Category Archives: Gun Fun

Quote of the day—Billll

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Luring her out to the range to shoot your EBR is all well and good, but when it transpires that you have no ammo due to the national shortage, it begins to look like the old dodge of “running out of gas” at inspiration point.

Billll
August 27, 2013
Comment to Quote of the day—Amber Callipo
[I’ve “lured” women to the range with EBRs on many occasions. But in no case was there a sexual element present on my part that wasn’t established prior to the invitation to the range. I just don’t feel the connection between guns and sex like some people do and tend to be oblivious. That is until the woman makes her intentions clear that, at least for her, there is a connection.

Your mileage may vary.—Joe]

Dynamic building clearing class

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This sounds like fun:

Dynamic Building Clearing

An incredible and intense tactical training. Make hundreds upon hundreds of room entries, work in low light, plan missions, conduct rehearsals, execute the MISSION!

This course will teach the most modern and up-to-date version of dynamic clearing as is being used by the worlds best Entry Teams. This is a perfect course for both new and experienced SWAT officers, tactical trainers, military personnel, security contractors, or anyone who has a desire to understand the tactics being used on a daily basis in the GWOT.

Buckley, WA
September 06 – 08, 2013

But I have too many other things to do this month. And besides, if I really needed to clear a building I think I would use explosives.

New Gun Competition Shows

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Two new shows, Hot Shots and 3 Gun Nation, premiered this month on theBlaze TV. When Top Shot came out it was all the buzz on the gun blogs. This time, not so much. This time however, the new shows are NOT soap operas with some shooting thrown in.

When Survivor came out and was a big success, I got interested and watched a couple of episodes. By the description I thought it was going to be something good, where the survival skills of the competitor would win the contest. Man, was I disappointed. It turned out to be all political/mind game horse crap that you see on any soap opera, and the strongest skills are often among the first to be voted out as a threat to the weak. Belch! And Top Shot was made in Survivor’s image.

Not this time. So far. I’ve seen two episodes of Hot Shots and one of 3 Gun Nation, and they are all about shooting competition. What a relief! We got to see, as a side story, a guy fire 18 shots from an auto pistol, with a draw and two reloads, in under five seconds, and hit his target. He used a pure race gun and all race gun gear, but regardless, it is was beautiful to see.

The shows would be better if we were given a little more nuts and bolts of the game, and if we were told a little bit more about the gear (so far no one has even told us what caliber they’re shooting and so we’re left to guess based on magazine dimensions and airborne brass) but if you’re into shooting competition and you despise soap operas half as much as I do (no one gets voted off, for one thing) these are worth seeing. On episodes one and two of Hot Shot, Miculek goes for his 20th straight championship.

I’m just cringing though, hoping against seeing the episode wherein the top shooter is all angst-ridden over his ex girlfriend’s pregnancy with his best friend, and her upcoming surgery, and whether his best friend’s baby with his ex will survive, and whether the dark nemesis with a quaintly unidentifiable European accent will try another takeover of an ambiguously gay shooter’s fashion design business empire, while tempers flair over the Jade’s snooping of Monica’s love affair with Pete.

New shooter report

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Last weekend Barb L. and I went to Orofino Idaho for my high school reunion. Friday night I spent a lot of time talking to one of my best buddies in high school, Bruce C. He said he reads my blog and has long been interested in Boomershoot. I told him we could have a private party the next morning if he wanted.

As I reported last Sunday Bruce had a good time. Now it is time to tell you the rest of the story.

Bruce’s wife Cyndi was there with us and even helped fold boxes and weigh chemicals for the Boomerite. When it was time to shoot the reactive targets she and Barb just watched for a while:

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Bruce posed for the camera with his rifle that he had brought with him. He hadn’t fired it in 20 years but he brought it and 200 rounds of ammo to our reunion. I can’t help but wonder if he hoped to get a chance to shoot some reactive targets.

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Bruce shot a few targets and thought it was a real blast:

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It turns out Cyndi had never fired a gun of any type. So, of course, now was the time to take her first shots. I gave her a quick lesson, discovered she was cross-eye dominate and had her shoot left handed. She got her boomer on her first EVER shot. I thought there was a chance the new shooter smile was going to be permanent (photos by Barb L.):

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Bruce shot a bunch more boomers and two of them created “smoke” (mostly water vapor with some dust) rings:

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The second “smoke” ring:

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I shot a few targets, Barb shot the last one, and then we went back to Orofino to continue with the class reunion.

