamilton Yam, Tim Lau and Caleb Giddings come to mind). There are a far greater number of people who do nothing more than increase the "noise" side of the signal-to-noise ratio...readers/viewers are free to disagree, but I have read more crap about guns on the Internet than I'd have believed possible. Hey, because you don't like something doesn't mean it's part and parcel of a massive conspiracy on the part of gun companies! Additionally, My cat Asta has a greater depth of knowledge of firearms design and manufacturing considerations than about 80% of what passes for "criticism" on the Internet.

• The Internet is a wonderful place to grind an axe, so to speak. And at any given point that are a LOT of axes being ground. I once told Washington correspondent Jake Tapper that he should reveal his background in antigun advocacy on any story he did on RKBA. He didn't agree with me. I still believe that we are obligated to reveal our biases, our preconceptions, our set of paradigms that might impinge on what we write or say. Without going into details, there is some of this preexisting axe-grinding going on here, and it is inappropriate (read BEARING ARMS Bob Owens -- another credible voice -- piece here).

• I have said this over and over and over again...we can only review the guns we get. I would say the vast majority of guns I get are production guns, because that's what I'd prefer to review. I have handled a lot of prototype and pre-production guns, and in general I can find something wrong with them. I tell the company involved in the hopes of fixing the problem before the gun goes out to the public.

• It is clear that there was a "slip between the cup and the lip" on the R51. The production guns are having problems that the preproduction protos shown to gunwriters at the GUNSITE Remington event did not exhibit. The idea, however, that Remington somehow conspired to fool "hand-picked gun writers." and foist off a gun that would fire out-of-battery is ludicrous. I'm not a huge fan of the Remington consolidation, but as I said in my comments on a previous post, only a complete idiot would assert that Remington doesn't know how to make guns. Gun companies are not massive conglomerates conspiring to pass crap off on stupid consumers...that is the fetid imagination of those who have seen one too many viewings of Erin Brockovich.

• I am not a fan of the "pay for play" model, e.g. only advertisers are mentioned in a publication or broadcast. None of my productions are "pay for play." Never have been; never will be. It gives my advertising department ulcers! I do, however, favor my advertisers...I would be a fool to do otherwise! All of us work for profit. To the smug morons who say they'll never believe anything in a magazine or broadcast supported by advertising I say, hey, so you have a trust fund, or do you work for a company that provides goods or services to the public? Someone PAYS for your company's goods or services, and that's why you get a weekly paycheck. Capitalism is good, and it works. 

So what happened with the R51? If I was going to bet, I'd say the guns provided to writers at the GUNSITE event were indeed pre-production guns built by Remington factory engineers. The guns that came off the Para lines in North Carolina for production weren't up to those standards. A mistake? Hell yes. A conspiracy? Yeah, right...

Even on the Internet, maybe especially on the Internet, when you accuse respected professionals of unethical behavior, you DAMN WELL BETTER be prepared to cough up the evidence, or it's time for you to fold your hand and find another playpen.

SHOOTING GALLERY Season 15!

We now have our official green light for Season 15 of SHOOTING GALLERY!

And an exciting season it will be! First off, we'll be at the International Revolver Championships for the first time in years, the MGM Ironman for the first time ever, the first Trijicon World Shooting Championships at the Peacemaker facility (about which more next week!), several international trips...Much Coolness!!!!

Crimson Trace is back as name sponsor, with Rock Island, Ruger, Midway USA, Streamlight, Stag Arms and others on board making it all happen.

Tuesday Filming Day...

...so things are almost back to normal. Did you notice that in Detroit some criminal gangs are painting the tips of their real guns orange, maybe causing the police to hesitate for a moment before pulling the trigger. Maybe urban mythology, but a tiny data point to add to your self-defense bag — if someone is pointing a gun at you, it's not a good time for a color code quiz.

I ove the semi-hysterical story in the NY Post on a seized "arsenal," including 4 guns and less than 200 rounds of ammo. Here's my favorite line:

“It was enough to arm a small army or militia,” a police source said of the bust. “These guys were ready for war.”

LOL! What a clown show! If I had that stash in my car I'd feel a bit undergunned. Does go back to the idea that we, the pro-rights community, and our enemies are increasingly living in 2 separate universes. I strongly urge you to read this piece from the incompatible Claire Wolfe on the history of moral panics:

We are in the midst of a moral panic against the very concept of weapons (and people outside of government who wield them). 

But one scary thing about moral panics is that hardly anybody recognizes them for what they are until everybody finally snaps out of the hysteria. 

