Pat Kelley (who won the USPSA match I was at on Sunday–I came in third and seventh out of 18) has a bunch of really neat gun and gun related pictures on his media website. Here are some samples:
Category Archives: Gun Fun
Quote of the day–Pat Kelley
You put on the most politically incorrect event on the planet.
Pat Kelley
October 5, 2008
Referring to Boomershoot.
[Pat was at the USPSA match I went to today. I think it has been 10 years since I have seen Pat. He remembered me and said a lot of flattering things. I was a little embarrassed because he is such a great shooter he is totally out of my league. But he wasn’t talking about my shooting ability. See also these quotes from him in other posts:
He also tried shooting my Saiga 12 gauge. He had never shot one before. He was not able to out-shoot it even though he believes it probably is possible. I wish I had thought to put a timer on him and see what sort of splits he got. I just saw a blur of fire expel from the ejection port and the 10 round magazines were empty.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Kevin Baker
Excuse me, I’ve got some video to watch. . .
Kevin Baker
October 3, 2008
Hey! We’re on Video!
[On the Gun Blogger Weekend videos that are now up on Down Range TV. See also the blog post from producer Marshal Halloway and the news release (pointed out to me by Sebastain). But it was an email from Say Uncle that first informed me.–Joe]
We are winning
I got a call tonight from Barb’s sister who lives in California. I had talked to her and her husband about guns in years past and while not really opposed to them they wouldn’t want one in their house.
Barb had talked to her last weekend and I knew she were planning to join the NRA just to annoy her liberal friends and neighbors. I also knew their daughter who is in college in Missouri wants to get a gun so she can defend herself. I didn’t know that Barb’s sister and her husband are planning to take up shooting as a hobby. She asked me about ranges and do they rent? And she wanted a recommendation for a gun to start out with. I told her a .22 to lessen the chances of picking up bad habits and reduce the cost.
I also sent her a link to the NRA yard signs so they can tweak the neighbors without even flashing their membership cards.
I need to get them up here for Boomershoot next spring. That will give them some goals.
Anti-motivational poster
I think this has been around sometime earlier but I still laughed when a co-worker send me a link today. It could just be the Alzheimer’s has shortened my memory enough to make it funny again:
I wonder if the cops noticed
Last night the cops visited to try to help resolve an incident when Boyfriend From Hell of the landlady at my underground bunker kicked in her bedroom door. I was at work at the time but Barb was there and called me to let me know what was happening. I left work immediately and told Barb to tell the cops I would be entering through the rear tunnel and that we would stay away from the action going on above ground.
Shortly after I arrived and greeted Barb the landlady knocked on our door and wanted to talk. A couple of cops showed up a minute or two later and stepped into my bunker to offer some advice to the landlady. I was packing with the only thing concealing my STI Eagle and a spare 18 round magazine was my Boomershoot coat. It was much too warm in there and I wanted to remove the coat without alarming the cops. Even wearing the coat probably seemed a little odd and the cops might have guessed I was packing just from that but there was no need to openly display the gun on my hip. In full view of the cops, but hidden underneath my coat, I untucked my Boomershoot golf shirt and used the tail of it to cover up the equipment on my belt and then took off the coat. I draped the coat over the target on the back of a chair from my testing the Gun Blog 45 a few days ago:
About five feet away from the cops, leaning up against a dresser was a rifle case. About eight feet behind the landlady they were talking to were two IPSC targets on the wall I use for dry fire exercises.
I wonder if the cops suspected there were guns nearby? If so, they didn’t give even the slightest hint of noticing. I did find it a little odd that one of them gave me his card and told me his cell phone number was on there–but they didn’t give the landlady a card or even their names.
I find it hard to believe they were so incompetent to not notice and would rather believe they were cool with it. Especially since they said they couldn’t leave her there if she was afraid for her safety (which she said she was) with the boyfriend who can’t currently be evicted. My offers to give her advance rent money on the spot to stay in a hotel or to stay on our couch went over well with the cops and they finally left.
Barb and I took the landlady to a restaurant for some food and she slept on the couch in our room last night. She left my underground bunker this morning without Barb or I talking to her and I can only presume she is working on getting him legally evicted today since she called work last night to take a day of vacation today.
I’d offer to loan her a gun but Boyfriend From Hell manages to keep stealing cell phones and keys from her purse so I don’t know how she would manage to keep a handgun away from him.
More details will be posted as they become available.
Sarah Palin buttons
Laser on Gun Blog 45
As I reported earlier I had a dead battery in the Crimson Trace Lasergrips. As Rob pointed out the case is tight enough that if the master switch was left on the grip switch would be activated when the gun was cased.
I installed the new battery and the laser came to life but wasn’t right. It was just like it was when I tried to use it at Summer Camp. It appeared to be hitting the pin for the slide lock and what light hit the target was a blob instead of a laser beam. Further testing indicated the laser lens was either dirty or possibly defective. I tried using an ordinary cotton swab with alcohol but I couldn’t detect any improvement after repeated cleanings.
