Archive for the ‘Guns’ Category

Historical note, fun for use in schools.

Wednesday, May 16th, 2018

I missed it, but I hope not by too much.

May 5th was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Herb Parsons. I, of course, was on the road at the time: even if I hadn’t been, I was unaware of this until yesterday, when a copy of Showman Shooter: The Life and Times of Herb Parsons came into my hands.

Who was Herb Parsons? He was a famous exhibition shooter: he worked for Winchester from 1929 until his untimely death in 1959 (with, of course, a break during WWII, where he served as a gunnery instructor). Quoting from the Showman Shooter website:

He would toss seven clay pigeons into the sky and shatter the last while pieces from the first were hitting the ground. He would “center” a handful of eggs between his legs, wheel around with a shotgun and scramble ’em, one at a time. He would suspend a can of gasoline over a candle inside a 55-gallon barrel, then render the whole works to a towering inferno from a safe distance. Using a mirror and two rifles, he would break two targets at the same instant—one in front, the other directly behind him.

His sons, Lynn and Jerry, are working to keep Herb’s legacy alive. The Showman Shooter website offers copies of the book, and videos of Herb, Ad and Plinky Toepperwein, John Satterwhite, and the excellent compilation, “Fast and Fancy Shooters”, along with some more background about Herb. I commend the site to your attention, and will be sending off a check for the DVD soon.

Here are a couple of videos that aren’t on the website, but that I think are interesting:

Random notes toward an after action report: Dallas.

Tuesday, May 8th, 2018

This is a catch-all for random and undifferentiated thoughts that didn’t make it into my previous NRAAM reports. I’ll put in a jump, since this is running long…

(more…)

Three days straight.

Sunday, May 6th, 2018

And I ain’t been doing what I should.

Swag of the day: probably my signed Jerry Miculek hat.

Yes, I am rocking the “Archer” shirt that Lawrence bought for me and dared me to wear to the show. Only one person commented on it, and that was to ask me if I had kids who played lacrosse. When I explained it was an “Archer” reference, he got it.

And that person was…American Rifleman editor Mark Keefe, who gave a pretty good presentation on John Garand, the M1 rifles, and the touchy relationship between the military and AR when the rifle was first introduced. He was also kind enough to speak with me for a few minutes about some research I may be doing in the near future, gave me his card, and said “email me, I’ll see what I can do”. I saw him do this for a couple of other people, too. Good guy.

Purchased: a snazzy “tactical backpack” from Viridian. Don’t know quite what makes it “tactical”, but it’s a nice design. I may try to use it as I ease into long range shooting, or I may just use it as a backup for my existing pack.

I also bought one of the KR Training endorsed TUFF prodcuts iStow packs. I like the idea: I want to see how it holds up in the real world.

Speaking of KR Training, you should go read Karl’s blog post, especially for the part about concealed carry clothes. I have some thoughts quasi-related to his about Carry Guard, too, but I want to wait until I can put them into better form.

Someone who isn’t me purchased an EFK Fire Dragon barrel, so I hope to have some feedback on that soon. It seemed like they were doing a land-office business, which just goes to show: quality swag bags work.

At this point, I’m hungry, exhausted, and my feet feel like the soles have been beaten for three days by Nazis trying to get the plans for the M1 gas system out of me. (That’s a subtle joke for those of you who attended Mark Keefe’s presentation.) As soon as I hit publish, I’ll probably think of something I missed. Updates to come. Maybe.

Update one: Forgot about food. I thought the buffalo sirloin at the Uncle Buck’s Steakhose and Brewery was kind of disappointing. It seemed tough and it, and the sweet potato with it, should have been warmer. We did have a pretty good breakfast at Commissary, which was packed to the rafters.

Update 2: Junk on the bunk?

No, swag in the bags.

Also: Royal China is a pretty good old-school Chinese restaurant. Recommended if you’re in town.

Day two.

Saturday, May 5th, 2018

Starting this in the car on our way to Grapevine. The blogger screams for buffalo meat.

We had a pretty good meal Friday night at Campisi’s in downtown, and a so-so one at the Press Box Grill.

Best swag bag: EFK Fire Dragon. Thoughtfully designed, with a long enough strap so you can hang it off your shoulder. Runner-up: Brownells.

I have so many bags, I can go grocery shopping for the rest of the year without reusing any.

Best swag: hard to say. I got a free moon clip from Ranch Products, and had a good conversation with a guy in the Eley booth (who also tossed in some swag).

More tomorrow, I think. Time for to go to bed.

Day one notes.

Friday, May 4th, 2018

Never do a LINUX distro upgrade while on the road.

The NRA convention is huge: 15 acres. Tulsa is 11, for comparison. We were afraid we wouldn’t be able to see everything: it takes two days to get through Tulsa, and much of that is at a dead run.

