Category Archives: Gun Fun

Winning public opinion

Posted on by

This is something I wrote for the gun email list at work. Most of the people on the list live in California so I slanted it a little bit in that direction but I think it has application for a much broader audience.

I realize the situation is much different in California than in the states I spend most of my time (Washington and Idaho) but we are winning. We have been winning a bunch of court battles. We have been winning some political victories (carry in National Parks and in checked bags on Amtrak, carry in 49 states, fines for cities and elected officials in Florida who violate state preemption, etc. etc.). The anti-gun organizations are in financial trouble. And probably most importantly we are winning public opinion (see the most recent Gallup poll on guns).

As much progress as we have made elsewhere California and a few other states are still are a cancer that can spread if not treated. Don’t think that those of us in the free(er) states are unaware of the importance of these trouble spots or that we are neglecting the situation. And we are making progress in California. As you folks are probably even better aware than I SAF and CalGuns are making progress in the courts. I’ve spent a lot of time with Alan Gottlieb and Alan Gura and I am convinced they are more than competent and have plans that have a reasonable chance of success.

The blogosphere is also doing what it can to change things in California. Through the cooperation of Sebastian at Shall Not Be Questioned I was interviewed by a reporter for the Los Angeles Times yesterday. I was a bit apprehensive as the LA Times has been far from friendly to gun owners in the past. This report was fair and did not take advantage of some things I said which could have sounded poorly out of context. Although she didn’t mention it in the article her mother has even been to Front Sight!

I suspect California gun owners can make a difference by “coming out of the closet” now. I understand the risks but the rewards can be significant if done correctly.

One thing I would like to suggest is that gun owners/clubs reach out to traditional media. Boomershoot has had some remarkably good coverage (the KING5 Evening Magazine video on Boomershoot was even nominated for an Emmy). Boomershoot has some draw and some PR talent (not me) that most gun organizations can’t take advantage of but they can help gain public acceptance of gun owners without too much effort.

Find local news outlets that have a local events sections and get your IPDA/USPSA/Cowboy-Action/Steel-Challenge/Bowling-Pin/Bulleye/High-Power/whatever match listed. After the match write up a story (my PR person says, somewhat cynically, “Reporters are lazy. If you want their support do their work for them.”) about the match results and send it to the local news organizations. If you have something a little different you might even get them to send a reporter. Cowboy Action frequently qualifies as “different” enough. Action Pistol (IPDA/USPSA) matches provide an opportunity for this as well. I created stages for a USPSA match that addressed a visit by Fred Phelps to the area and made it into the local newspaper and the AP. That led to an interview for an article in the Seattle Times. A YouTube video of a Gabby Giffords themed concealed carry side match to a USPSA match generated nearly 8000 views and the rage of anti-gun groups and even got the attention of a Brady Campaign Board member who said, “These folks could have just sat back and shut up.”

If a news article has errors about guns (.357 caliber Glocks and 40mm handguns are my favorites) contact the reporter. Ask if they would like to attend a “media day”. Invite a number of media organizations and if you get a decent response set up a ½ day class (Keep it short! They won’t want to invest a whole day) to teach them the basics of gun types, gun vocabulary, gun myths, and gun safety. Print and bind some nice copies of the NSSF writers guide to give them (NSSF may have some for sale or distribution, you might check with them before printing your own). Include some range time with a .22 with options for larger calibers for those that are interested.

Carefully select your media guides. Good looking professionals of both sexes and various ethnic backgrounds will help dispel the stereotypes they may have of gun owners. Train your people! Prepare them for loaded questions. When media is expected at Boomershoot we have designated media contacts and since our people are spread all over the country do training via email discussions. We have a media guide FAQ (with our own inside humor) to help prepare our people. And except for those in the media who we know are gun friendly (I.E. Michael Bane of Shooting Gallery) we have a media guide with them at all times. We successfully handled a Newsweek reporter who, as near as we could determine, exclusively reported on terrorism, both international and domestic.

If you decide to head down this path let me know if I can help. My Boomershoot PR person currently has some health issues that sometimes prevent timely responses but if anyone thinks they could benefit from some help I will be glad to share what I have learned and pass on the tougher problems to an expert.

MSNBC and machine guns

Posted on by

There are not many news outlets more hostile to gun ownership than MSNBC.

Or at least that is the way it used to be. Here we have an article in MSNBC telling us how much fun you can have with machine guns in Las Vegas:

You may want to set your sights on Las Vegas’ newest attraction, Machine Guns Vegas (MGV), which opened its doors Monday. Part gun range, part ultra-lounge, MGV invites visitors to grab the automatic weapon of their choice — Uzis, AK-47s and more — and get in touch with their inner gangster or SEAL Team Six commando.

