This was a big week for blogging anniversaries. Uncle turned 7, and Tam recorded her 2 millionth hit. Awesome.
Gun Nuts: Blogger show
A couple of programming notes about last night’s Gun Nuts Radio before you click that link: 1) there may or may not be 2 minutes of dead air at the beginning of the show. The reason for this is that we just upgraded to BTR’s Premium service, which allows us to use BTR’s native VOIP program to host the show – however, initially it wasn’t picking up gains from either of my two mikes, so we had some difficulties. We’ve replaced the “bad” show with an edited version, but BTR tells me it won’t be live and processed for at least another hour (it’s 0722 EDT as I write this).
Once we moved past the technical difficulties, the show itself was pretty fun. Robb Allen, The Nerds, Joe Huffman, and Kevin Baker all joined us, providing a fun rountable discussion that hit on favorite bloggers, shooting topics, and then finally on the one thing we’d like to see change about the way the industry interacts with bloggers. Click here for the show page to listen to the show, or if you’d prefer your Gun Nuts in .mp3 format your wish is my command.
A couple of things really stood out about last night’s Gun Nuts in the closing minutes, when we were talking about changes we’d like to see to industry: Robb pointed out that a lot of the smaller, newer companies such as Daniel Defense and Tactilite have been successful in reaching out to blogs and online publishing; partly because they’re smaller and more centralized, and partly because we’re more cost effective. In the chat, SayUncle pointed out that usually the industry is friendly to us, but they don’t exactly know how to leverage new media. Finally, Joe mentioned that he’d like to see bloggers put a more refined focus on their content.
What struck me is how neatly those three observations dovetailed. Think about it – say you’re a blogger that focuses exclusively on say, Ruger firearms products. In a perfect world, you’d be on the distribution list for press releases from Ruger, and people from Ruger would send you emails saying “hey, we have a sooper sekrit new gun coming out, be ready”, and that sort of thing. It allows Ruger to generate legitimate interest in their product, the blogger keeps a tight focus, and everyone is happy.
Definitely check out last night’s Gun Nuts Radio, it was a lot of fun and I’m pleased as punch at everyone who was able to make it on the show. If you’d like to pick up Gun Nuts on iTunes, you can go to the iTunes store and search for “Gun Nuts Radio”, or just click here for download instructions. Next week we’ll have Julie Golob on with us again, to talk about her latest project with USPSA!
Harry Reid, friend of gun owners?
Might not be so far-fetched. It seems that Harry’s pro-gun voting record is similar to a “very” pro-gun Senator.
Was that fast?
I thought that was fast, did you think that was fast? I can’t embed videos from the WordPress iPhone app, otherwise I would.
The video at the link is of the fastest mover I’ve ever seen, designed to simulate the Tueller drill. You’ll notice that the target crosses the distance to the shooter in about 3 seconds, and that the shooter manages to get 4 rounds off in 1.80 seconds. Assuming a 1 second draw, that means his average split was around 0.2 seconds, which is right in the ballpack for a High B/low A class shooter.
This stage also illustrates one of the reasons I don’t really believe in pepper spray for civilians – if you’re being charged, that’s how long you have to react, maybe three seconds. In that time you need to categorize the treat, decide what action to take (move, fight, move and fight, etc), and then execute that plan. All in less that three seconds. For the average person, that by itself is an incredibly complex decision tree, and adding another element to it will only increase the odds that they’ll hesitate.
The time spent buying that pepper spray would have been better spent going to a class, such as Mike Janich’s Martial Blade Concepts that teaches you to move off the line of attack. I think a lot of shooters watching that video want to take a sidestep as they draw to get out of that mover’s way.
I do not think that word means what you think it means
Dear media:
Please stop saying “epidemic” when you’re describing things that are not diseases.
A Masters in 1911ology
I once spent 13 hours in a car with Tam, where I learned more about 1911 pistols than I knew in my entire life before that. She shares some additional 1911 knowledge in the most recent Gun School post.
Unlike Tam, I’m a fan of a properly fitted extended slide stop on 1911s, but that’s because I have itty bitty hands.
Gun Nuts Blogger Throwdown
Don’t worry, tonight’s Gun Nuts Radio won’t actually involve a throwdown of any type. Rather, you’ll find Breda and me wrangling a select group of bloggers: the Atomic Nerds, Robb Allen, and my action shooting nemesis, Joe Huffman. One of the great things about the blogging community is the ability to network and discuss current issues. Tonight, our topics for discussion will be the impact of new media on the shooting industry and shooting sports, as well as a fun little Q&A session with our guests.
The show goes live at 9pm Eastern time at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts, and you’ll be able to join in and talk to your favorite bloggers by calling 347-539-5436. Join us tonight, live at 9pm Eastern time!
Ahab's Revenge
I mentioned the upcoming Indiana IDPA State Championship last week in a post to encourage shooters from Indiana to register and represent our home state. I wanted to give you guys an update about that: there is now going to be a stage at the State Match designed by yours truly and entitled “Ahab’s Revenge”. When the stages are officially released I’ll post it here so you can see the kind of fun you’ll be having at the Indiana IDPA State Championship. Just to give you a little taste: lots of hostages to shoot, lots of shooting and scooting. This is a stage that I’m proud of, because looking at the finished product I can sit back with pride and say “man, people are going to HATE this.”
There are two kinds of hate though for stages. The first kind is the bad kind, where people hate stages because they’re poorly designed and ambiguous. The second kind is the good kind, where people hate stages because they challenge their shooting skills and make them think with a gun in their hands. Hopefully, if we do our jobs right, this stage will bring the second kind of hate – because I want people to think it’s hard, but to still have fun.
Colt M4 Tactical Rimfire
Jim at The Shooting Wire has a go around with Colt’s new M4 style rimfire carbine. I’ve seen a couple of these in the wild now, and they look pretty neat, but Jim identifies the main reason why I wouldn’t buy one:
While the rifle is a very close approximation of the Colt M4, it is not an exact replica. The major difference you’ll notice at first blush is the safety. The M4 is a short throw safety- the .22 version needs to be rotated 180 degrees to move either from safe to fire. It’s not a huge thing, but it’s definitely different.
The main reason I’d buy one of these would be to use it as a lower cost training platform for my “real” AR, my Daniel Defense DDXV. The safety should have the exact same throw on a training rifle as it does on the real thing, so that relegates the Colt to “nice plinking rifle”. I’m not down on it, and I’m not knocking its prowress as a gun, but as a training platform the safety switch is a big issue.
Ammo is really back
I was at Meier yesterday, and they had a reasonable supply of ammo, 115 gr 9mm, .38 Special, .40 S&W, and even a lonely box of .45 ACP. That’s my bar for the return of ammo, when you can find it at the “big box non-sporting goods stores.” I didn’t go to Wal-Mart, because I don’t buy ammo at Wal-Mart.