The panic against weapons and those who use them has been going on at least since the early 1990s (and probably began in the 1960s). My great fear is that a) it's getting worse and b) it's infecting the minds of an entire generation, so that the current crop of children and young adult students will arrive "in the real world" with the assumption -- implanted by the current hysteria -- that weapons themselves are actually evil.

Definitely read the whole thing (from JPFO) and pass the link along. This is as succinct a definition of our current battlespace as I've seen. One of the best examples of this hysteria come from Mother Jones, a bastion of second-rate advocacy journalism, on alleged threats against antigun fanatics. 

Here's my take...anyone who threatens the life or assault anyone needs to have the full force of the law brought down on his or her head. Note that I mentioned "the law." Pro-gun or antigun, if you are assaulted or are in fear of your life, there is a mechanism in our society for redress, and it's not Mother Jones. If someone breaks one of the numerous laws on assault, on stalking, on threats by email, voice, telephone or Internet, then call the police and file a complaint. 

If you "feel threatened" by the sight of a gun, I strongly suggest that you seek therapy, because you have a mental issue. Note that I said "feeling threatened" is your problem, not mine. "Feeling threatened" by the sight of a firearm, especially a firearm openly carried by a citizen of the country we all happen to live in, is no different that "feeling threatened" by clowns, Afro American men, black cars, alien abduction or Brie...a mental problem on the part of the person involved. I am no more obligated to change my behavior to make you feel better than a grocery store is obligated to remove all Brie because it gives you the faints. 

This will sound harsh, but only because of today's societal drift — for the most part, I don't care how you feel. It is not my role in the world to adjust to your quirks. "Feelings" are something totally under your own control, so control them. 

I've always been a proponent of word substitutions when analyzing my own feelings. When I was working on the Media Education Project for NSSF, I would routinely use word substitution with speaking with editors and commentators on media bias...substitute "Jew" for "gun nut" in a sentence, for example, then read it aloud. Occasionally, the editor or reporter would stop in mid-sentence and apologize for slurring gun owners.

So for all you Moms out, all 16 of you or however many there really are, try a little substitution test of your own..."I feel uncomfortable when I see << young black men>> on the street. I want my children to feel safe from <<young black men>> in public...I want to lobby local, state, and federal law enforcement so that I and my family can feel safer from <<young black men>>...

Pretty repulsive, huh?

Some Random Thoughts on the Remington Consolidation

1) From a pure manufacturing perspective, consolidation makes all the sense in the world, especially with products designed for modern manufacturing methods.

2) The older a product is, the less likelihood it was designed for modern manufacturing methods. Dare I say "1911" or "lever action rifle?"

3) Older products can be brought on-line with 21st century manufacturing, but it usually requires a healthy (and expensive) injection of technology, e.g. Ruger's 1911 line or Cabot arms' breakthrough EDM'ed 1911s.

4) Eclectic small group cultures cannot survive consolidation long term. At least, I've never seen it happen. Efforts to maintain the smaller group culture within the larger whole either slowly trickles out or backfires.

5) Firearms are often more than the sum of their parts, which is why the market sometimes confound the industry.

Whoops!!!!

I honestly didn't realize it has been a week since I posted! Worked on the move through the weekend, then went to GUNSITE to work with Joe Mantegna, Tim Cremin, Dan Ramm and Cory Trapp on GUN STORIES. Days were long. Had a wonderful dinner with Buz and Sonja Mills, owners of GUNSITE, Tuesday night. Joining us was Michael Kassner from I.W.I. and Nick Collier from DoubleStar. Talk about a great evening!

Which reminds me, I did get to spend a bit of time with the 9mm TAVOR...like shooting a stapler. It runs off 32 round Colt-style mags. Really slick, really easy shooting carbine! I have a 9mm conversion unit coming. Also handled the new Ruger American Predator model, about which more later.

Again, apologies...more tomorrow, I promise!

Here at the Zoo...

Yesterday was a moving day and today little Newt came home. Been a LOOOOOOONG time since I had a new puppy (and a pretty new kitten). I forgot! LOL!

So puppy, kitten and cute-as-a-button Browning BLR pixs tomorrow.

Say, how about that Hillary "What Difference Does It Make?" Clinton throwing down the gauntlet to us sad pathetic gun-clinging peckerheads:

“We have to rein in what has become [an] almost article of faith, that anybody can own a gun anywhere, anytime. And I don’t believe that,” she said, as applause drowned her out.