Ammonium nitrate targeted

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Ry told me about this then I got an email from the Firearm Blog Editor about it as well:

(b) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Agriculture shall develop a list of potential regulatory and legislative proposals to improve the safe and secure storage, handling, and sale of ammonium nitrate and identify ways in which ammonium nitrate safety and security can be enhanced under existing authorities.

AN is the main ingredient in both Boomerite and Tannerite. It seems unlikely that any regulation that does not make mining and construction use of AN, where most explosive grade AN is used, impractical will cause problems for Boomershoot. But it might for Tannerite. For example, if in order to purchase, possess, or store AN you were required to have a permit then it would make the use of Tannerite a big hassle for the individual.

But, as I can almost hear the regulators say, “And your point is?”

I fear that someday the point will have to be made with a 168 grain Sierra Match King.

Ammo arrival

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The UPS guy showed up the other day. I didn’t remember ordering anything recently, so I briefly wondered what the spousal unit bought. Then I saw the box, and I had to chuckle. It was a MidwayUSA box. With some ammo. That I had ordered last year. Now that’s a backorder.

Gun Song – Trigger Happy by Weird Al Yankovic

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Time for something lighter. “Weird” All Yankovic has been doing spoofs and take-offs almost as long as I’ve been listening to popular music, and I’ve usually likes his versions as good as the original. And, he plays a mean accordion. If the embed below doesn’t work, try this link to Trigger Happy.

If you like spoofs, and making fun of artists who take themselves way to seriously, Weird Al is you guy.

Forest service may ban exploding targets

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Via email from Chet (and I think someone else Tweeted about it but I can’t remember who) we have this story:

Federal authorities on Monday cracked down on the use of exploding targets popular in the shooting community but blamed for seven recent wildfires in the Rocky Mountain region.

U.S. Attorney John Walsh and Forest Service regional forester Dan Jiron issued a prohibition on unpermitted explosives in 22 million acres of forest and grassland in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Violators face fines of $5,000 and up to six months in prison.

The Forest Service likely will impose a nationwide ban within a year. Meanwhile, other regional foresters are expected to issue similar prohibitions.

My experience is that it’s tough to ignite things with an exploding target. But these guys were able to do it and have the video to prove it. Ry and I worked on and off for over a year trying to ignite gasoline. It it was only by putting Titanium or Magnesium shavings in Boomerite were we able to get fairly frequent ignition. The type of targets these guys were using is different than Boomerite. These targets are made with flash powder and rapidly burn more than detonate.

About one out of every two or three thousand Boomerite targets will ignite rather than detonate. We don’t know why this is. We think it might happen when there is an edge hit. In any case we schedule Boomershoot to be sometime other than fire season because of the risk of fire. Even then we have had numerous fires.

The bottom line is that I understand the concern about exploding targets in the forests during fire season. It’s not very wise to take that sort of risk.

Chet asked if this change in regulation would impact Boomershoot. The answer is, “It might.” But probably not in the way most people might think it would.

Boomershoot is held on private property, not public lands, so prohibitions against exploding targets on public lands isn’t going to be a problem for us. The way it might change things is if it more people attend Boomershoot to get their “fix” of shooting exploding targets that they previously satisfied by buying their own targets and shooting them on public lands.

Gun Song – 32/20 by Gov’t Mule

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GAK! Been fighting a sinus infection, and forgot my Friday Gun Song! Better late than never, I guess.

A song from a long time ago, found a recording of it with a classic blues guy from the 1930’s playing it (Robert Johnson). Like many gun songs, it’s not all fluffy and light. Gov’t Mule is a pretty rock’n blues band by the sound of this recording.

Lyrics here

For those not familiar with it, a 32-20 Winchester is like a scaled down .30-30, with the same sort of nomenclature, i.e., 32 caliber, 20 grains of black powder.

