Category Archives: Gun Fun

Shotgun versus steel

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I participated in a USPSA match at the Lewiston Pistol Club today. After the pistol match we had a shotgun side match.


I forgot to turn on my video glasses for the first string. On the second string I tried some “Low Recoil” ammo. I had to hand cycle every round fired with that ammo. I gave all my remaining ammo of that type to someone with a pump action shotgun.


My third string went well. I probably could have cut at least three or four seconds off my time had I not had so many misses, I had counted my shots so I had not taken the time to drop the hammer on an empty chamber, and I had practiced my reloads. I also don’t think I have fired a shotgun in at least a year. Here is the video from the shooters point of view:




Gunnies be Patient

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I’ve seen it before and let it go, but today I ran into several variations of, “Once you get the sights adjusted, this gun is very accurate” in different places on gun forums and product reviews.


Serious shooters should know the problem with that assertion, but not all shooters know it.  These were shooters making the assertion after all.


Accuracy and sight adjustment (or zero) are not the same thing.


(Joe uses the term “sight angle” or “indicated sight angle” which makes more sense when you think about, which of course he has)


Accuracy is the ability of the firearm system (the gun itself, the ammo and the sighting system) to place shots consistently.  The sights could be “off” considerably (bullets impacting far from the point of aim) and that gun is just as accurate as if it were putting your bullets exactly at the point of aim.


The difference is in sight adjustment, but that in itself has nothing to do with accuracy.  Accuracy = consistency.


It has been said that “Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.”  — George Orwell  (Thank You, Walter Williams, for pointing that out)


You intelligent men have your assignment, then.  Carry on.

Includes Shoulder Thingy That Goes Up

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I haven’t used this gun in a while, so I’ve decided to offer it for sale.


This is the eeeeevil Striker 12, made by Sentinal Arms and sold by Penn Arms.  It has a 12″ barrel and a threaded muzzle with a split shroud-nut/thread protector designed to allow a custom-made, threaded muzzle device if one were inclined to have such a thing made.


It’s a DAO (double action only) twelve shot revolver.  The cylinder is not to be confused with a drum magazine.  It has 12 firing chambers (up to 2 & 3/4″ shells only. you could probably chamber 3″ shells but if you fire them, the rest of your day, and many after, might go poorly).  For some measure of protection from the high velocity gasses that escape the cylinder gap, the cylinder is inside a steel enclosure, which is why it could be confused with a drum magazine.  The Striker’s double action differs from that of most revolvers, in that the cylinder is rotated by a spring and controlled by a simple, beefed-up, clockwork style escapement mechanism rather than by the force of pulling the trigger.  The trigger cocks the enclosed hammer and operates the escapement.  Trigger pull is rather long and heavy.  Even so, it is equipped with a cross-bolt trigger safety behind the triggerguard.


To load; drop in a shell just as with any single action revolver, then press the thumb tab on the back of the boxlock frame to advance the cylinder one chamber, drop in another, repeat until full, then raise the loading gate.  Wind the cylinder by turning the wing nut on the front of the cylinder arbor and you’re ready to go.


You aim it by sighting down the groove in the top strap to pick up the front sight, similar to the 1858 Remington Army revolver.  The cylinder will index clockwise, lowering the loading gate automatically as you pull the trigger back to fire, and then release.  As you pull the trigger again, the first empty is now in position for ejection.  There’s a small, static feature in the back of the barrel, directing gas from the cylinder gap into the just-fired chamber,  which blows the empty out of the gun with no mechanics at all– just gas.  It works swimmingly.  When the last round is fired, you eject the one remaining empty with your off hand using the ejector rod, which is reminiscent of the old West style single action cat-ridge six-shooters.  If the cylinder was wound tight before you started shooting, you still have enough spring energy to load all 12 chambers as indicated above, whereupon you wind it again for shooting.  It will index approximately 27 to 29 times per wind, or thereabouts– I forget.


There is a hole in the top strap that could be threaded for installation of a custom-made optic mount, if you were so inclined.  That, with an Aimpoint Micro or some such, would make for a nice home defense or truck gun, methinks.


