The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. – Ayn Rand
Took a trip to see my favorite Merchant O’Death this afternoon. He showed me something I hadn’t seen before. I know that residents of the UK have emasculated AR-15 rifles (converted to straight-pull bolt-actions, gas systems removed) but until now, I had never seen a pump-action AK:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UmHMgiNQPU?rel=0&showinfo=0]
Oooookay.
Keep passing those gun laws. We’ll keep figuring ways around them.
So, the Tenth Annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous is complete. I skipped the Sunday simulator session, and left for home just after 8AM. Had to stop in Vegas about 4PM because I was flat exhausted. Got home Monday afternoon.
There were 25 registered attendees at this year’s event, and together we raised almost $3,000 for Honored American Veterans Afield. Sponsors of the event were:
Lucky Gunner – primary sponsor, and supplier of ammunition to attendees. My thanks to Anthony W. of Lucky Gunner for getting everything set up and organized, and for running things so well. Lucky Gunner is set up to run next year’s event also. Anthony took a lot of photos and video. As soon as those are up, I’ll be linking.
The Silver Legacy Resort and Casino – Nice place to stay, and very accommodating! When we asked about wheeling in the Gardner Gun, they were all for it.
Special Interest Arms – Richard Brengman is a local out of Gardnerville, NV, about an hour south of Reno. This year, in addition to the Gardner Gun, he brought a variety of Class III items for us to shoot – most suppressed, a couple full-auto. I’m kinda interested in his 9mm bolt-action rifle with integral suppressor. One tax stamp. Sucker is about as loud as a dropped paperback in a library. Richard also donated a stripped AR-15 lower to the HAVA raffle.
Springfield Armory – Donated T-shirts, beer glasses and coffee mugs, a couple of banners and some other things. Maybe we can wangle a pistol out of them next year.
Ruger – Provided a range bag, a backpack and some coffee mugs. No repeat of the MkIII Hunter of last year, but….
Sig Sauer – Sponser of shooter and GBR attendee Jaci Janes provided caps, keychains and stickers. Hmm… I think I’m sensing a trend here.
Dillon Precision – donated one of their “border shift” ammo bags and some hats.
Brownell’s – No ultimate range bag this year, but Brownell’s did donate one of their new ESG Backpacks, some AR10 magazines, and a slew of oil samples as they usually do. We missed having Larry Weeks join us, but he’s enjoying retirement by running around to various competitions.
Allchin Gun Parts – donated optics mounts and machined magazine base pads. Nice stuff!
Burris Optics – Again this year Lori Yunker (former GBR attendee) kindly donated an AR-F3 red dot sight on a Picatinny mount. That got snapped up.
MOA Targets – another local, Mitch Gerlinger makes AR plate targets for rifles and pistols. I won one of their Freedom Wheel units rated for rifle. Can’t wait to see if I can hit it at 500+ yards with the .300 Mag. Mitch also brought out his full-auto M14 to the Friday shoot, and let anyone who wanted to rip off a magazine. Pretty cool.
Target Barn – Provided the IDPA target cardboards that we used during the Saturday “paper steel” shoot, and also some pretty cool shoot-‘n-see zombie varmint targets. I got a set of those.
Front Sight Training Academy – again donated a four-day training course valued at over $2k.
Self Defense Association – Sponsor of shooter Great Satan (Jaci Janes’ other half), Self Defense Association is an insurance company for anybody who might need financial security after a shooting. SDA provides insurance policies to cover both criminal and civil legal fees should you need to defend yourself against prosecution or a lawsuit after a self-defense shooting. They donated a $250k policy.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation – the REAL “gun lobby,” the NSSF provided us with way too much Godfather’s Pizza for the Saturday night festivities as they have for the last several years.
CigarsCity.com donated cigars and a small humidor. Something different, and also something snapped up almost immediately.
Repeat attendee Bill Llewellen of Billlls Idle Mind brought some laser-cut aperture sights for Ruger pistols, and donated a couple to the cause.
And last, but FAR from least, Reno Guns and Range (formerly U.S. Firearms Academy). They allowed us to ship our stuff to them for safekeeping prior to our arrival, even though they were in the middle of trying to get ready for a grand re-opening at their entirely new and extremely state-of-the-art facilities. And, ladies and gentlemen, if you’re in the Reno area I strongly urge you to check them out. That place will make the Scottsdale Gun Club look pale by comparison when they get it complete. On Saturday they gave us the run of their 10-lane bay to conduct our “paper steel” shoot on opening day. On Sunday they ran their simulator training for us again as we had done the previous year, but in a newer, more spacious facility. We got the full tour of the place, which has not only the 10-lane 25 yard range (rated for rifles), but also a private four-lane range with attached “meeting room” complete with conference table, pool table, and mini-galley. They will eventually have a “shoot house” complete with garage for realistic training using simunitions. This place is AWESOME. I kinda wish I lived in Reno.
I think once Lucky Gunner gets their feet under it, next year’s Rendezvous will be even more outstanding than this year’s.
Nikki fisks. Read the whole thing.
My gun safe is full.
Well, not full, but I would have a hard time getting more long guns into it the way it’s configured now.
Other people have had that problem, and this is one solution that has hit the market: Rifle Rods.
Anybody actually tried them? It looks interesting, I’ll give it that.
I pulled out of my driveway at 05:30 this morning, and into the parking lot here at the Silver Legacy at 19:30. Two stops for fuel, one for lunch in Vegas. Not bad. Best part about the trip is A) diesel doesn’t cost $4/gal this year, and B) diesel actually costs less than regular gas. Looks like the truck got pretty good mileage for a 7,000lb crew-cab beast.