Say Uncle sent me an email saying he had similar problems with his laser and when he used the swab supplied with the grips rather than ordinary cotton swab it cleaned up and worked correctly. The cotton swab is just too large to deep down to the laser lens. I was able to confirm his results. My laser now works as expected.
I practiced drawing and dry firing with the laser probably a 100 times. I discovered that frequently I don’t have a solid grip on the gun with the middle finger on my strong hand. It isn’t gripping the gun strong enough to turn on the laser. It turns out sometimes my weak hand will push it forward as I wrap my weak hand around my strong hand during the process of gripping the gun. I’m going to modify the process some so I get a better and more consistent grip.
I also used the draw and dry fire exercise to observe the movement of the gun as I put the sights on target and pulled the trigger. One observations instructors in the past had made that I was not pushing straight out to the target but instead was pointed the gun above the target then bringing it down. It appears I have fixed that error in my draw stroke.
These laser grips are proving to be useful even before I have fired a single shot with them.
Gun Blog 45
As we were filling out the paperwork so I could be approved to exercise my Constitutionally protected right to own a firearm the clerk behind the counter asked, “What model is that?” I thought about it a moment and said, “I guess we can call it a ‘Gun Blog 45’ just like what it says on the side.” He agreed and after 45 minutes of paperwork and a phone call to the FBI (the first NICS check ever done on me–I always managed to avoid them with my concealed weapons permit in the past) I got my Para-USA Gun Blogger Summer Camp gun last night. The same one I shot last month at Blackwater. Yeah, I purchased the gun I said has a Pri 0 bug. I was convinced by several people that learning to shoot it right wasn’t that outrageous of a suggestion.
Para-USA LDA with Crimson Trace Lasergrips
(Click to see higher resolution version)
I immediately bought some ammo–230 grain FMJ Magtech (the cheapest ammo on the shelf) and 230 grain Winchester Ranger (hollow points). I went to the range and loaded up one magazine of each. I put my targets at 30 feet which is the same range as the target that came with the gun:
I loaded the FMJ ammo and fired a shot. The gun failed to feed the second round into the chamber. Grrr… I had lots of problems with that at Blackwater but the problem went away after shooting a few hundred rounds and then lubricating the dirty gun. But this time the gun was clean and fully lubed. I racked the slide and continued to fire and had no further problems.
I was fairly satisfied with it:
Magtech 230 grain at 30 feet.
I fired all eight rounds of the Winchester Ranger without incident except the last round which I pulled a little bit when I fired:
Winchester Ranger 230 grain at 30 feet.
This was better than the factory target!
Ammo makes a difference!
I didn’t do any fast shooting as I had other things I wanted to do last night. That will be coming up soon. I need to see if I can train myself to shoot fast while taking my finger nearly off the trigger between shots.
The batteries appear to be dead in the laser grips. There is just the faintest glow coming out of them. I bought some new batteries but haven’t installed them yet. A report on Crimson Trace Lasergrips will be coming soon. I have two guns equipped with them now.
Others who have received their Gun Blog guns from Para-USA:
JR has his waiting at Rick’s place
Crimson Trace laser grips
While at the Gun Blogger Summer Camp last month I won a set of Crimson Trace laser grips–whatever set I wanted. I finally got around to asking for a set to fit a Ruger Mark II. I received them but haven’t installed them. I went to range tonight thinking I would put them on and try them out but wasn’t thinking ahead. I forgot to bring tools.
They look very cool but a full report will have to wait for a few days.
Blogger meet report
Six of us made it to the event (click on the pictures to see higher resolution versions):
Left to right, Phil, American Mercenary, Misty (wife of American Mercenary), Barb (my wife), and Gay_Cynic.
Barb insisted I should post a picture of myself as well, so here it is:
Joe Huffman and Gay_Cynic.
We had a nice time. No concrete plans to take over the world or anything. A report on Gun Blogger Summer Camp was requested. Gay_Cynic wanted to know if Tamara was as delightful in person as she is to read. I said she was but she seemed a little bit shy which I didn’t expect.
Phil and I talked about our plans for guns to take to Reno next month.
We talked about Seattle Mayor Nickels attempts to break the law and ban gun owners from carrying on City property. Phil reports Nickels will release his plans after getting an opinion from the state Attorney General. If I recall correctly Phil said that was due out on October 20th which will be in time for the election.
In response to something American Mercenary said about Democrats and socialism I said those people have a different set of basic assumptions about reality than I do and Phil says he will have blog post about that on Monday. I’m looking forward to it.
American Mercenary informed us about the use and misuse of full auto in the army. He explained a use I hadn’t really thought of before. He said a machine gun set up in a street can prevent anyone from crossing for many hundreds of yards but that same gun on a roof is of limited use.