But we spent the early part of the morning with Karl of KR Training, who only had a few hours for the show. And we saw quite a bit of it, albeit at a dead run again. But we’ve also got time to go back to the stuff we didn’t get a chance to consider thoughtfully, and we did do slower browsing of a significant part of the show this afternoon. While NRA is bigger than Tulsa, it is also much less densely packed, which makes things easier. We even have time to hit some of the seminars.

Most interesting thing I saw today: My Case Builder. You go on their website. They have a tool that allows you to layout your own custom foam insert. You can use their predefined shapes (about 1200, they claim) or you can use another tool to “trace” an item and input dimensions. Once you’re done, they’ll custom cut a foam insert either for a new case (which you can purchase through them) or an existing case you already have of any brand.

Seen much, much less than I expected: scout rifle scopes. Leopold had none in their display. I did see two Leopold scout scopes, but they had no model markings on them and they were both attached to scout rifles at the Savage and Steyr booths. Vortex had one that looks promising.

Purchased: a spring kit from Apex Tactical for a J-frame. $20 plus whatever it will cost me to have a smith put it in.

Noted: Robert K. Brown was selling autographed copies of his biography, I Am Soldier of Fortune: Dancing with Devils, which I was previously unaware of. May have to go back and pick one up.

There’s a first time for everything…

Thursday, May 3rd, 2018

I have been a NRA member for about 41 years now.

(If you’re thinking I’m awful old or else I joined young: Dad got me a junior membership when I was 12, I think. Maybe earlier.)

In all those years, I have never been to a NRA Annual Meeting. Until now.

Does this mean that I plan to abandon you, my faithful readers, while I run around the convention gun geeking? Of course not!

Carl Kolchak cosplay, anyone?

(I didn’t bring a seersucker suit or a straw boater with me. But I do have a hat and a camera and my phone records audio. And Kolchak cosplay seems to be much cheaper than Steve McQueen cosplay.)

(Did you know you can design your own press pass online, and have it professionally printed and sent to you? Thanks to LawDog for the inspiration.)

I’ll post as much as I can as and when I can.

Ripped from the headlines!

Thursday, April 26th, 2018

Regret blasting Yeti cooler? New one could be tax-free on weekend

That was the actual headline on this Statesman article until a few minutes ago, and is still what the Firefox tab shows.

Anyway:

1. I don’t regret blasting my Yeti cooler…since I don’t have one. I do have a nice Yeti tumbler that I have no intention of blasting, since it was a gift from my beloved and indulgent sister.

2. “a new one could be tax-free this weekend”. Well, actually, no. Unless you can find a Yeti for under $75. And if you’re looking at Yeti equivalents, you could get a new RTIC cooler. Or an ORCA (hatttip to Say Uncle). Or a Pelican.

3. As one of Uncle’s commenters points out, if you really want to hurt Yeti, don’t blow up your cooler: sell it, cheap. Every retail sale you take away from them hits them in the pocket.

4. And thanks to the Statesman for pointing out that this is a tax-free (on certain “emergency supplies”) weekend.

Bagatelle (#7)

Tuesday, April 17th, 2018

Southwest Airlines is having a bad day.

…passengers cried, screamed, vomited, and sent goodbye texts to their families during the attempted landing.

Crying, screaming, vomiting, and texting? Sounds like every Southwest flight I’ve ever been on.

This, on the other hand, sounds more serious: an uncontained engine failure that sent shrapnel into the aircraft and possibly into the passenger cabin? I thought post-Sioux City the FAA had gotten a lot harder on manufacturers about that sort of thing. RoadRich, care to comment?

Edited to add: reports are now stating that at least one person is dead.

Facebook admits it does track non-users, for their own good

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
–C.S. Lewis

Typically a retailer may return unsold merchandise to the manufacturer. But in this case, Dick’s Sporting Goods has decided to destroy them.
“We are in the process of destroying all firearms and accessories that are no longer for sale as a result of our February 28th policy change,” a spokeswoman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We are destroying the firearms in accordance with federal guidelines and regulations.”

A few points:

1. Why does Dick’s still have modern sporting rifles in stock, five years after they announced they were going to stop selling them?

(That actually has an answer: Dick’s apparently fudged the truth, and has been selling modern sporting rifles at their “specialty Field and Stream stores”.)

2. If I were a Dick’s stockholder, I would be seriously peeved at the management for destroying inventory of a perfectly legal product to make a political point.

3. If I were a Dick’s stockholder, I’d also be seeking a sweeping change of management right about now.

When guns are outlawed…

Monday, April 16th, 2018

…only outlaws will have shivs.

Seven inmates were killed during fights that lasted more than seven hours at a South Carolina prison Sunday night and into Monday morning, according to officials.

