While I admire the ingenuity of making permenantly modifying a PMag so that it becomes California legal, there is something about destroying a perfectly good magazine that kind of upsets me.
Retention vs. speed
Alright, here’s a question for you gun nuts out there – in your concealed carry holster, what is more important to you? The ability to retain the firearm in the event of a gun grab such as with the BLACKHAWK Serpa or the Galco holster I’m using here at Gunsite; or is your priority getting the gun in to the fight as quickly as possible without worrying about that?
I’d like to hear your thoughts – me personally, I’d err on the side of speed. Civilian gun grab situations are almost unheard of for concealed carry, so for me the most important part of the holster is that when I need the gun in my hand right freakin’ now the holster must absolutely not hinder my ability to get my gun in the fight. What are you thoughts?
When is an AOW not an AOW
Apparently, when you convert it to a legal sporting firearm in a very specific order. Essentially, if you bought a Mossberg 500 with a 10 inch barrel and a pistol grip on ATF form 4 and registered it as an AOW (because that’s what you’d have to do) you can legally convert it to a standard sporting firearm following these steps:
- REMOVE THE AOW BARREL
- Remove the pistol grip
- Install the standard barrel
- Install the shoulder stock
The reason you remove the AOW barrel first is that if you accidentally forget to do that and put the shoulder stock on while you’ve got the 10 inch barrel on the gun then you’ve unintentionally created an unregistered short barreled shotgun. That’s why the steps are laid out exactly as above.
I can think of a couple reasons why you’d want to convert your AOW to a sporting shotgun, however the real purpose of this post is to illustrate the byzantine and ridiculous nature of the ATF’s rules and regulations governing NFA weapons. We desperately need reform of NFA laws, as the current laws are such that an owner of a T/C Encore imperils their livelihood every time they change it from a pistol to a rifle.
On the ground at Gunsite
Heading out to the range at Gunsite, the cradle of firearms instruction, for our first day on the range. Today we’ll be working with AR15 rifles provided by Colt – keep it here for instant coverage of the latest guns and gears from Gunsite!
Gun Nuts is growing!
I’m really excited to put the following announcement on the blog, because it means more of the great content you’ve come to expect from us here at Gun Nuts. As many of you know, I’ve been working on the 2010 mid-term election, which now that they’re over I’m able to drop the first of several big announcements. Obviously, now that the election is over I’ve mentioned that Gun Nuts Radio will be returning, and you’re also going to see The Quest for Master Class pick up the pace in updates.
Part of what’s making that possible is our joint cooperation with Norpoint Shooting and Tactical Training Center in Arlington, Washington. Norpoint has a great facility about 40 minutes north of Seattle, with 18 indoor shooting lanes that will handle most pistols, rifles, and even shotguns. Gun Nuts will be using Norpoint as well to film video content for the Quest for Master Class and other upcoming projects. Gun Nuts will also be working with Norpoint on expanding their IDPA program and growing the vibrant (and unique) Indoor IDPA community here in Washington State.
I am personally excited to be working with Norpoint, and am looking forward to the development and growth that this will assist in bringing about here on Gun Nuts.
Instructor warfare
Todd at Pistol-Training.Com talks about about the problem of infighting withing the professional training community; he spotlights a specific example of a trainer/forum poster that attacks instructors whose schools he hasn’t he attended. I’m not qualified to speak to the instructor infighting specifically, but rather how that trend translates to the student community.
All instructors have fans; and it stands to reason that students will probably like a specific instructor more than other instructors, whether it’s based on personality, technique, or that student’s perceived gains in the class. That’s perfectly fine, since most people are smart enough to not get overly attached to a specific instructor. “Most people” however is not “all people”. What you’ll encounter in the student world is what Tam has called “My sensei can beat up your sensei”. You see this most frequently on gun forums in their “tactics/training” whatever section, where someone will post a class AAR, which will then be greeted with responses ranging from “that guy is a terrible trainer” to “you’re just a fanboy”. The problem with the student infighting is that it dilutes the message for prospective students trying to make an informed decision about where to go to gunschool.
My personal thought on what different schools you should go to is pretty straightforward: “There are many paths to the top of the mountain, and some are faster than others.” I believe that it’s extremely beneficial for me as the eternal student to “use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it” (Bruce Lee). That means that I want to be exposed to different trainers, different schools, and different ideas about shooting. From those schools and trainers I take what works for me and add that practice and discipline to my shooting growth. As a student, never be afraid to attend a different school. Say you took a Gunsite class and you really like their school of thought and the techniques they teach. Just because you liked Gunsite’s training doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a class from US Training Center or Pistol-Training.Com. Many ways to the top of the mountain, and each of us will take an individual path.
Choose your instructors wisely, and spend your training dollars well – but don’t be afraid to attend a class that teaches a different set of skills, or a different philosophy about shooting just because you really liked the Magpul class you took. I personally hope that I never stop learning new stuff about shooting and about my skill – as long as I’m learning, there is always room for improvement. Whether it’s developing mechanical skills or mindset, it will never hurt you as a shooter to try something new. If it works, keep it. If it doesn’t, don’t worry about it.
