So I can buy one of these: Replica full rock and roll M1a Thompson clone. That is just too cool for school.
Ah, the gold old days
I’ve been kind of rolling back some early-to-mid 90’s gun nostalgia recently, primarly because they’ve been showing Lethal Weapon and Reservoir Dogs on TV a bunch lately. Man, those were the days. Everyone’s running around with DA/SA autos, Berettas and 3rd Gen S&W guns are just all over the place. In Lethal Weapon, Mel’s packing his Beretta 92, and in the third installment of the series, even Danny Glover is seen with a 3rd Gen S&W.
Of course Reservoir Dogs is notable in that everyone is packing monster 5906 semi-autos around, back when S&W made them with the giant winged rear sight. Other “great” (term used subjectively) 90s action movies primarily featured DA/SA autos as well. This list is by no means inclusive, but that’s what comments are for!
- Die Hard 1, 2, 3 – Bruce Willis is packing a Beretta 92 in all three of the original Die Hard movies.
- Bad Boys – Will Smith carries a Sig P226 as his “main gun”, with a P232 in .380 as a backup gun. His partner spends the movie lugging a 3rd Gen S&W auto around as well.
- While not a 90’s film or show, in The Shield Michael Chicklis’ character carries an S&W 4506 for the duration of the first few seasons. It’s a monster of a horse pistol, but it looks SOOOO COOOOOL.
There really isn’t a rational explanation for why I get all sized up for DA/SA autos – maybe it’s because I cut my teeth in the shooting sports when the DA/SA gun was the gun for law enforcement, and you couldn’t visit a major metro area PD without seeing holsters full of Berettas, SIGs, and stainless 3rd Gen S&W autos. These days, law enforcement has by and large switched to striker fired guns, with Glocks running away with the market.
The advantage to that is if you’re looking for a reliable defensive pistol, you can find police trade ins and lightly used 3rd Gen S&W autos and Beretta for ridiculously low prices. Summit GunBroker has stacks and stacks of 5906s for $315 a piece, which is a phenomenal price for that gun. The neat thing about the 3rd Gen Smith guns is how fantastically accurate they are. BJ Norris shot a 5906 at Bianchi Cup in Production Division because the gun locks up at both the front and the rear of the barrel, making it very inherently accurate. If you can find one of the TSW series guns, those will produce mechanical accuracy much better than the $400-500 they usually command used, because the slide and barrel went through the machining process as a unit at the factory. That means that instead of making 100 slides and 100 barrels and just grabbing whichever, the TSW guns had “barrel x for slide x”, providing another mechanism for enhancing accuracy.
Maybe I just think Glocks are soulless, or maybe I’m pining for the heady days of the Wondernine Wars, but for whatever reason, I still get all tingly over Berettas, Sigs, and those stainless 3rd Gen autos.
Hope and change!
Abigail Thernstrom on Sotomayor:
Sotomayor will replace another reliable liberal, Justice David Souter, and so the ideological balance on the court will not change. And yet, perhaps as a consequence of her implicit embrace of quotas and identity politics, she has come to the Senate hearings with public support that is unusually low; only 47 percent of Americans say they want her confirmed, a recent CNN poll found.
The column is worth a read, as it provides an excellent examinator of the politics of race behind her confirmation, without the usual histrionics we’ve been seeing from a lot of the right-wing pundits lately.
Gun Nuts: Big badda-boom
That’s right guys and girls, tonight’s Gun Nuts Radio is all about the .50 BMG! Live as usual at 9pm Eastern time, tonight’s show will include special guest Michael Brendzel of Zel Custom Manufacturing, makers of the new Tactilite AR15 upper in .50 BMG.
Breda and I will also be covering the usual gun related news and blogger info tonight, so don’t miss the show. We go live at 9pm Eastern time, and you can join the podcast by visiting www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts – it’s where all the action happens!
Mata Gallina
Sebastian orders his custom shop chicken killer in honor of the VPC and Brady Campaign.
EOTAC Mechanic Shirt
As someone that regularly carries a concealed firearm, I’m always looking for an effective way to conceal that firearm without obviously printing or otherwise broadcasting that I’m carrying a gun. One of the most effective concealment options for hot weather has been wearing a photographer style vest, such as those made by EOTAC that are common for IDPA matches. The problem with the tactical, or “Shoot me first” vests is that you don’t often see people rolling around the local mall wearing photographer’s vests; so it makes it more difficult to “blend in”.
However, the latest product from EOTAC is something that interests me. Their new “mechanic-style” shirt offers practical concealment without sacrificing style or hanging out a sign that says “hey, I have a GUN under this TACTICAL! VEST!” Additionally, the new mechanic’s shirt comes in a small, which is an option that wasn’t available for the vests, making finding one to fit my diminutive frame somewhat difficult.