Though most of the autopsies have yet to be performed, it appears that many of the prisoners died from stabbing or slashing wounds from “shanks,” Lee County Coroner Larry Logan said. The official cause of death will not be determined until after the autopsies.

Seriously? A mass stabbing incident? And not in a school this time, but in a freaking maximum security prison?

More from the WP:

Lee Correctional Institution is one of South Carolina’s highest-security prisons, which means the inmates are generally tightly monitored and their movements inside the facility are limited.

Violence at Lee Correctional is not uncommon. During the past year, at least three inmates were killed in separate incidents, while last month, inmates held an officer hostage for about an hour-and-a-half before releasing him, according to the State newspaper.

Lawrence had much the same thought I did: why did it take seven hours to bring this under control?

I want to make it clear: I don’t take pleasure in this, and I’m opposed to extra-judicial punishments for prisoners. But if you can’t keep people from doing harm on a large scale with improvised weapons in a prison, why do you think laws on inanimate objects are going to keep people from doing harm on a large scale in the free world?

Happy (belated?) BAG Day!

Monday, April 16th, 2018

As I mentioned earlier, we were doing a lot of running around yesterday, and I didn’t get home until late, so this is pretty much the first chance I’ve had to make a BAG Day post.

Of course, I’ve sort of advocated extending BAG Day for at least a few days, due to it falling on a Sunday this year, so I’m not sure that this is more than technically late. (“Technically late” is, of course, the best kind of late.)

How did things pan out? Well, we made it down to Cabela’s yesterday, and the thing I was looking at last week was still there. Photos to come, but probably not until this coming weekend. As for other people, I’ll leave it to them to decide if they want to comment or not.

Speaking of comments, thanks to pigpen51 for his kind and gracious comments on the last post. You’re always welcome here, pigpen: you wear well.

And I’ll be glad to host comments and/or photos on other people’s BAG Day purchases, since I don’t see any of the usual suspects doing so. If you just want to leave a comment, you can leave it here: if there’s enough interest, I’ll do a round-up in a few days.

If you want to send photos and comments, stainles [at] mac.com or stainles [at] sportsfirings.com work. Send stuff there, I’ll post it here. Let me know how you want to be identified: pseudonyms are fine.

Go big or go home.

Friday, April 13th, 2018

I have a theory.

If you’re going to commit a crime, make it worthwhile. Don’t throw your life away for free movie tickets or a lousy few hundred dollars. Seven figures in front of the decimal point is a good guideline.

Likewise, if you’re going to run guns to Mexico, don’t just run semi-automatic AKs and ARs. Go for all the gusto:

An Austin man, a Georgetown man and an Arizona machine gun manufacturer have been accused in a scheme that involved smuggling machine guns and ammunition to Mexico, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Carlson worked with others to acquire and unlawfully smuggle 200 firearms including .50 caliber rifles, plus hundreds of rounds of ammunition to Mexico, the release said.
It said he worked with Fox — who is a former law enforcement officer and federal firearms licensee — to illegally acquire multiple M-134G Minigun machine guns.
The M-134G has six barrels and can fire between 2,000 and 6,000 rounds of ammunition per minute, according to the release. As part of the scheme, Fox contacted Garwood — the owner of Garwood Industries in Scottsdale — who agreed to help build the guns and supply Fox with M-134G parts, according to the release.

For those of my readers who are not people of the gun, here’s a short video of a minigun in action:

One of my friends commented last night that the M134 sounded like a great home defense weapon, and I had to agree with him: if you are attacked by a marauding rogue home, 58 rounds per second of 7.62 NATO should stop an attacking home fairly quickly.

(I’m kind of impressed that the Statesman writer got the part about the rotor housings being the serialized part right. At least, I assume he did, not being a minigun expert: but it’s generally impressive when a writer shows some understanding of what “serialization” means in this context.)

(Insert Fast and Furious reference here.)

(Insert rant about the Second Amendment covering machine guns here.)

When guns are outlawed…

Monday, April 9th, 2018

…only members of NYC’s criminal De Blasio administration will have nines with the serial numbers filed off.

Reagan Stevens, 42, the deputy director of youth and strategic initiatives, was sitting in the back of a parked 2002 Infiniti with two men on 107th St. near 106th Ave. in Jamaica when a nearby ShotSpotter detected five shots fired about 10:20 p.m. on Saturday.
Cops searched the Infiniti and discovered a 9-mm. gun in the glove compartment with a serial number scratched off — an additional offense — and a single spent shell casing.
The gun, which carries an eight-round clip, contained three rounds when police discovered it, according to a law enforcement source.

All three were busted, since none of them was willing to claim the gun.

The two men she was with — Ceasar Forbes, the 25-year-old driver of the Infiniti, and Montel Hughes, 24 — were both hit with an additional charge of carrying knives.