So, let's recap, kids...this pathetic old harridan, who was willing to stay with a sexual predator indefinitely because she so loved power, who allowed an American ambassador be killed on her watch and American heroes be left behind to die, who looked the family of a man she claimed as friend in the eyes and lied to their faces, who has the cold-blooded gall to tell Congress, "What difference does it make," who traveled a million miles as Secretary of State and accomplished nothing, who coined the phrase "nuts and sluts" to describe the women her husband sexually abused, who blamed illegalities in her former law firm on her junior associate who didn't have the power to requisition paper clips, a woman who quite literally has accomplished nothing of consequence in her entire life spent grubbing for power over other people, and she calls us unbalanced?

Browning BLR Home!

Gray MPI stock looks incredible and is definitely lighter! Pixs tomorrow AM. DEFINITELY needs a action job, but I'm thinking about KISS and staying with the factory iron sights. I'm going to start traveling with it as soon as the action is slicked up and I get a couple of more mags. This is a cool project.

BTW, here is an excellent blogpost on the whole "conversation about guns" BS from the Armed Luthern blog:

First, let’s set the table before we get down to brass tacks: Gun violence has been dropping for over a decade, mass shootings are not increasing, 90% of Americans do NOT support universal background checks, a majority of Americans oppose stricter gun laws, accidental gun deaths are not at an all-time high, the actual rate of gun-related homicide is not the highest in the world, concealed carry permit holders rarely commit crimes, and less than 1% of criminals buy guns from gun shows. So, now that we’ve dispensed with the Bravo Sierra, let’s talk.

Read the whole thing!

Now might be a good time to buy a balloon popping laser:

On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration published new draft guidance that could effectively put an end to high-powered lasers in the United States. It will not be formally approved until the 90-day comment period has passed. 

The move is likely in response to the growing threat of laser strikes against aircraft. Since early 2014, the FBI has offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who reports a laser strike to federal authorities, leading to an arrest. Since the FBI began keeping track in 2004, there have been more than 12,000 reported incidents nationwide—and the incident rate continues to climb.

I seriously may buy a high power laser just because the scumbags don't want me to have one!

Cinco de Mayo...

When I get older losing my hair,

Many years from now,

Will you still be sending me a valentine

Birthday greetings bottle of wine?

If I'd been out till quarter to three

Would you lock the door,

Will you still need me, will you still feed me,

When I'm sixty-four?

C'mon, you know I couldn't get through the day without at least quoting When I'm 64, now that I are 64! Hell, maybe I'm 32 twice!

I'm kinda overwhelmed with flood of good birthday wishes though email and Facebook! Thank you all so very, very much!

I am spending the day at Home Depot, proving that I can't be handy mending a fuse, etc.

I suppose that in all honesty if I had known I'd live this long, I would have indeed taken better care of at least my knees! LOL! What the heck, as long as there's genetically engineered chemical sludge to inject into 'em, I'll press on regardless.

Again, thank you, my friends.

Kick It In, Second Wind!

Moving in increment is like slitting your wrist very slowly with a cardboard knife.

Safes, guns, birdies, Asta the Cat, bedin place...I can see the furniture moving truck creeping up the road.

To the fight!

The First Blog Post...

...from the New Secret Hidden Bunker! Solar electrical system working well...generator not yet on-line, but should be by the end of the week...water and septic systems on-line...dual propane hot water/under-floor heating systems on on-line...Internet obviously on-line...robotic defense systems armed...fallout shelter partially stocked...satellite teevee instal later this afternoon...nervous breakdown...pending...

Anticipate actual residency early next week!

Suspect wind generator component of the redundant/redundant power systems will go in sooner rather than later, depending on whether I have 2 nickels left to rub together.

All in all, it's pretty neat!

BTW, I really didn't explain why I thought the Ares Defense SCR was such an important product. Obviously, the AR-15 platform is overwhelming the most popular rifle in America. Realistically, at this point in the product cycle the vast majority of people who wanted to get into the AR system have already done so (and the other 6 of you ought to buy right now while the prices are low, low, low...my CDNN flyer for this week offered an incredible selection of ARs for prices I haven't seen in years.

There does, however, remain a portion of our market that has not bought into the system, largely because they don't like the way the ARs look. That's not particularly irrational...I'll wager ev ery one of us has purchased a firearm because we liked the way it looked. Inverse Q.E.D., there are firearms we don't purchase because we don't like the way they look. There are also for some people issues with the ARs pistol grip ergonomics...pistol grips work just great, but some shooters just despise them for their own personal ergonomics.