You can get 12 rounds off pretty quick, but at a lower rate than from the more conventional autoloader.  After that, it is a bit slower to load, and then you wind it.  If you fail to pull the trigger all the way back, as happens with the uninitiated now and then, or with weaklings, or when you’re squeezing the trigger and then decide not to shoot, you will have indexed the cylinder anyway, skipping one loaded chamber, leaving a loaded shell in that chamber.


This is one of the very few guns that have both a barrel shroud AND a shoulder thingy that goes up (included at no extra charge).


Push a button on the left side of the grip/boxlock frame, and the shoulder thingy goes up, around, and locks into the deployed position.  Unlike an AK underfolder, the buttplate deploys under spring tension– no extra manipulation required.


This (ahem) exquisite, hand assembled fowling piece is truly just like a work of art– simple, cheap, crude, the government has its hands all over it, and no one really understands it though we all pretend to understand anyway because it’s cool.  I bought it as part of a “You Ban it, I Buy it” program I started back in the ’90s.



I’ll take thirteen hundred for it, which, for transferable, functional art is cheap.  NFA rules, blah blah blah, 200 hundred dollar tax, yadda, yadda..  Yes; in their mighty wisdom, benevolence, and dedication to American Principles, the geniuses at F-Troop have declared this 12 gauge, 2.75″ shotgun to be in the same legal category as towed artillery;




If you live here in Idaho I’m told the in-state transfer of artillery or 12 gauge shotguns is easier, or cheaper, or something.  Plus if you’re local, we can take it out and burn some nitro first (fire before you acquire).  Still; fingerprints, photos, background check, CLEO, wait, etc…for the transfer, just so you know who’s owns this country.


It also comes with a nice wooden alto saxophone case (violin cases are so yesterday) with rugged polymer covering and steel draw-latches, into which it fits like they were made for each other, which they were.  I just never got ’round to lining the bottom of the case with velvet.


It is warranted to be in marvelous condition right now.  Though used, it looks nearly new and functions as new.  There are some minor handling marks, but they wouldn’t put off even the most discriminating, upper-crust Striker 12 aficionado.  It won’t break unless you’re stupid.  Original owner’s manual included.

Quote of the day–Samurai maxim

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Tomorrow’s battle is won during today’s practice.

Samurai maxim
[This is true of USPSA, IPDA, and steel challenge matches too. And even more importantly it is true of your encounter with a thug who wants your money or your life.

Note that the maxim has nothing to do with the hardware you carry. The caliber of your gun, the number of rounds you carry, and the terminal characteristics of the bullet are far, far less important than your training and your practice.–Joe]

10% discount on some Olympic Arms uppers

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Olympic Arms is having a sale on “alternate caliber” AR’s:

Episode one of Top Shot

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I watched the first episode of Top Shot last night. Barb watched about 10 minutes and then got bored and went off to do something else.

I liked it far better than I expected to. I don’t care for reality shows. When I first heard about Survivor back in late 1999 I was about to become unemployed as my contract with Microsoft expired. I thought it might be something I could do well at and I got an application and looked into the show concept further. It was completely different than I expected and I was repulsed. I expected something about working together and making conditions better for everyone on the island. I envisioned the winner being the person who did the most to improve the small “society”. I contemplated the skills and innovation I could bring to the situation. What would I bring with me and what sort of things could be accomplished with the materials on hand. It wasn’t going to be anything like that. It was going to be about getting rid of other people not working together with people. What sort of life lesson is this? It’s total crap.

That said it did cross my mind that Top Shot might be something I could participate in–for about 500 mS. I’m not a “Top Shot”. I do okay in the local matches but I’m just a “B” class shooter. I shoot at a level of about 65% (my current USPSA classification is 65.94% with a high of 68.53%) of the worlds best shooters. I could not imagine that would be good enough and didn’t pursue it.

Then I found out Caleb was accepted. What? I’m on par with Caleb! Oh well, it was at a bad time with our current project (Windows Phone Seven) at Microsoft and I had an obligation to complete that work anyway.