“You’d be amazed at the number of people who come to Vegas and want to shoot a machine gun,” said co-owner Genghis Cohen. “It’s an experience you can’t have in a lot of places in the world.”

Gun ranges, of course, are nothing new but MGV puts a decidedly Sin City spin on the concept, a reflection, in part, of Cohen’s background in the city’s nightlife industry. He originally came to Las Vegas from his native New Zealand to open Tabu, the über-hip lounge in the MGM Grand.

MGV takes a similarly stylish approach, albeit an alcohol-free one, complete with leather furniture, hardwood floors and a bevy of “Gun Girls” led by model and U.S. Air Force veteran Jeannie Duffy.

I’m a little concerned the “Gun Girls” have the potential to reduce acceptance by women. But while she is quite attractive at least the picture of Duffy doesn’t show an excessive amount of skin or promise jiggle with the machine gun recoil:

MachineGunVegasJennieDuff

Using a .45 to discipline your teenage daughter

Posted on by

Want to get your teenage daughter to not disobey ever again? Try using a .45:

I’ll bet that got her attention. It got the attention of the world with 3.7 million views in three days.

I want one

Posted on by

I have the software for this. I just don’t have a way of integrating it with the proper hardware. It sounds really nice:

The next generation of battlefield optics will empower infantrymen to hit enemy targets from twice the effective range of the M4 carbine if Defense Department scientists get their way.

This summer, officials at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are scheduled to begin testing prototypes of the Dynamic Image Gunsight Optic, known as “DInGO.”

…

Currently, the device weighs about a pound and is approximately five inches long, three inches wide and three inches high, Wojnar said. It has a digital micro display that originated in the cell phone industry.

I know there are similar devices on the market now but the ones I have seen are larger and more appropriate for the .50 BMG or at least a .30 caliber rifle. Something small and compact for an AR-15 class rifle would be nice.

H/T to reader Richard R.

Quote of the day—Matthew Quigley

Posted on by

I said I never had much use for one. Never said I didn’t know how to use it.

Matthew Quigley:
From the movie Quigley Down Under after Quigley uses a handgun for the first time in the movie with surprising results.
[This is my all time favorite movie. And this is probably the best line in the movie. As both a long range rifle shooter and a pretty good pistol shooter I really, really relate to this movie.

Then there is the the thing about a co-worker watching the movie after my recommendation and he said, “I know why you like that movie. It’s because you are Quigley.” That’s overstating things some. But perhaps not so much that I can’t see a little bit of truth in it.—Joe]

Problem with Open Carry

Posted on by

Someone I know carries a Vz. 52 pistol OWB.  It hangs out in the open almost all of the time.  After several days of wet weather, the pistol was rusted.  Oops.  It looked horrific (sorry – no pictures).  Rust on the barrel, between the recoil spring and barrel especially, and rust on the outside where it contacted the holster.  Even some of the cartridges had rust on them from the magazines.  After taking it down, almost to the last pin and the last screw, it cleaned up very well.  Nothing serious this time. I’m sure the piece would have functioned, though metal oxides can be extremely abrasive.  It could get really bad if left in the holster for a longer time.

Be careful out there if you OC.  My pistol is almost always covered at least by a shirt and I’ve never seen signs of rust on it, so I’ve never thought much about it.  I have left a Winchester carbine in the vehicle for weeks at a time, and in very cold weather condensation can get between the metal and the gun case interior, causing rust at all the contact points.  So you have to take extra care.  The Parkerizing on the Colt seems to handle it much better, and the annodizing of course is already a hard metal oxide, but you want to be checking these things.

School Shooting Season

Posted on by

This time of year our school shooting team gets together, I bring several guns into our local school and teach the kids how best to participate in school shootings.  This year I had 15 boys and girls in class – a pretty good percentage of the total enrollment in our small town high school.

As part of the class, which consists in large part of excerpts from the NRA Basic Home Firearm Safety course, I ask them to state some of the various reasons one might own firearms.  One of the girls chimed in with, “Space alien invasion?!”

I like these kids.  I didn’t bother to point out that their puny, crude, chemically powered kinetic energy weapons would be no match for the phase modulated space-time disrupters of the enemy.

Earlier, I had asked my daughter if she planned to join the trap shooting team this year, but she declined.  After last night’s class, she asked me how it went, and now I get the impression that she is having second thoughts;  “But I can’t shoot well enough.”
“Well, you know I can teach you, and you’ll be as good as most of the others after one day…”
“But now it’s too late.”  Which it is– they need to have already passed their hunter safety class.