On the road next week
Next week on Gun Nuts, our content will be coming to you live from Gunsite Firearms Academy in Arizona! We’ll be down there courtesy of our good friends at Crimson Trace bringing you the news on the latest guns and gear from Colt, Galco, XS Sights, Crimson Trace, and more! AR15s, 1911s, low light training, and a host of other goodies will be featured next week on Gun Nuts, as well as a couple of big announcements about the future of the blog and what to expect from us going forward!
Do not miss out next week – if you want to see the hottest new 1911 from Colt, you’ll get it here first on Gun Nuts Media!
Sig 556 in 7.62×39
Details at the Firearm Blog on Sig’s upgrade to the 556 platform. Honestly, I’d buy one of those instead of an AK. Say for the moment that I really wanted a .30 caliber bullet to push, the Sig 556 has much better ergonomics than a standard AK, as it places the safety and magazine release in locations that can actually be reached by human hands.
Sci-Fi Gun Porn
Took a trip yesterday to the Sci-Fi Museum here in Seattle to celebrate the end of the election cycle. One of the neat things they have at the Sci-Fi Museum is a little wall called the Armory, which features weapons used in all manner of science fiction films and TV throughout the years. They also added a temporary Battlestar Galactica exhibit, based on the re-booted series that aired for 4 years on the Sci-Fi Channel. I do have to apologize for the crappy-to-average image quality. The iPhone camera wasn’t always up to the task.
First up we have probably one of the finest examples of prop weapons from films, The Morita Rifle used in Starship Troopers. 
The Morita represents a neat combo gun – unlike a lot of “prop” guns that you’ll see here that do nothing, the Morita was built from a Ruger Mini-14 action and an Ithica shotgun. In fact, several Moritas were built on Ruger AC556 rifles, which was the select fire variant of the Mini-14 seen most commonly in the A-Team. In the picture you see the common Morita rifle that was “standard issue” to the Mobile Infantry in Starship Troopers, as well as the only sniper variant rifle seen in the film (which would later be recreated in the low-budget sequels to Starship Troopers). Personally, I like it when prop guns are built on real, functional firearms. Another great example of this is the pistol used by Nathan Fillion in Firefly and Serenity. The external housing was mocked up to resemble a Remington revolver, however inside that housing is a fully functional Taurus M85 revolver. Pretty cool stuff, but one wonders why they didn’t put a Smith & Wesson in there.
One of the most memorable guns in sci-fi though is Rick Deckard’s gun from Blade Runner. This gun has been rebuilt in both functioning and non-functioning form by enthusiasts across the country, and even made a cameo appearance in the first two Fallout games (the only good Fallout games) as the .223 pistol, which in the first game was a ridiculously overpowered death-dealer. Seriously, put a bunch of points in to small guns and it’s critical hits to the eye all day long. Hilarious.
Of course, no list of sci-fi guns would be complete without the pistol seen repeatedly in Battlestar Galactica, which honestly looks like it should be in science fiction anyway.
The standard issue sidearm of the Colonial military in the film is the FN Five-seveN, usually outfitted with a cosmetic “grenade launcher” under the barrel. What’s interesting is that in the mini-series that launched the show, they didn’t have the Five-seveN and instead had to used gussied up reproduction LeMat revolvers. Sadly, the museum did not have one of those on display. Note that the prop Five-seveN gun has the large trigger guard, which was put on the FN pistol to make sure that users in cold weather could get a gloved finger in there to manipulate the trigger. I’m not going to lie, long term readers will know that I’ve had a thing for the 5.7×28 round and pistol combo for a long time, despite the fact that I can’t use it for competition and the ballistics indicate it’s not exactly a death ray out of a pistol. I don’t care, I still wish IDPA would add a “sub-caliber/PDW pistol” division or something so I could justify buying one.
Weapons play a huge role in sci-fi. Despite many authors trying to create utopian worlds in their science fiction universes, it always seems that the coolest sci-fi books and movies are the ones with cool guns and cool spaceships. Whether it’s Han Solo’s DL-44 in Star Wars, Zoe’s Mare’s Leg in Firefly, or the M41-A Pulse Rifle from Aliens us sci-fi/gun nerds will always have something awesome to entertain us.
Hot Shots Calendar
Each year in England the Edgar Brothers Police and Military Division, the UK importer of brands like Magpul, Crimson Trace, Surefire, etc produces their Hot Shots Calendar. This isn’t just any chicks and guns calendar though, because 50% of the proceeds from this calendar are donated to Help For Heroes, a UK charity dedicated to supporting their veterans and returning soldiers. If you’d like to help out our friends over the pond, you can click the image to go to their order page.
Also, here’s a behind the scenes look at the making of the Hot Shots 2011 Calendar. There’s even a freakin’ tank!