I really should have listened to what Caleb said last night on Gun Nuts Radio about it before making the following comments but I have other commitments for tonight and don’t have the time.

After seeing the first episode I again thought I could have had a chance. Mike Seeklander and his spotter’s performance was pathetic. Yes, as Tam pointed out the 100 yard shot Seeklander failed on is not as straightforward as one might think. But assuming the problem was not with the shooter being incompetent then either the spotter and shooter could have solved the problem had they been thinking. Here is how.

One of the shots was on paper. Use the same point of aim and try it again. If it lands on paper in close to the same place then you know offset in both X and Y from point of aim. Use that offset to put the bullet on target. If it doesn’t then the one on paper was random and you need to find the offset. The spotter should have found a nearby spot of bare ground where the bullet strike could be easily seen and directed the shooter there to find the offsets. If no such bare ground was available then systematically try offset in increments of 1/2 the paper width/height. Get a bullet on paper and confirm the offsets! They may have tried that and it was edited before airing but I was extremely annoyed that I didn’t see it happening. I felt the other team members should have put both the spotter and shooter on the chopping block. They both failed.

This episode also confirmed my hypothesis that if someone brags about how good a shooter they are it is near certain proof they are crap. All the great shooters I have personally met are extremely modest or at least silent about how great they think they are.

If you take nothing more from this post remember this. You can do a quick and dirty zero of your gun with one shot. Aim at something and shoot. Then stabilize the gun while aiming at the same place. With the gun still pointed at the same exact spot adjust the sights until the sights point at the place where the bullet hit.

Video glasses update

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As I mentioned before I broke my new video glasses while taking them off. I considered just gluing them but decided to call and see if I could purchase a replacement part. I called the number in the user manual for Global One Sales & Distribution (814-669-1953) and was told they would ship me the new part but recommended I send them in for repair. The camera is in that part of the frame and there are wires going back to the processor and memory card. The cost, including shipping back to me is $40. I sent them in for repair.


He asked me how I broke them. I told him and he said I was for the fourth person to break them taking the glasses off while the lanyard was attached. They haven’t had other people break them at all. I advise not using the lanyard. What happened to me was that I tried to take them off with one hand holding on to the frame just in front of my left ear. As I pulled them over my head the lanyard caught on my right ear and the glasses were pulled as if it were a wishbone. The lanyard had a large moment arm (engineer speak for “big lever”) and the frame could not handle the force.


There are a few other things of note here. 1) I could not find a website for “Global One Sales & Distribution”; 2) The phone number 814-669-1953 (a Texas area code) is associated with a Self-Storage facility in Pennsylvania which has the same address as that which I was requested to ship the glasses to; 3) These glasses have more features (via a comment from wizardpc) and cost less than $75 (I paid $239 + tax for mine from Afton Arms who had a booth at the NRA meeting).

Ma Duce for sale

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You can get a crippled, but mostly functional, Ma Duce if you have the money:




Steel Challenge match results

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The match results from Sunday are in:




















































































































































Lewiston Pistol Club 
Steel Match– May 23, 2010
Place Shooter Class TX * 5 2 Go TSAR Fadeaway Total Time Down
1 Mike B Limited 17.29 16.96 15.92 18.19 68.36 —
2 Don W Limited 16.23 21.05 14.67 20.00 71.95 3.59
3 Adam M Limited 18.70 18.63 17.91 17.69 72.93 4.57
4 Roger W Limited 16.54 20.33 16.88 23.37 77.12 8.76
5 Joe H Limited 15.84 20.90 21.67 21.64 80.05 11.69
6 Roger W Revo 18.09 20.39 19.03 25.74 83.25 14.89
7 Mike C Limited 23.85 29.43 26.08 41.11 120.47 52.11
8 Bob U Limited 32.18 30.73 26.92 38.15 127.98 59.62
9 Mike G Limited 31.86 27.17 24.05 46.51 129.59 61.23
10 John G Limited 26.15 41.10 26.79 39.97 134.01 62.06


Yellow indicates the stage winner. I won the first stage and did mediocre on the rest. Since there were four stages and four strings (five actually, but the slowest string is thrown out) per stage being down 11.69 seconds means that I averaged less than three quarters of a second more per string than the match winner. It was a closer match than it might look like.


