Category Archives: Gun Fun

Reminder: Joe/Boomershoot & Maj/Black Guns Matter on Reddit AMA

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Join the live conversation tomorrow, Tues. March 7, 11am EST: Joe Huffman of Boomershoot & Maj Toure of Black Guns Matter on Reddit AMA.

Joe Huffman, Founder of Boomershoot:
I’m white + from Idaho. I make reactive targets for people to shoot at, and detonate, thus causing fiery, fun explosions.

Maj Toure, Founder of Black Guns Matter:
I’m black + from Philly. I teach urban communities gun rights and responsibilities, to prevent inner cities from self-imploding.

We’re two peas in a pod, here to talk guns, gun safety, exploding targets, keeping cool, and peace.

We’re not here to nitpick about gun facts — that’s already been done.

We’re here to have fun. We’re individually atypical, so let’s dig deep into what makes us tick: why we do what we do, and how we do it! Ready. Aim. Fire. Kaboom!

#BlackGunsMatter
#Boomershoot

How times change

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I was doing some reorganizing and throwing away of old things on my library shelves and ran across a “men’s magazine”, Cheri (caution explicit photos), from October 1983. I don’t know why I still had it. I never subscribed to it. It was a favorite of a friend of my ex-wife and I. But we lost contact with him in about 1979 or 1980.

I was about to toss it in the recycling when I noticed something on the cover:

Cheri1983_10Cover

A sex and gun club in Hawaii? That’s odd. For one, I wasn’t into guns then. And two, were guns that less frowned upon that a magazine of that genre would, let along a club, risk combining the two subjects? And three, I never could, and still don’t, see a connection between sex and guns. They just don’t mix for me.

I scanned in the first two pages of the article (probably NSFW) and put them here and here.

In the second page of the article you will find they say that all calibers greater than .22 LR are banned in the state. Even though they still suffer under extremely repressive gun laws it seems as if Hawaii’s gun owners made progress in some areas over the last 33+ years.

I wondered if the magazine was still in existence and found the link to their website. I discovered their current content is all hard core. I remember our friend saying he liked the magazine because it was not as explicit as many other magazines and it featured women who looked more real than those in the better known magazines. Looking at my sample it appears to be a notch less explicit than Playboy magazine was at the time.

Times change in many ways.

This Tues. March 7, 11am EST: Joe Huffman & Maj Toure on Reddit AMA – Ask Me Anything

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Stop by Reddit this Tuesday, March 7, at 11am EST, to participate in Reddit AMA interview of Joe Huffman, Boomershoot Founder & Maj Toure, Black Guns Matter Founder.

Joe is white + from Idaho. Joe makes reactive targets for people to shoot at, and detonate, thus causing fiery, fun explosions.

Maj is black + from Philly. Maj teaches urban communities gun rights and responsibilities, to prevent inner cities from self-imploding.

They’re two peas in a pod, and will be on Reddit AMA to talk guns, gun safety, exploding targets, keeping cook, and peace. Please, ask them anything!
….
More Joe/Boomershoot info:
Boomershoot.org
At Twitter
On Gab

More Black Guns Matter info:
GoFundMe Page
On Facebook
At Twitter

#BlackGunsMatter
#Boomershoot

Rounds in the last month

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I was busy doing a lot of things for Boomershoot this month (I have to tell the story of what Barb calls “the box” someday) and haven’t done any reloading since February 5th, still, I did load 975 rounds of .40 S&W. They were all Blue Bullets with minimum powder charges for shooting steel.

This brings my lifetime reloaded ammunition totals to:

223.log: 2,424 rounds.
3006.log: 543 rounds.
300WIN.log: 1692 rounds.
40SW.log: 63,420 rounds.
9MM.log: 21,641 rounds.
Total: 89,720 rounds.

Boomershoot is going to take some time this month and especially next month. But I think I’ll be able to load a few rounds each month. I’m hoping to make it to a lifetime total of over 100,000 rounds by the end of the year.

Gun Song: Powderfinger by Neil Young

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Powderfinger by Neil Young was released in 1979 on the Rust Never Sleeps album. According to Infogalactic, it was ranked as one of Neil’s best songs by Rolling Stone. The lyrics are the posthumous narration of a young man who attempts to protect his family against an approaching gunboat. After initial indecision, he eventually takes action, and is ultimately killed.

Neil Young, of course, is a long-time Canadian singer-songwriter and musician with an extensive rock /folk / country catalog of songs performed and written.

Boomershoot 2017 update

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People are making plans and we are getting more entries for Boomershoot 2017. See one online discussion here.

There is also going to be sales push soon. Among other things I’m going to start distributing flyers at the local ranges and place an ad in the Orofino Idaho paper to get the attention of the locals.

