Month: January 2009

Another Trip to the Range

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Another Trip to the Range

No new loads for the Encore yet, but I wanted to shoot the Remington 700 some more. When I went to the Gunblogger Rendezvous last October, David of Random Nuclear Strikes gave me some of his Black Hills 175 grain .308 Sierra MatchKing commercial ammo, and I wanted to test it out as a baseline against my handloads. It was another trip to the Casa Grande range to make use of their 300 yard facility. Here’s an average group using the Black Hills stuff:


By my calibrated eyeball, Mk. I, that’s about 4″ CTC.

Here’s my 175 grain SMK handload:


The bottom most hole is two holes touching. I’d put that group at a hair under 2″.

Here’s my 155 grain Lapua Scenar load (typical) with me throwing a flyer (also typical):


What you can’t see there is that this group is about 5″ higher than the point of aim, which means it’s hauling ass compared to the 175 grain SMK load. Now, if I could just stop throwing flyers . . .

I think I need some more of those bullets.

(Sorry about the crappy quality. These were taken with my cellphone camera.)

It’s Official: You May Now Panic

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It’s Official: You May Now Panic

Found via PDB, another very disturbing (in a weirdly sick way) graph:

That’s the U.S. money supply, according to the web site of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Also per PDB, from an earlier post, the Quote of the Day:

In FY2007, the federal government spent more money than it had at any time in its history. More than in WWII, more than it took to go to the moon during the height of the cold war, more than under Reagan rescuing our military from Carter’s neglect. This massive amount of spending was unable to avert a recession. Why is more federal spending suddenly now going to mitigate the effects of this recession?

We are so screwed.

No Europellet for Me Yet

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I did a tour of the local funshops yesterday looking for either a good example of a Browning Hi Power, or an EAA Witness Match in 9mm Europellet, but no joy. Murphy’s did have a Hi Power, but it was the double-action version with a de-cocker, not the single-action or (my personal preference) the SFS, so I passed. It was the only Hi Power I found. Murphy’s had the only Witness I found, either, but it was chambered in .38 Super. Several of the other shops were closed. Apparently there’s a gun show going on at the fairgrounds.

I am not a fan of gun shows. It’s a personal thing.

Oh well, I did find one very interesting place that had a firearm I’d not actually previously seen “in the flesh” as it were:


A .44 AutoMag.

I don’t have that kind of cash laying around, nor do I know enough about them to be able to tell if it’s a particularly nice (or trashed) example, but I have to say that the urge to whip out the plastic and make installment payments on a gorgeous hunk of stainless steel nearly overwhelmed me there for a second or two.

Also, for about a millisecond, I considered picking up a Glock 17. So many Glock afficionados have been turned to JMB’s (PBUH) finest handgun design in the last year that I thought, just maybe, I should give the plastic-fantastic a try, but I retained my willpower and moved away from the bright light.

So, no .44 AutoMag, and no 9mm Wünderpistol either. Maybe next weekend.

Oh, and just a reminder: I’m scheduled to be on Charles Heller’s (no relation to Dick Heller, so far as I know) radio show, America Armed & Free next Sunday at 1:00PM Mountain Standard time. You can listen to the show by streaming audio here during your pre-game party. We’ll be discussing gunblogging.

Happy Birthday, Tam!

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Happy Birthday, Tam!

Today’s Quote of the Day:

Really, could it get any better? I mean, short of having Charles Schumer picking up my brass and carrying my shopping bag full of ammo while toadying obsequiously? – A birthday slathered in awesomesauce

You mean he didn’t? Dammit! I have to talk to my credit card company about reversing the charges, then!

And they say an honest politician is one who stays bought . . .

When Obama Says This Stuff, I Don’t Think He Really Means It

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“When Obama Says This Stuff, I Don’t Think He Really Means It,”

“. . . and that gives me hope.”

.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url(‘http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png’) !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;}

http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:216538

It’s the only reason the Left’s collective (in all meanings of the word) heads haven’t exploded.

Found at Anarchangel‘s.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go buy another gun . . .

The Tottenham Outrage

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The Tottenham Outrage

One hundred years ago today, on John Moses Browning’s (PBUH) 54th birthday, two Latvian Anarchists attempted to rob the payroll of Schnurmann’s Rubber Company in Chestnut Road, Tottenham, England. The payroll was worth about £80, or roughly $8,800 today. Armed with then-still-new semi-automatic pistols, the two robbers, Paul Hefeld and Jacob Lapidus tried to make their escape, starting a shooting-spree that resulted in twenty-four wounded (seven police officers) and two dead – one police officer and one 10 year old boy. The police officer’s reported last words were, in fine British tradition:

“Come on, give in, the game’s over!”

Here’s a photo of the firearms in question:


The top one looks like one of JMB’s early works. If anyone can identify them, I’d be grateful.

One robber killed himself just before the angry crowd could do it. The other was captured after he shot himself, and he later died of his injuries.

The Tottenham Outrage is cited by a lot of us in the gunnie world because it is an example of how things used to be, and how – many of us believe – it still ought to be. The Tottenham Outrage was a living demonstration of Sir Robert Peel’s Nine Principles of Modern Policing, first published when he established London’s first “modern” police force in 1829; most especially Principle #7:

Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

During the incident, average people going about their daily lives joined in the pursuit of the robbers. A party out bird shooting at nearby Lockwood reservoir reportedly exchanged fire with them. The Tottenham police, in the tradition of British police to this day, did not go armed. Officers, unable to find the key to the locked firearm cabinet in the station house actually had to smash the doors off to get to their weapons, but brother officers already in pursuit instead borrowed firearms from people on the street – something literally unimaginable there today, and literally unremarkable back then.

A mere 100 years ago today.

I’m Late on This

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I’d blame it on work, but I received a nice email from reader Steve Vaujin on Tuesday about the topic, and I’m only now addressing it. I know all of you are already aware, but here it is again:

Address Gun Violence in Cities: Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent. – Found on inauguration day at http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/urban_policy/

So much for believing in the Second Amendment.

“Closing the gun show loophole” means “Ending private-party sales. All sales must go through an FFL.” This will, of course, get the support of many of the (remaining) FFLs. And it will be the first step to an eventual national registration system.

“Making guns in this country childproof.” All 300 million of them? Will this be like “childproof caps” that only children can actually open? Or does it mean “won’t go bang at all“?

“…support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.” Now, if you’re an optimist, you read this as “making the expiration permanent,” but we all know better than that. No, this means a new, IMPROVED “Assault Weapons Ban.” One that will, you know, actually ban something.

Oh, and “addressing gun violence in cities” – where it’s largely committed by and committed upon a tiny, easily identifiable demographic, but instead the .gov wants to put in place sweeping, highly restrictive laws that will affect everyone but that demographic.

The philosophy cannot be wrong! Do it again, only HARDER!

Well, there’s a great big hole in my collection that I need to fill. I’m not a fan of the 9mm Europellet, but I have been waiting and looking for a nice custom Browning Hi-Power to fill that niche – a 13-round capacity model, with a bunch of spare magazines. When I take newbies out to shoot, the lack of a 9mm has presented a problem as I work them up from .22LR to .45 Colt. (Hmm . . . And now .260 Remington?) I think this weekend I will go shopping for an EAA Witness in 9mm, and all the spare magazines they have in stock.

Who knows, maybe I’ll stumble across that Browning!

(*Sigh* – I was looking forward to at least a few more years before the .gov finally got around to passing enough laws to make me a willing felon . . .)