I came in second on the bowling pin side match:



AdamM:   21.63


JoeH:       23.21


Don W:    25.61


MikeB:     29.40


BobU:      30.33


RogerW:   37.84


MikeC:     42.94


JohnG:     43.30


Had I known there was going to be the bowling pin match I would have brought different ammo. I have some hollow point bullets loaded a little on the “warm” side specifically for bowling pins. As it was the ammo I was using didn’t have as much momentum to transfer and had a greater tendency to bounce off from a less than direct hit. That might have made the difference between first and second place. But there is no shame in coming in a close second to Adam.

A steel challenge match from the eyes of the shooter

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I participated in a Steel Challenge match today. I used my new video glasses (I have Sportsman Eyewear model 465 ) and then edited out most of the boring stuff. Here is the result:





I learned some things. When obtaining video I should move my head less. When asked, “Are you ready?” I should keep my head still instead of nodding.


The electronics must have some automatic gain control on the audio. The first string of fire you can hear the R.O. and first shot well. Then it gets much quieter and you can barely hear the R.O. and the shots are muffled some.


The frame rate is supposed to be about 35 fps. This is really too slow to capture what I see when shooting. In the video it seems to go much faster than when I am actually shooting. I see far more than what you can see in the video.


Still, I like what I see and plan to do this again taking into account the lessons learned.


Fellow shooters had other applications for the glasses too. The first one I heard today, “This will revolutionize the home porn industry.” Yeah, I had thought of that too. Don’t expect to see any of that on this blog.


Another suggestion was to get about $5000 in cash and go through TSA while wearing the glasses to capture them hassling you. “What would that accomplish?”, I asked. “Maybe you could get someone fired.” “But I want them ALL fired.”, I replied.


Just anytime you are interacting with authority they could be a great asset.


And in specific, from John Hardin, in the comment here came what I thought was the best suggestion. Use them when open carrying. Great idea!

The view from my driveway

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While at the NRA annual meeting I bought a pair of glasses with lenses for sunglasses or safety glasses. The also have a camera (still or video with microphone) built in. The main reason for getting them is for shooting. I expect to be able to get feedback for training (pistol matches) and for shooting explosives.


The results are suprisingly good. Here is the view from my driveway (scaled down from 1080 x 1024 to 600 x 480)–The View From North Central Idaho:



Tomorrow I have a Steel Challenge match I am going to. I’m really looking forward to the video.

Tactical pants

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I didn’t see them on the exhibit floor but Say Uncle told a few of us that he saw some neat tactical pants there.


Via email from Jeanette we now have The Ultimate Guide to Tactical Pants.

Censorship

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While at the NRA Annual Meeting on Saturday I wore this shirt:



It got a lot of compliments while on the exhibit floor but something happened that night while at the blogger dinner. I’ve been told that I might have to burn that shirt. I would have never worn that shirt to work and figured as long as I stayed away for places like that I would be okay. But censors are sometimes where you least expect them. Yes, the heavy hand of censorship is threatening me because of that shirt.


On the night in question there were about 20 or 30 bloggers at this bar having dinner, drinking a few, and trying to talk to each other (it was very loud). Alan Gura had expressed, rather forcefully, that it was too loud and wanted to go someplace else so we could talk easier. I was up moving around and trying to shepherd people in the general direction of the door and to a nearby outdoor plaza with a quiet fountain and seating. From a nearby table filled with college students two young women approached me and said they really liked my shirt and they wanted a picture of one of them with me and the shirt. I obliged them.


I later told Say Uncle about it and he quipped, “I’ll bet you never thought you could use that shirt to pick up chicks, did you?” I laughed and said, “No.” That would have been the end of it had I not opened my big mouth later. Later that evening as I was talking to wife Barbara and she asked how my day had gone I told her of the event and Say Uncle’s joke. In the silence that followed I blissfully babbled on and told her of another funny thing that happened. This probably sealed the fate of that shirt.