So next year I figure she’ll be right in there.  We’ll see.  Several of her friends are already avid participants in mass school shootings (some of the meets involve well over a hundred shooters, from several school districts).  I bet you don’t see those trap meets covered in your local news station sports reports, do you?

ETA; The kids seemed to respond well to the variation; “Keep your booger hook off the bang switch”.  I associate it with Uncle, but I don’t know for sure where it originated.

Standard Deviation = 1

Posted on by

Never heard of it, though mnaybe y’all are getting it all the time and haven’t told me.  The first time I thought is was a fluke.  20 shots from a G20 pistol with SD of one foot per second.  During the string I thought something was wrong with the chrono, because shot after shot it displayed the same number.  Then there’s the saying; if you test your velocity once, you’ll know it.  If you test it a second time, you’ll never be sure again.  Though I never got any error readings, I discarded the data.

So I went out a second time on Saturday with the same load.  The CED chrono was unwilling to get any readings from the 30-30 loads I really wanted to test.  It’s like that sometimes, even with the IR LED screens.  But it took readings from the slower, bigger 10 mm bullets just fine.  I only measured ten shots this time, so a SD is of little meaning, but the extreme spread was 6.  It might correlate to a SD of 1.  I don’t know about anyone else, and the ammo manufacturers rarely say anything about it, but I’ve thought I was doing pretty well in the past if the SD was 12 or so.

This is a light load for the ten, getting barely under 1100 fps.  More like a 40 S&W.  It’s 9.6 gr. Blue Dot (checked against a check weight) with new Starline cases, 180 XTPs and a CCI 300, just going by the dimensions in the Hornady manual.  Nothing special.  This was my starting load, but it may end up a keeper.  We’ll see.  At the moment it’s my carry load, with 43 rounds on board.

I know – handloaded ammo for self defense, blah blah.  Don’t care.  I can practice a lot more with this stuff because I can afford a lot of it, and practicing with the same load you carry makes sense.  That’s what I’ll tell the lawyers– I can shoot this load more accurately and therefore more safely, etc., because it’s exactly what I use for practice.  I tried some of the hot Double Tap 200 grain FMJ stuff.  It’s affordable for practice, and while I’m sure it’s fine ammo for some guns, my Glock did something with it that it’s never done before.  The fired case would stick in the chamber (that’s what you call a pressure sign, right there) the extractor would strip off over the case head, and a fresh round would feed into the back of the fired case.  Yikes that’s some hot stuff, but no thanks.  Two stoppages or so per magazine is more than a deal killer.  If your 10 mm can cycle it properly, it would make a good deep penetrator though.

The crimp has to be a touch under the case diameter just below the crimp though, whereas I went with “about equal”.  A couple of these XTP handloads (2 of about 150) did fail to lock up all the way – something else that’s never happened with this gun.  I’m sure it’s the crimp, and maybe that I need a new slide spring as this one is the original from the early 1990s and has been cycled umpteen thousand times.  A gentle “forward assist” on the back of the slide was all it took.  Yes; more crimp.

I’m surprised

Posted on by

The Washington Post, notoriously anti-gun, published a book review written by Mark A. Keefe IV — editor in chief of American Rifleman. The book reviewed is Glock: The Rise of America’s Gunby Paul Barrett. The review was quite positive without even a hint of anti-gun sentiment between the lines.

It is a good book (my review is here). But in the Washington Post?

Wow!

USPSA Range Officer class in Lewiston Idaho

Posted on by

For people in the Lewiston, Clarkston, Moscow, Pullman area this may be of interest. Others, not so much.

If any Boomershoot staff wish to attend the class Boomershoot will pay the class fee (but not the USPSA membership fee) and provide transportation between Moscow and Lewiston on the days of the class.

If you are interested but don’t have John’s email address send me an email (ROClass@joehuffman.org) and I’ll forward your email on to him.

I’ll be attending the class if that makes any difference to you.

From: John Grimes
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 4:37 PM
Subject: USPSA Range Officer 1 class in Lewiston on March 24 & 25!

Hi folks,

The Lewiston Pistol Club will be hosting a USPSA Ranger Officer 1 training by our own Kevin Imel, the newest instructor for the National Range Officers Institute, on March 24 & 25, 2012 at the LPC Indoor Range (2419 16th Ave., Lewiston, ID). 

Those who complete the RO training will become official USPSA certified Range Officers.  For those who don’t know, ROs are the ones who run each shooter and do all the shouting at our monthly matches (the shouting is my favorite part).  Here are some more details: http://www.uspsa.org/about_NROI_new.php.