Currently there are still many great positions available. But we are currently 63% full and the available positions will be dwindling. If you are thinking of attending but haven’t got around to signing up you should stop procrastinating and go do it.

Flash sale on Insights Training

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Essentially all my self-defense training has been from Insights. I highly recommend them. And now is your opportunity to get a significant discount on top notch training:

48 hours of savings on all classes!

It’s a Flash Sale! From 8am Monday the 6th through 8am Wednesday the 8th, use code “FEB2017” to get 15% off all classes.

I put my most of my family through and taken them myself (sometimes multiple times) Pepper Spray Seminar, Unarmed Self Defense, and Defensive Folding Knife. I’ve also taken Handgun Retention & Disarming, General Defensive Handgun, Intensive Handgun Skills, Low Light Handgun Skills, Low Light Handgun Skills, General Defensive Rifle, and Tactical First Aid.

Reloading report

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As I reported on the first of this month I enhanced my program which parses and reports on my reloading logs. Not too long after making those changes I made still more changes. In now outputs a section with the yearly and monthly totals for every caliber combined. Here is that section of the report including the 3300 rounds of .40 S&W (minor power factor Blue Bullets for steel matches) I reloaded this month:

Year Total Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1996: 11274 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10944 141 189
1997: 7585 300 0 40 1210 719 106 0 100 1088 804 1060 2158
1998: 11574 570 258 718 1657 1812 1710 542 20 0 1240 900 2147
1999: 4912 20 964 181 877 718 657 60 0 0 179 653 603
2000: 3690 845 120 142 0 57 1095 400 396 43 521 60 11
2001: 2724 25 300 497 532 15 20 1198 73 0 0 0 64
2002: 898 0 0 0 0 0 0 198 0 200 300 0 200
2003: 649 0 300 302 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 29 0
2004: 1345 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 300 600 445 0
2005: 1059 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 659 400 0 0
2006: 1000 0 0 0 0 400 0 0 0 0 200 400 0
2007: 1136 0 0 0 0 0 0 118 518 300 200 0 0
2008: 2398 0 300 0 0 0 0 900 399 0 200 0 599
2009: 1702 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 102 300 900 400
2010: 1400 0 0 0 0 100 200 700 0 200 0 200 0
2011: 2300 300 0 400 100 0 500 500 200 0 0 0 300
2012: 399 0 200 0 199 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2013: 600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100 500
2014: 530 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 530
2015: 10005 1699 2696 3064 0 0 0 547 200 400 100 200 1099
2016: 18265 2197 700 1462 837 1899 1999 1000 1500 1216 1957 1500 1998
2017: 3300 3300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Grand Totals 88745 9256 5838 6806 5430 5720 6287 6163 3406 4508 17945 6588 10798

Son-in-law in Front Sight magazine

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Last October I posted that my son-in-law came in 13th at the USPSA Open nationals.

The Jan/Feb issue of the USPSA magazine, Front Sight, just arrived and before I had a change to open it daughter Xenia texted me to tell me her husband was in it.

Yup. He sure is:

FrontSightJanFeb2017JohnV

Gun Song – Battle of New Orleans

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“Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton is a classic “Americana” song. Quoting Infogalactic: “The Battle of New Orleans” is a song written by Jimmy Driftwood. The song describes the 1815 Battle of New Orleans from the perspective of an American soldier; the song tells the tale of the battle with a light tone and provides a rather comical version of what actually happened at the battle. It has been recorded by many artists, but the singer most often associated with this song is Johnny Horton. His version scored number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959 (see 1959 in music). Billboardranked it as the No. 1 song for 1959.[1]

Olympic Arms Announces Closing

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I received an email today which announced the closing of Olympic Arms.

After more than 40 years of business, it is with great sorrow that we announce that February 28th, 2017 will be the last day of operation for Olympic Arms, Inc.

The Schuetz family would like to express their heartfelt thanks to all their friends, associates, and partners that have been a part of the Olympic Arms experience. Most of all we would like to thank our loyal customers and patrons who have been with us all this time.

My Microsoft Gun Club Object Embedding Tool was made by Olympic Arms over 20 years ago.

I wonder what happened. Maybe AR-15’s becoming essentially a commodity and the resultant competition.

Commemorative 45

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Trump will, later today, become our 45th President. He’s a gun owner, and generally pro-gun as near as I can tell. I wonder how many variations of “Trump Commemorative 45” will be produced and offered if he starts living up to even a modest fraction of his hype / hope / potential? An ironically logo’ed 45 pistol suppressor after the Hear Protection Act is passed? All manner of revolvers and semi-autos, obviously. I’ve already seen a 1911 slide. What would you like to see, and be willing to pay a little extra for just to make it a little less PC, and a part of history? A .45-70 Govt? A .45 Colt? A 45 Trump Magnum? A 1911 long slide with “Trumpenator” on it? A slick-finished 45 ACP with “Teflon Don” on it?