Barb and Misty talked extensively about being the wife of a military man. Xenia will soon be in that position and Misty has been living that life for quite a while now. Barb arranged for Xenia to take some pictures, “When Misty has her baby.” Of course this was ambiguous to me. My first inclination was this probably meant during delivery–which seemed a little odd. But the shock on Barb’s and Misty’s faces when I wanted clarification on this point got me on the right track.
Direct Impingement?
The folks at CMMG have come out with an AR-15 gas piston conversion kit. It comes with a new gas block, piston and bolt carrier (so it works more like the AK). As far as I know, before this conversion kit you had to buy a whole new upper for your AR if you wanted a piston-driven system. It’s an attractive idea in some ways, especially for those who’ve had problems with carbon fouling in the bolt carrier. The piston system keeps more of the carbon out of the receiver and it’s great for use with a sound suppressor, in which case it keeps more of the trapped gasses from blowing back into your face. The conversion kit’s price is roughly equal to that of a new AK rifle and several spare magazines. However, they call their piston kit a “direct impingement gas piston system.” Anyone else see a problem here? It may be nitpicking (and please correct me if I’m wrong) but “direct impingement” is exactly that one thing that a piston system is not. When Stoner came up with his piston-less operation back in the day, he called it “direct impingement” to describe his system of channeling the gas back into the receiver where it “directly impinges” on the bolt carrier without an intervening piston rod or tappet.
Another Gun Blogger Summer Camp slide show
JR has created another slide show from pictures and music from Gun Blogger Summer Camp. For reasons explained in his post the music he used was my first choice. But after looking for a minute or two I didn’t find it and gave up to use stuff I already owned.
Enjoy.
The proper gripping of your pistol
As taught by the experts. I was taught this by Insights Training and then had it reinforced by Todd Jarrett a couple weeks ago.
I highly recommend it.
Boomershoot 2009 Precision Rifle Clinic Registration
Registration for the 2009 Precision Rifle Clinic is now open. You don’t have to attend the Boomershoot on Sunday to participate in the clinic on Friday or Satuday. They are in close proximity in space and time but are, essentially, independent.
The prices for this type of training is amazingly good. And it includes shooting at a few boomers as well.
Quote of the day–Eugene Econ
High winds with ice pellet storms. For me, that was uncommon for the Boomershoot but not the worse I have experienced at the Clinic so take it as it was. The winds we had offered an excellent opportunity to practice our wind doping and we learned our lessons and gained some confidence that we could stay on top of such winds well enough to hold IPSC size steel targets as long as we could see them. Such conditions were extreme but I doubt anyone will forget the experience or more importantly, how the Clinic shooters dominated these conditions. I am sure firing in 25 – 30 MPH winds and ice pellet storms will be something the shooters won’t soon forget.
Eugene Econ
Boomershoot 2008 Precision Rifle Clinic After Action Review
[I remember seeing a young woman at the clinic who had arrived from Austin just the day before. She was bundled up in winter clothes and the only skin exposed was part of her face which was getting pelted with ice pellets. I asked her, “Are you having fun yet?” She said she was. At the time I thought she was probably a very good liar but she signed up for Boomershoot 2009.–Joe]
Trigger Men
I just finished the book Trigger Men: Shadow Team, Spider-Man, the Magnificent Bastards, and the American Combat Sniper. It is a great book. I had no idea how important snipers were to the efforts in Iraq–especially the battle against IEDs. And in an urban environment too. In the mountains of Afghanistan, and the jungles of Vietnam, sure, but in the cities? I was wrong. They are doing 800 and 1000 meter shots in the cities. They would climb the walls of a families house while the family was sleeping and hide in their attic for a couple days and unless they did some shooting the family wouldn’t know they there until they said good-bye on the way out. Amazing stuff.
Bolt-actions guns, technology that has been around for 100 years, is more important than multi-million dollar weapons and vehicles in fighting the enemy. The sniper rifle is the ultimate precision “bomb”. It can kill one bad guy with an RPG in a crowd of women and children and not do anything worse than splatter the innocents with blood, brains, and bone.
I highly recommend this book to people of the long gun.
Gun Blogger Summer Camp Slide Show
This weekend I spent a bunch of time culling the 1000+ pictures I (and a few others) took at Blackwater into a slide show set to music.
It’s 11 minutes long and 31+ MBytes but here is the result. I like to play it with the volume cranked up to just below “noise complaint to the police”–especially at the beginning.
Update: Embedded version:
The one true messiah
We now have another convert from the dark side. Caleb is now a believer in John Moses Browning.
Gun Blogger Rendezvous 2008
Barb and I have made plans to attend the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno this October. We won’t be there the entire time. We are first going south to Tonopah where Barb’s father lived for several years. We will be in Reno sometime on Friday afternoon or evening and will be there all day Saturday. Sunday we probably will do something that isn’t particularly gun related such as hiking or museums but if others want to hang out with us that would be fine.
I probably will bring my .300 Win Mag for long range fun on Saturday, at least one handgun, and my shot timer.