You do have to be a USPSA member to become a USPSA Range Officer when the class begins ($40, https://www.uspsa.org/uspsa-join-renew.php). You will be able to join or renew and pay for a USPSA membership on the morning of the class (via a separate check made out to USPSA).  There are some other advantages in joining the USPSA, most importantly, showing the number, variety and integrity of people who shoot.  The magazine’s kind of nice, too.

This is also a great opportunity for seasoned ROs who have let their credentials slide to get right with the Range Gods.  You know who you are.

The class itself is $40 payable by cash or check made out to the Lewiston Pistol Club at the door on March 24th.  The class starts on Saturday at 8:30 AM sharp and runs through about 5 PM.  The Sunday class start time will be set by the instructor and will end in the afternoon, probably before 5. 

All participants will need to bring a rulebook and a notebook for use during the seminar.  You can print your own copy from here: http://www.uspsa.org/rules/2010HandgunRulesProof3web.pdf.

The Sunday class includes some hands on practice running shooters, so you will also need your eyes and ears, firearm and 100 rounds of ammo.  You will not need your own timer for the class, but in practice, most ROs buy them at some point.  We have examples of all three main brands at our monthly matches.

[…]

Questions – send them in.

John Grimes
LPC Action Match Director

Quote of the day—Amanda Fortini

Posted on by

Guns are (pardon the pun) loaded with so much cultural baggage that you think you know what to expect. You don’t. TV gunshots sound and act no more like real gunshots than construction-paper snowflakes resemble real snowflakes.

My next thought is, I want to do that again! I have an immediate, exhilarated reaction. Partly it’s that what I’ve just done initially frightened me, so there’s a sense of a limit overcome. For many people I know, guns remain unreal—the accessories of fictional characters, or at least of the Other, not you and yours. Yet to fire a gun is to realize you can do it: You can operate one, understand how it works. Shooting gives me a rush that comes from a feeling of (admittedly incomplete) mastery.

Amanda Fortini
January 12, 2012
Should I Buy a Gun? — After falling victim to a string of traumatic crimes, Amanda Fortini considers a controversial means of protection
[Via email from Mitchel at work who said, “If I knew a lady that’s been through as much as she’s been through I WOULD HAVE BOUGHT HER A GUN.”

I would have too.—Joe]

Help Me Understand

Posted on by

Why is it that so many rifle scopes, even very high-end scopes, have their BDC or BDC/rangefinding reticles on the second focal plane, such that the reticles features are only valid at one specific magnification setting?

That seems like a handicap to me.  What are the arguments for or against?

Firearms qualification standards

Posted on by

Ubu52 (in the comments here) found a description of the course of fire for qualification standards at several different gun schools and law enforcement agencies (see also parts 2, 3 and 4).

Frequently the anti-gun people claim the police are “highly trained”. At my next opportunity I’m going to put the Lewiston Pistol Club through as much as the LAPD qualification (Ubu52 is particularly interested in these results) as is practical. It’s not entirely clear what target is being used so some additional effort will have to be given making sure we come close on that.

From looking at the course of fire my guess is that nearly everyone who attends the UPSPA matches can pass the Combat Qualification course of fire with flying colors. The bonus course will be tougher with only a few achieving “Distinguished Expert” level but many will achieve “Marksman” level.

If the results are that even C Class USPSA shooters can pass the LAPD Qualification course (which I believe they can) will that cause the anti-gun people to drop that line of argument against us? I doubt it.

But it will give us another opportunity to demonstrate the facts are not relevant to them.

Nice things said about Boomershoot

Posted on by

Dave has a bunch of nice things to say, along with some great pictures, about Boomershoot.

Update: Link fixed. Sorry about that.

Nice picture

Posted on by

I really like the picture Adam Baldwin (“Jayne Cobb” on Firefly) has on his Twitter profile:

Casey_Sniper_4

I would like to think he is practicing for Boomershoot. I think I will invite him.

Candle stage scores

Posted on by

Here are the scores from the concealed carry match with the candles on Sunday:

Name                Points              Time                      Hit Factor
Joe H.                  29                    4.18                         6.9378
Bob N.                 26                    4.73                         5.4968
Roger W.             28                    6.91                        4.0521
Barron B.             26                    6.44                        4.0373
Don W.                14                     4.02                        3.4826
Richard I.            15                     5.35                        2.8037
Jodi H.                   5                     9.19                        0.5441
Erik P.                    0                     7.57                        0.0000
Adam M.                0                     4.06                        0.0000

Many of you already know this but I’ll explain again for those that are new to USPSA matches. The Hit Factor is the number of points scored, minus the penalties (such as misses), divided by the time it took to score those points. Each perfect hit (A-Zone) is worth five points. Less accurate shooting yields few points. This means there is a trade-off between speed and accuracy when trying to maximize your Hit Factor.