The SCR brings the AR-15 platform to that group of shooters/hunters. If you want the traditional ergonomics and the advantages of the most versatile rifle system on the planet, you can have it. Remember, we live in a "have it your way" universe. Ares has a wood stock in the works, and there already are a number of AR wood furniture sets (like these from Brownell's). I envision an SCR with wood furniture and maybe woodland green or gray Ceracote on the metal parts. Would make a sharp looking rifle! At least, not nearly as weird looking as a Rhino .357!

Walpurgis Night Warning!!!

.

Remember, tonight is Walpurgis Night, and even as I write the words the Minions of the Dark Lord are rising from their resting places in the Carpathian Mountains to ride the winds across an unsuspecting, sleeping world!

Me, I hang a bulb of garlic above each doorway, a definite evil undead repeller. Free advice to young people...if you're out and about tonight an a tres-hot member of the opposite sex (or same sex...we're 100% non gender specific here at the Bunker) invites you into a dark alley for "something really special," I'd take a pass if I were you unless you'd like your bloodless, soulless husk to be discovered in the cold grey dawn of May Day.

Still, witches be hot, as this 1880s painting from Luis Falero clearly indicates.

And speaking of AR-15s (the mark of a great writer, BTW, is to seamlessly flow from topic to topic without disturbing the reader's concentration),  listen to today's podcast, where I spend a lot of time on the Ares Defense SCR.

Home from NRA...

...in the wee wee hours of this morning!

You'll perhaps not be surprised to know I turned the 3 days of the NRA convention into days 5, 6 and 7 of the SHOT Show. A lot of meetings and several GREAT autograph signings at the OC booth and at Burris Optics. I also ended up doing a ton of interviews; I said that I was shocked...SHOCKED!...that there had been no "active shooter events" in a big room filled with 70,000 mostly armed people!

The BANE-A-PALOOZA event at the Slippery Noodle went off just super...I don't know how many people we ended up with, but it was well over a hundred. THANK YOU Forum members and pod people! It was great to meet so many of you, and I got a LOT of ideas to steal wholesale!

I was heartbroken that I didn't get to go play with with the "substantial" crowd of antigun Bloomberg shills...there were fully 100 of them...as many seats as there was on the bus that brought them in! Wow! Unfortunately, they were apparently members of the United Federation of Shills, Lowlifes and Bums, so they were unable to protest longer than the time it took to do the interviews with MSNBC.

Here's a few random data points, and I'll be talking about Indy on this week's podcast:

• It is clear from the convention especially that women are playing a much greater role in the business and the culture than ever before. Obviously, the demo still skews older, male and white, but with this convention the effects of Gun Culture Ver. 2.0 are beginning to show. Faster, please!

• Interestingly enough on the same subject, one of the most common things I was asked by those very same older,male,white demo guys was how can we do a better job of reaching out the both the African America and the Hispanic community. I was heartened to see that, overall, our culture seems outreach as a major TO-DO list item, and it's something I'll be working on as well.

• I am a little concerned on the NRA's slight drift away from a laser-focus on gun rights. I'm going to refer you to Charles C. W. Cooke's excellent piece on NRO, tagged "The NRA Is Winning:"

The NRA is winning — and thank goodness that it is. So effective has it been that it must be tempting for its acolytes to branch out, fighting the good fight on more front than one. It should resist the lure, and — even at this moment of unprecedented success — remember what it was that made it so effective in the first place: discipline.

BTW, Cooke was at the convention, obviously. I saw this same sort of drift duing the Bush The Younger years when we weren't in a DefCon One battle mode...I started getting calls from political folks that started like this: We know you're a gun activist, and that's why we think you should help us with [fill in the blank] issue. As a small "l" libertarian, I am very attuned to the depredations of our Constitutionally guaranteed liberties and the necessity to fight against those depredations. However, on a strictly pragmatic plane, movements typically can't be made to scale horizontally because of hugely differing depths of commitment on the other issues that might be tagged onto the primary issue.

I would say a large percentage of the gun culture — and an overwhelming percentage of our new shooters and hunters — fall more into my arena than the traditional GOP tent. While I will unconditionally agree with you on liberty issues, not only do a not agree with the mainstream GOP agenda, I think most of it is pure looney tunes. In the Bush years I found the big push was to draw gun rights advocates into GOP social issues. Not saying this is a huge issue yet, but it is something we need to be monitoring closely. 