The joy of another inauguration with Hillary Clinton watching someone else taking the oath.

Quote of the day—Larry Correia

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Larry Correia
Posted on Facebook January 8, 2016
[At least he knows how many after only a couple seconds of slow blinking.—Joe]

Gun Song- Bang Bang by the Raconteurs

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Bang Bang (my baby shot me down).

Other versions by Nancy Sinatra are pretty good, too, if you like the song type.

Or if you prefer Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. Or maybe Nico Vega.

Dark song, but sometimes guns are used in dark times and for dark things.

Don’t blame the front sight

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I started noticing this in the 1990s, shortly after getting back into shooting, and it came as a flood after I got into the gun accessory business.

We’d get it over and over and over. People would call in, wanting a sight, or an optic sight dot reticle, that wouldn’t “cover the target”.

My first response soon became, and remains, “If you don’t want your sight covering the target, then stop covering the target with your sight.”

It’s as simple as that. I believe the problem is that it is SO simple, beginners can’t believe it, and expert shooters won’t allow themselves to believe it because important things take time to learn and are complicated.

Some of the most experienced shooters, for whom I otherwise have a great deal of respect, seem unable to grasp the simple concept; YOU choose your sight picture. It isn’t necessarily built-in by the manufacturer. Stop assuming.

Also, give me a front sight, or a reticle, shaped like my shoe, or a Ford F-350 with duals, or Bridget Bardot, and I’ll be able to shoot just as well with it after a little bit of practice, AND since I choose to not cover the target with it, the target won’t be covered.

People have gotten, and no doubt will continue to get, all kinds of pissed off at me for saying this, pleading their case that no, since the post, or reticle, is such and such an angular size, and the target smaller, then the target is covered. Wrong! Don’t make me draw you pictures.

Stop covering the target, and adjust your sights accordingly. Chances are you don’t need new sights, or a smaller dot reticle.

And don’t bother arguing; I very much doubt you can tell me anything I haven’t already heard hundreds of times. I spend a good part of every day talking to shooters from all disciplines ad of all levels of experience.

Powder storage warnings

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Via email from Roger W. we have this from Hodgdon:

Powder Storage in Reloader Hoppers

Powder left in the reloader’s powder measure hoppers for extended periods, overnight or several days, should be avoided. Powder needs to be stored in original containers ONLY, when not in use. Numerous modern smokeless powders are double base in construction, containing both Nitrocellulose and Nitroglycerine.

Roger sent them an email questioned them on this (“Why not leave powder in powder measure hoppers for extended periods?”) and got the following reply:

There are a couple reasons.

Despite warning some people have multiple powders on their bench, they leave the powder in the hopper for long period of times and they forget or think they know which powder is in the hopper, they pour it back into the wrong canister and there will be a problem. this may seem like common sense but we see this happen every week from a phone call or an email.

Some powders that are made today have a very high Nitroglycerin content to them, when left in  powder measures for a period of time the Nitro will seem to eat the plastic. We have seen this with standard hand thrown powder measures and electronic ones that will get ruined.

Powder has a built in moisture content to it. the proper storage of powder is in the canister with the lid shut tight, this will help keep the moisture in the powder. Most likely there would not be a problem with moisture left in a hopper unless the lid is accidently not put back on.

Mike Van Dyke
Customer Service Representative
Hodgdon Powder Company
6430 Vista Drive
Shawnee, Ks. 66218
913-362-9455 Ext. 109

I have plastic powder measures that are yellowed and I attributed it to an interaction with the powder. But I have never seen any that appear to have been eaten. Still, I probably should be more careful about leaving the powder in the measure for extended periods of time.

Bullet versus glass

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I thought I had posted about this first video before but I can’t find it so I’m going to do it now as a prerequisite for the second video.

Now, see what happens when you shoot the head of a Prince Rupert’s Drop with a .22:

Here is a frame grab:

BulletVersusPrinceRupert

Now, the awesome video of a bullet shattering against a small piece of very special glass:

Jeff K. told me about the video at the match last Saturday. Then this morning gonxau (‏@gonxau) sent me a tweet about it. Thanks guys.

Reloading report

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I enhanced my program which parses my reloading log files. It now reports on a month by month and yearly basis instead of just by caliber.