Gun Song- Machine Gun by Jimi Hendrix

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Machine Gun by Jimi Hendrix was more an idea than a tightly written song. It is one of many Vietnam protest songs of the era. He was a famous and talented guitar player / singer in the 1960s, and he died in 1970, likely from complications from booze and drugs (“aspirating his own vomit”). While well known, he didn’t have anywhere near the production of other well known groups and singers of the time, and most of his albums were actually released posthumously, with only three studio albums and a pair of live albums released before his death. Continue reading →

Quote of the day—Larry Correia

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The most (maliciously) creative guys I’ve ever worked with were Army Special Forces soldiers. Their imagination can come up with a million fantastic ways to ruin someone’s day. They make authors look like pikers.

Larry Correia
July 18, 2013
Ask Correia 14: How to be a Professional Author
[Good to know.

There are a few reasons for this.

One, it’s their job and they do this stuff a lot so they get more practice than you, I , or Larry.

Two, they have a different mindset. When I used to do computer security stuff I would spend a lot of time “thinking like a bad guy” and try to break things. You don’t normally think like that. It sort of rubbed off onto other things I did and thought about. I could walk through the grocery store, or drive through farm country and get distracted by all the things someone could do to contaminate the food supply from a terrorist point of view. Or I would walk through a hardware store and “see” things for improvised explosive devices in nearly every aisle.

Three, they have had a lot of training and knowledge that has been handed down through the generations. It may seem incredibly creative to you or I but it’s only a minor variation on something that has been repeatedly done for the last 100 years.

Try changing your mindset. You might be surprised what you come up with if you decide to go all Firefly and “be a bad guy”.—Joe]

What’s the best caliber?

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It happened again. Someone asked me what I thought the best caliber is. Granted they didn’t ask it quite that ambiguous. But it did raise the “insufficient information hackles” when I got the email.

The actual question was:

Tell me which caliber you think is best and why:  9mm, 40 S&W, or 45 ACP.

Had the question been, “Which caliber has the best stopping power?” I would have replied, “It’s tough to beat something chambered in 200 mm XM422 with the 40 kiloton yield option”.

The question isn’t quite that unbounded but still it’s insufficiently bounded to give an answer that is credible for even a fraction of the possible values of the unconstrained variables. One must really have more information about the use cases of the firearm before you can give an answer that someone couldn’t drive a Euclid truck through.

When someone asks a question like this what you really need to do is get the person asking the question to answer it for themselves. For all intents and purposes they already know the answer they just don’t know the proper questions to ask themselves. You can help them with this.

The top level question is, “What are you going to use this gun for? Recreation, self-defense, competition, all of the above?” One could drill down to a depth of three or more in the specifics for any of the answers given but here are few of the possibilities:

  • What is your ammo budget?
  • Self-defense against two legged varmints or four?
  • What is the body mass of the varmint you need to defend against?
  • One attacker or a mob?
  • Which sport?

Everything is a tradeoff. The smaller calibers tend toward higher capacities, higher velocities, lower costs, and, obviously, smaller holes. With the larger calibers the opposite is true. Once you figure out your application then the caliber question should pretty much answer itself.

If you are interested in self-defense “stopping power” then I answered that question nearly 15 years ago and I don’t see any reason to update the conclusion where I agree with Greg Hamilton who says:

The entire discussion of “stopping power” is both stupid and irrelevant.   Statistics cannot be applied to individuals. People that need to be shot need to be shot soon and often. They need to be shot until they run out of fluid, brains, or balls.

If during the time you were reading the latest “stopping power” article you were instead practicing to save your life you would be far, far ahead.

Greg Hamilton
May 08, 1998

Of potential interest is what caliber gun(s) do I own and use and why.

I have guns in all three of the calibers in question. I almost never use the 9mm or the .45. The reason has nothing to do with the caliber themselves. It is because a .40 with 17 or 18 round magazines is the best choice for Limited class USPSA matches which I compete in. I can compete in USPSA and Steel Challenge with it and I can carry it for self-defense. I figure the odds of me using it in self-defense are pretty low but the probability of me using it in competition are near 1.0. And even supposing that some other caliber/gun would be better for self-defense the fact that I am going to be practicing with the competition gun is probably going to make up for the (questionable) fact that I wasn’t shooting the optimal caliber.