As you can see from the scores above I didn’t have the fastest time but because I scored near the maximum number of points (there were six shots so 30 points were the maximum) while still having a decent time I won that stage with the best Hit Factor.

Fellow video conspirator Barron (he has further comments on the scores) had a time near the bottom of the group yet with good hits came in above the middle.

The most important thing to note is that everyone got at least some solid hits on the bad guy and the maximum time used was 9.19 seconds. The Tucson shooter was shooting for about 16 seconds. Had any one of the people above been in a good position to engage him the shooting could have been stopped much sooner.

Too Many Victims

Posted on by

The Brady Campaign, formerly known as Handgun Control, Inc., has created too many victims. We are now pushing them into the dustbin of history.

Today Barron and I with the help of daughter Kim and some members of the Lewiston Pistol Club made the following video as our response to the Brady Campaign’s pathetic attempt at relevance:

Update: An explanation of the stage design is important. The brown target in the distance represents a “bad guy”. The white targets represent innocent people. When scored only hits on the bad guy counted and hits on the innocent were heavily penalized. When the scores have been reported I’ll make anther post. I think I might have won this stage. I had a good time with five A-zone hits, one C-zone hit and no hits on the no-shoot targets.

The instructions to the shooter were:

Start position: Facing up-range holding a candle with both hands. Gun is in a concealed carry state.
Course of fire: Upon signal drop candle, turn, draw, and engage T1 with six rounds. Comstock scoring.

This stage design was to simulate the January 8th 2011 shooting in Tucson. It was this event which the Brady Campaign wanted to bring attention to. This was to stimulate political interest in more gun laws.

Credit for the stage design goes to Bob N. (shown in the video preview above).

Quote of the day—Don Wood

Posted on by

Candles don’t stop violence.

Don Wood
January 8, 2012
A response to the Brady Campaign on their candle lightings today.
[We incorporated a candle into the concealed carry side match at the USPSA match today.

I had suggested something like, “My name is and this is how I deal with people intent on deadly violence against innocent life.” Or, “The Brady Campaign wants us to light a candle today to help stop violence. But candles don’t stop violence but a handgun might.”

Don was the first shooter and he said, “I’m just going to say, ‘Candles don’t stop violence.'”

That was a great simplification Don. Thanks.

The final video should be up on YouTube soon. Barron was editing it as I drove back to the Seattle area this evening.—Joe]

Boomerite that didn’t go boom

Posted on by

Ry posted a video on YouTube of the new shooter shooting our defective boomerite:

I’ll probably be doing more testing tomorrow.

The Ultimate Reloader

Posted on by

Spending more time on the loading press.  Thinking hard about a progressive, as this one step business grates.  The loading rates they talk about are of course totally wrong, as they don’t include the hours upon hours spent prepping cases before you can start “reloading” on your 600 rounds per hour progressive machine.  I once timed a guy with his new state-of-the-art case prep center on Youtube, and came up with eight hours per thousand, IIRC.

I once sat down and figured how much technology would be needed to take your spent brass from the range and go straight to the progressive with it.  There was a motorized cleaning station, an RF induction annealing die, followed by a water-cooled sizing die (the brass would come in hot, you see, and since you’ll have to run water through your annealing die there’ll already be a cooling system) plus trimming and chamfering stations.  Depending on the case and bullet type, there may be an “M” die station.  I think I once came up with twelve or thirteen stations in all, to really have it all, no matter what.  I don’t know– $20,000.00?  Thoughbeit a small one, I figure there’d be a market for it.

I was looking at the Hornady L&L, but I’m being told the Dillon 650 is a better bet.  It’s listed for something like 600 bucks, but looking at the required hardware for actually loading a few calibers it’s over a thousand for sure, and from there you spend a little more.  I’ll have to resign myself to prepping cases the old-fashioned way– one at a time.

You have to like it, considering it a hobby, because if you figure the value of your time I don’t see the numbers working out.  You do get a little bit of independence from it, though you still need a supply of consumables.  If you want near total independence you should have a flintlock, make your own black powder using nitrate from the stockyard (I’ve heard of it being done without sulphur. It’s less powerfull but it works. If you live near an active volcano you may be covered there) and cast your own lead from scrap.  Ah, but you still need a supply of flint.  Man, this deteriorated quickly.  Sharp sticks.  There you have it.