Here is the result:

 

223 Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1998: 160 0 0 0 0 0 0 140 20 0 0 0 0
1999: 1777 0 0 181 578 25 0 0 0 0 140 653 200
2000: 43 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 43 0 0 0
2001: 47 0 0 0 47 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2016: 397 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 140 257 0 0
Total: 2424
30.06 Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1997: 180 0 0 40 20 79 41 0 0 0 0 0 0
1998: 150 0 0 0 80 0 0 0 0 0 40 0 30
1999: 90 20 70 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2003: 47 0 0 0 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 29 0
2016: 76 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 76 0 0 0
Total: 543
300WIN Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1999: 250 0 0 0 0 0 151 60 0 0 39 0 0
2000: 460 50 120 142 0 57 0 0 0 0 20 60 11
2001: 382 25 0 0 185 15 20 0 73 0 0 0 64
2013: 600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100 500
Total: 1692
40S&W Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1997: 31 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 31
1998: 11264 570 258 718 1577 1812 1710 402 0 0 1200 900 2117
1999: 2795 0 894 0 299 693 506 0 0 0 0 0 403
2000: 3187 795 0 0 0 0 1095 400 396 0 501 0 0
2001: 2295 0 300 497 300 0 0 1198 0 0 0 0 0
2002: 898 0 0 0 0 0 0 198 0 200 300 0 200
2003: 602 0 300 302 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2004: 1345 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 300 600 445 0
2005: 1059 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 659 400 0 0
2006: 1000 0 0 0 0 400 0 0 0 0 200 400 0
2007: 1136 0 0 0 0 0 0 118 518 300 200 0 0
2008: 2398 0 300 0 0 0 0 900 399 0 200 0 599
2009: 1702 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 102 300 900 400
2010: 1400 0 0 0 0 100 200 700 0 200 0 200 0
2011: 2300 300 0 400 100 0 500 500 200 0 0 0 300
2012: 399 0 200 0 199 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2014: 530 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 530
2015: 7012 1699 1630 1137 0 0 0 547 200 400 100 200 1099
2016: 17792 2197 700 1462 837 1899 1999 1000 1500 1000 1700 1500 1998
Total: 59145
9MM Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1996: 11274 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10944 141 189
1997: 7374 300 0 0 1190 640 65 0 100 1088 804 1060 2127
2015: 2993 0 1066 1927 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total: 21641
Grand Total:
85445

I was surprised how many rounds I reloaded in the first month of reloading (9mm, October 1996). That was the most in any single month. I remembered I reloaded quite a few, but I thought it was just enough for the class I was taking. My memory was wrong. I got my STI Eagle, chambered in 40 S&W, in December of 1997. My 9mm reloading stopped until 2015 when I finally got around to using up the bullets I had left.

This year was the most I reloaded in any single year with 397 of .223, 76 of 30.06, and 17,792 of 40 S&W for a total of 18,265 rounds.

This last month I only reloaded 40 S&W. They were mostly 180 grain Montana Gold JHPs for practice at indoor ranges. 200 of the 1998 total were 180 grain Blue Bullets.

The 200 rounds with Blue Bullets were actually 100 bullets I reloaded, and pulled, twice. The first time I misremembered the powder charge and had a third more powder than I planned (4.0 versus 3.0 grains). I pulled the bullets, set the powder charge to the proper amount and reloaded them again. When I weighed the powder charge of the last round I discovered it was only about a third less than what it should be (1.9 versus 3.0 grains). I pulled them again and spent probably 30 minute trying to find out why the powder measure would sometimes put out the proper charge and the the very next charge would be way low. It turns out there was a bullet in the powder measure. Apparently when I pulled the bullets from the first set I accidently dumped a bullet into the powder measure along with the powder. I believe it was blocking the powder dispenser some of the time and giving me erratic charges.

I reloaded those twice pulled bullets this afternoon and everything checked out. I’ve got a good start on the new year.

Bummer

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I was at the range today. I was practicing for the falling plate match at Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club tomorrow. I was about 50 rounds in when I couldn’t acquire the front sight in the usual amount of time. After a second or two of confusion I looked closer:

WP_20161230_12_16_30_Pro (2)

Bummer. It broke off. And I just replaced the fiber optic on it night before last. I looked around but couldn’t find the missing piece.

A replacement is $39.00 from Dawson Precision but I need to know the dimensions of the factory sight before I order a new one. I have a call into Dawson and I sent an email to STI so I’ll find out soon from someone. Until the new sight comes in I’ll be using a back up gun.

Gun Song – The Texas Ranger by Marty Robbins

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A classic. Marty Robbins had a lot of gun-related songs, some of them were even hits in their own times. Some are simple, others are somewhat more complex, nearly all are good. Happy Friday.