• When any government bans guns based on essentially "cosmetic" issues, manufacturers will simply change said cosmetic issues and motor on. It is not a question of "getting around" the laws, but the simple fact that laws drafted by cretins seldom make sense. If any legislative body should decide to ban, say, Manolo Blahnik Jeweled Pumps in Deep Sky Blue" because they cause harm and suffering to women's ankles, it should not surprise said legislators when consumers snap up Manolo pumps in Passion Purple and Vampire Lick Red (okay, I made those colors up!). The Troy Pump Action AR, the Black Rain really weird stocked New York compliant AR (which, by the way, doesn't feel nearly as weird as it looks) and the stunning Ares Defense Sporting Configurable Rifle are evolution in action and intelligent responses to stupid laws.

• It was Big Fun! As always, I am humbled and honored to meet the people who make SHOOTING GALLERY, THE BEST DEFENSE, GUN STORIES WITH JOE MANTEGNA, DOWN RANGE Radio, DOWN RANGE Television and all our other projects possible. I cannot thank you all enough!

Trigger Pull on GP-100s

Found my Lyman electronic trigger pull gauge! On the out-of-the-box GP-100 Match Champion, the double action trigger is 7 pounds 1 ounces. The SA pull is 4 pounds 1 ounce. The Lyman gauge is kinda futzy and sensitive to how its held, and I did my best to eliminate the human error. By way of comparison, my custom GP-100 from Cylinder and Slide runs about 5 pounds, maybe an ounce or two more on the DA pull. The Match Champion has no grit and is very smooth...the C&S gun is...perfect.

The Match Champion has been both dry-fired and shot (all DA) A LOT, and the trigger pull has gotten better and better. The C&S gun is just back from the shop and doesn't have a round through it. I would anticipate the DA trigger pull "settling" in the mid-high 4 lb range by the time I get it to the IRCs.

Patriots' Day...

...if it doesn't ring a bell, look it up! Two hundred thirty nine years ago today the embattled farmers stood and fired the shots heard 'round the world. Today is also the anniversary of the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Two shining beacons of freedom in a world growing steadily darker.

I spent today at a cowboy match. I shot pretty well, but slower than I'd like. Didn't miss any shots and was extremely consistent, but couldn't quite find overdrive. I was very pleased with my shotgun, however. I focus on "firing on reset," pulling the trigger for the second barrel on the Browning BSS as soon as the trigger resets. I don't think about moving the gun to the next target; rather, I just cut my eyes toward the second target and the gun does the rest. My speed has improved hugely, and I rarely miss a shotgun target anymore. Thank you, "Non Stop!"

Just picked up my GP-100 competition revolver completely overhauled by Cylinder & Slide...WOW! What an absolutely amazing job! I think I'm going to do a full feature on this revolver for DRTV. I'll get some pictures up on the blog tomorrow!

Hoof-beats in the Darkness!

So through the night rode Paul Revere;

And so through the night went his cry of alarm

 To every Middlesex village and farm,

— A cry of defiance and not of fear,

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door

And a word that shall echo forevermore!

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,

Through all our history, to the last,

In the hour of darkness and peril and need,

The people will waken and listen to hear

The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,

And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Paul Revere's Ride"

Two-hundred and thirty nine years ago tonight an express rider named Paul Revere raced to Lexington, MA, to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that British "Redcoats" were on the way to arrest them. Along the way, he "alarmed" the countryside, stopping at each house with the warning. Upon arriving at the house Adams and Hancock were using, a sentry warned him not to make so much noise.

"Noise?" said Revere. "You'll have noise enough before long. The regulars are coming out!"

These are the stories of America that we once all learned and honored. I still feel a shiver when I read Longfellow. The stories are no longer taught, although through groups like Appleseed they are passed along through an oral tradition as old as time.

I greatly fear we have have once again arrived on the eve of April 19, 1775. I hope I'm wrong, but tonight, when you close your eyes, listen for hoof-beats.

Wow! Where did the week go???

First up, for all you NRA'ers...

BANE-A-PALOOZA!

Yes, The Same Poor Bastard Is Buying The Beer!
Cosponsored by IDPA!!!
Meet Joyce Wilson!!! Be in AWE!

6:30-8:30 PM

Saturday, 26 April

The Slippery Noodle Inn

http://www.slipperynoodle.com

Indiana's Oldest Bar!

372 S. Meridian

Downtown Indianapolis

NOTE: The room only accommodates 100 people! Best I could do! Also, if you come AFTER 7PM, you MUST pay a $5 cover charge. If you can't afford this, have some one get me, Marshal,  or Marshal'ette, and we'll come make fun of you!