As everyone was saying goodnight someone said how wonderful it was to meet and hang out with the celebrities like Michael Bane, Alan Gottlieb, and god of gods Alan Gura. I agreed and added something like, and pointing at Mike W, “But you said I was a celebrity.” Mike protested, “But you are a celebrity. You are the Boomershoot guy!” Dixie was standing just to the right of me and said, “You are the Boomershoot guy?” and stretched her arms out with fingers straight, palms flat, and bowed to me.


Barb hasn’t actually said it in words but I’m pretty good at reading the silence.


I think I’m going to have to burn the shirt.

Socializing at the NRA annual meeting

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I had planned to walk the exhibit floor today but other than attend the debate between Gura and Helmke I spent nearly the entire time socializing. Mostly it was with bloggers but I did spend probably an hour of pretty intense face to face time with NRA Board of directors member Scott Bach (and here).


Scott told us a little bit of some of the behind the scenes stuff at the NRA and how he thinks things will shake down after the McDonald case comes down. Since he lives in New Jersey there was a particular emphasis on his home state. The application of the McDonald case will be particularly interesting there and in California. There is tremendous opportunity to gain ground but there are lots of things that can go wrong too.


I was pleased to meet some gun bloggers I have read for the first time and see others again. I screwed up and did not get a picture of Rick even though we met and talked quite a bit this morning and throughout the day. I will try to remedy that error tomorrow.



I met Breda for the first time. For some reason I expected someone much smaller.
Alan also took some pictures of Breda at dinner but she said she would kill him if he posted them.
Honest, it had nothing to do with Say Uncle making a comparison to a porn star. That was much earlier in the day.


 
I have five pictures of Jay G. These two suck the least. He also posted on the afternoon and evening activities.
This was my first time meeting him. But I have talked to him when I was on Vicious Circle and listened to him even more.



This was the first time I have met Weer’d Beard. He is a frequent commenter here and on daughter Xenia’s LJ.



I first met Denise and Yosemite Sam at the NRA meeting in 2008.
I got in trouble with Barb for not attending Sarah Palin’s speech so maybe Denise’s post can get me almost back in good graces at home.



I first met Alan at Boomershoot 2009 where he helped make the targets as well as shoot them.
He also is the ringleader of Vicious Circle.



I first met Mike W. at the NRA meeting in 2008. He is also a frequent commenter here.
He says I’m a celebrity so I need to keep reminding Barb that she sleeps with one.


Say Uncle and Alan decided they had to expose Breda and me to southern food. A group of ten of us went out to dinner. Say Uncle recommended the shrimp and grits which I did enjoy. Breda liked the greens and said, “I could eat these forever!”


After dinner was over, about 22:30, I was just coming alive and ready to talk until 2:00 or 3:00 but everyone else was a wimp (and mostly on east coast time instead of west coast like me) and said they were headed back to their hotels for the night.


Tomorrow, I really will get out on the exhibit floor and take a bunch of pictures.

Registration day at the NRA annual meeting

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The weather is just a little on the warm side of what I am comfortable with and the humidity is pretty high but it’s still well within tolerable limits.




There is lots of press coverage. Below is a picture of the mobile units from a couple local television stations. I later saw a “talking head” standing around in front of a camera wait for their time to say a few sentences.



In the picture below the three people on the left are NRA staff. On the right are Sebastian and Bitter. In between are the media badges.



Below is the view of the exhibit floor from the Press Office.



At ~17:30 a few bloggers and some NRA staff went to a bar for drinks and to talk. Say Uncle showed up not too much later.


At ~19:30 a few of the bloggers went to a restaurant at the Westin Hotel where we had very small tasty meals which were very expensive and very pretty.


At ~20:30 we moved to a bar in the Westin where Dave Kopel and other high powered legal types hung out with us and kept us enthralled with stories from behind the scenes and what may and may not be possible for the right to keep and bear arms in the future. I also met George after years of occasional correspondence. 


At ~12:45 the last of the bloggers and one of the legal minds retired. Two lawyers went off to smoke. One a cigar and the other a pipe.


Tomorrow I will spend most of the day on the exhibit floor.