Tired, hungry, and my a$$ is a little sore. Time for some dinner and then bed, I think. Looking forward to the next few days here at GBR X!
Remember I was bitching about my iPod not taking music I tried to put on it from iTunes? Well, I’ve got a 13+ hour drive coming up tomorrow, and I thought, “Let’s just wipe the thing and start over from scratch and see if that helps.” So I made a backup of the iPod, and proceeded to reset it to factory default.
And apparently I’ve bricked it.
Every time I try to get iTunes to recognize it now, I get: “We could not complete your iTunes Store request. An unknown error occurred (0x80090326)”
Which translates, as far as I can tell, to “BUY NEW HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE YOU LUDDITE!”
So my (mumble-) year-old iPod that had about 35 hours of music stored on it is now magically wiped clean, and is completely useless for its intended purpose.
Yay me.
I hope Steve Jobs is suffering on the eighth level of Hell being sodomized by a barbed-wire-wrapped fencepost.
UPDATE: I got it working. Connected it to the iTunes running on my wife’s Windows7 laptop. Recognized it as an iPod immediately and let me configure it as new. Took it back to my XP machine and iTunes saw it. Copied my music over, looks like it all took, as I listened to 13.5 hours worth without a hitch on the way to Reno.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Bill Whittle on education:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yoQgAQOALc?rel=0]
Billy Beck calls it the Endarkenment. I’m convinced that 115 years of public education has accomplished The Great Unlearning, and it has been deliberate.
So the EPA “accidentally” released 3 million gallons of toxic spill into the Animas river. It was completely unintentional. No one could have predicted it.
Except someone did. Seven days before the spill.
Why did he predict this would happen?
The “grand experiment” in my opinion will fail. And guess what (EPA representative) Mr. Hestmark will say then?
Gee, “Plan A” didn’t work so I guess we will have to build a treatment plant at a cost to taxpayers of $100 million to $500 million (who knows).
Reading between the lines, I believe that has been the EPA’s plan all along. The proposed Red & Bonita plugging plan has been their way of getting a foot in the door to justify their hidden agenda for construction of a treatment plant. After all, with a budget of $8.2 billion and 17,000 employees, the EPA needs new, big projects to feed the beast and justify their existence.
And it was in a dead-tree publication, no less!
ETA:
…Achievement Unlocked!
Got another fifty to do, then a few hundred rounds of .45ACP, 100 rounds of .44 Mag, and maybe some .38 Special pin loads.
There’s still time to get signed up and make room reservations for Gun Blogger Rendezvous X. Check out the site. There’s some good stuff to take home with this year.
The schedule has been sent out to attendees, and here’s what’s on tap:
Thursday, August 20:
2:45-5PM – Trip to the massive Scheel’s Sports in Sparks. If you need any last-minute range gear or just want to check it out (worth the trip) a group will be leaving from the Silver Legacy. Upon our return we’re having a group dinner at the El Dorado buffet. (No sponsor, attendees responsible for buffet cost.)
Friday, August 21:
8-9AM – Breakfast at the Silver Legacy Resort &Casino (Free, sponsored by LuckyGunner.com)
10AM-2PM – Range time at the Washoe County Shooting Facility. Shoot what you brought, and shoot what everybody else brought. This is where the Gardner Gun and various other toys, some suppressed, some full auto, will be available to shoot. The range has target frames and known-distance positions for them out to 300 yards. Steel swingers at various ranges out to 900 yards. I’m bringing my .300 Win Mag for this. Range fee is $8/person. Bring something to drink, and sunscreen is advised. You also need eye and ear protection.
6-8PM – Dinner at the Silver Legacy – (Free, sponsored by LuckyGunner.com)
8-Whenever – Mix-n-Mingle in the hospitality room. Adult beverages and snacks (byob!). This is the main reason I go to the Rendezvous, and I don’t drink. The range trips are just an extra added bonus.Saturday, August 22:
8-9AM – Breakfast at the Silver Legacy Resort & Casino (Free, sponsored by LuckyGunner.com)
10AM-2PM – “Paper steel” shooting at the new indoor range at Reno Guns & Range. $15/person. Rimfire and centerfire handguns only. Irons & optics. Five white paper plates mounted on IPSC style target stands. One plate will be designated as the “Stop Plate” and it must be shot last. The other four plates may be shot in any order. Each shooter will shoot the stage multiple times, and the slowest time will be discarded. The remaining fastest times will be totaled, and added to the shooter’s overall score. Once each shooter has completed the stage, the targets will be moved to different positions, and will be shot again as “Stage 2.” Additional stages will be shot as time permits. Each string will be shot from the “low ready” position.
5-6PM – Special Interest Arms’ Richard Brengman will talk about his Gardner Gun and other toys, which you should have gotten to shoot on Friday.
6-6:15PM – Brief introduction to the organization we’re sponsoring, Honored American Veterans Afield (HAVA).
6:15-7:15PM Pizza dinner, provided by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Please don’t drip pizza grease on the Gardner Gun!
7:15-7:45 – Raffle benefiting HAVA. There’s some nice stuff this year.
7:45-Whenever – Mix-n-Mingle. Adult beverages, yadda yadda yadda….Sunday, August 23
8-9AM – Breakfast at the Silver Legacy Resort & Casino (Free, sponsored by LuckyGunner.com)
9AM-1PM – Scenario simulation at Reno Guns and Range. This is a training simulator using CO2 powered simulated firearms against projected threat scenarios. We did this last year. If you carry a gun for self-protection, this is highly recommended. It will make you think. $15/person.
So get on the phone and make your reservations!