They treat us so nice

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I’m at the NRA annual meeting in the Press Office. I have press credentials, free wireless Internet, and free food and drink:



I haven’t seen anyone I know yet. Currently I’m alone in the Press Office with my two Windows Phone 7 devices.

Boomershoot staff hard at work

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In my post last night I outlined some of the work the staff does for Boomershoot after the main event is over. I said the sound in the video doesn’t do it justice.

In Jason’s video the sound is a much better but it still doesn’t capture the THUMP that you feel throughout your body but it does hint a little better at it and give you some more clues as to what it means for Rolf to be Entertainingly Close:

Nifty!

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This would be something useful for my aging eyes and preference for sights that don’t require batteries.


Via email from Rich R. in NH.

By the numbers–Take two

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If you have been following along in the comments at Say Uncle you will know that my assumptions about the cartridge used in my simulation here were off a bit. I assumed a 300 grain bullet with a BC of 0.785 and a MV of 2750 fps. According to Mu the correct bullet is a 250 grain leaving the muzzle at 3070 fps with (according to SteveA) a BC of 0.587. This changes things some.


The sight angle for no hold-over is 127.8 MOA instead of 122 MOA.


The time of flight is 5.2 S instead of 4.9 S.


The velocity of the bullet at the target is about 924 fps instead of 1043 fps. This results in PF of 231 instead of 313.


The number three shot groups required to get one that was less than or equal to 1 MOA is, on the average, 4.3 instead of 4.9 (initally my program showed 83 but now it shows 4.9, I suspect some sort a caching error in Modern Ballistics). But those numbers are identical given the margins of error used in the assumptions that generated them.


Both Modern Ballistics data files for the simulations are here.


See also the comments at Tam’s.

2707 yard shot in Afghanistan by the numbers

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I think I first saw it at Ry’s place. But others have mentioned it too. People at work have been asking about it too. It’s time I made a blog post about it.

According to the news reports a British sniper made three consecutive shots which were measured, via GPS, to be at a range 8120 feet. This is about 2707 yards which is the number I used with Modern Ballistics. I have uploaded the data file here if you want to tweak a few numbers and see what happens for yourself.

I used a high end 300 grain bullet with a BC of 0.785, a muzzle velocity of 2750 ft/sec, a muzzle velocity standard deviation of 10 fps and the inherent accuracy of the cartridge, gun, and shooter was 0.25 MOA. I assumed zero wind at 10,000 feet above sea level, and a temperature of 59 F. All are a bit on the optimistic, but plausible, side of “excellent” conditions.

The first thing that struck me about the situation was that with a 32-power, mil-dot reticle, scope the target was quite visible (the rectangle target is 18″ x 24″):

Even a 16-power scope gives a usable sight picture:

The sight angle to not require hold-over is 122 MOA. For best results a no hold-over shot is required.

Long range Leopold scopes give 70 MOA of adjustment so a shim of 52 MOA would be required for a no hold-over shot. This is not likely.

Some Nightforce scopes have 110 MOA of adjustment which would require a shim of 12 MOA. This would result in the closest range the rifle could be zeroed at under standard conditions to be about 460 yards. This seems plausible.

The articles claim a three second time to target but I come up with 4.9 seconds. My guess is whoever did the calculation assumed the bullet did not lose any velocity on it’s way to the target. Working backward we come up with about 2700 fps for a muzzle velocity.

The velocity of the bullet at the target is about 1043 fps. With a 300 grain bullet this corresponds to an IPSC “Power Factor” of 313. A 124 grain 9mm bullet at the muzzle is in the neighborhood of a PF of 135 so the sniper still had a lot of “stopping power” at this range.

On the average you would have to shoot 83 (the correct number is 4.9, apparently something hadn’t been updated properly in my simulation when I pulled the 83 off) three-shot groups to get one which was less than or equal to 1 MOA (about 30 inches). Only about 30% of the shots will hit a 18″ x 24″ target (1000 shot simulation):

My conclusion is there was some luck involved but it is plausible the event took place essentially as reported.

Update: I have rerun some of the simulations with what is believed to be the cartridge used by the British.