It is nice to see tactical style clothing made for the CCW holder and off-duty law enforcement that doesn’t completely toss style to the wind. While I imagine that style may not be that big of a concern to some of you, for us metro-tactical guys, it’s important that we look good!
Note: As I write this, EOTAC’s website is being violently pwnd, so I’m just going to link you to the presser in The Tactical Wire.
Daniel Defense DDXV carbine
After about a week’s worth of work, I am extremely excited to announce that readers of GunNuts.Net and listeners of Gun Nuts Radio are going to get an exclusive “first look” at the new Daniel Defense DDXV AR 15 pattern carbine. If you recall, the DDXV was recently announced by Daniel Defense as an addition to their line of AR pattern rifles. You can read the original post by clicking here, just to get an idea of what this rifle is all about.
GunNuts should be receivingour evaluation gun in the next two weeks, so you’ll want to keep checking back for updates!
Sotomayor hearings begin today
It’s all over the news that the confirmation hearings for Obama’s first Supreme Court appointment begin today. I think it’s painfully obvious that she’s no friend to gun owners, and certainly no friend to your Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. What remains to be seen is whether or not the Senate will actually ask tough questions, or if they’re going throw her a succession of softball pitches.
Now, I am not really fired up about this issue…yet. Mainly because Sotomayor is the replacement for a liberal Justice, in terms of the balance of the Court, gun owners are not necessarily loosing that much ground with her appointment. However, if it comes out during her confirmation hearings that she’s rabidly anti-gun and anti-incorporation, you can bet I’m going to be fired up about this.
Single Stack Recap
Atlanta Conservation Club held their first Single Stack & Production USPSA match yesterday (yes Tam, yesterday was my birthday) so I headed out to Atlanta to do some shooting with the ParaUSA LTC Gun Blog 9mm. Now, shooting a 9mm in Single Stack has two side effects: 1) you have to be more accurate but just as fast, because you’re shooting Minor as opposed to Major; 2) people will call you a girl.
The fact that you’re shooting Minor has a trade-off though, in that you’re allowed to put more bullets in the gun – so a Single Stack gun shooting Major is capped at 8+1, but shooting Minor you’re capped at 10+1. This changes the reload strategy for people shooting Minor, and depending on the stage layout allows you to shoot more without having to reload. This particular match had pretty “obvious” reload points though, so gaming out the reloads for Minor didn’t really grant a competitive advantage.
The match itself was fun, and also kind of weird – a lot of the stages were reminiscent of IDPA-type scenario stages. On the first stage, you had to shoot one handed while transporting a heavy package from point A to point B, and somehow reload without breaking the 180 or sweeping yourself. I shot this stage clean for points, but took too much time to do it, so my hit factor was pretty low. The next stage was shooting through a barrel at 4 steel targets and 4 paper targets – I was clean on this stage as well, but too slow again so my hit factor wasn’t where I needed it to be.
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| From 07-12-2009 Single Stack |
There’s one of our shooters going through the barrel at the far corner targets.
There were a couple of pretty standard USPSA style stages, which I did alright on, but then the stage where I really let it all out was on the stage called Breakout. The set up for this stage is that you were handcuffed around a post with your gun in front of you. Here’s the RO putting the cuffs on the shooter, and the shooter’s hand position so you can see the bracelets.
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| From 07-12-2009 Single Stack |
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| From 07-12-2009 Single Stack |
On this stage, my small stature was actually an advantage, as I had much less trouble maneuvering around the pole while shooting the COF, and managed to take full match points on this stage among Single Stack shooters. I finished 4th out of the Single Stack shooters, and 5th in the unofficial combined match results, which really isn’t to bad considering I never really felt like I was “in the zone” the entire match.
It was nice to get out and shoot a gun other than a revolver – I’ve been spending a lot of time putting rounds through revolvers lately, so the transition back to a single action gun was actually quite easy.
Next week I start training for the Maryland NRA Action Pistol Championship – I’ve got a month to practice, and my goal is to improve the score I shot at Bianchi Cup. I want to get into the 1500-1600s at this match, and with the lessons learned from Bianchi, I think it’s a reasonable goal.
This should be fun
Today is a day of feasting and celebration know throughout the world, and in honor of the joyous day I’m going to head out to the range at Atlanta Conservation Club and shoot a Single Stack match. I plan on running the Gun Blog 9mm, which means I will be shooting minor instead of major like the cool kids. There is a strategic advantage in shooting minor though, because unlike in Limited or Limited-10, in Single Stack division guns shooting minor get to put more BBs in the magazine. Guns shooting Major are capped at 8+1 rounds, whereas Minor guns are capped at 10+1. The trade off is that you don’t score as many points for B and C hits with a Minor gun as you do with a Major gun, which means you need to be more accurate.
This will be my first Single Stack match at ACC, so we’ll see how I do. I tend to shoot the Gun Blog 9 very well, as lightweight Commander sized guns seem to fit my personal style. No matter what happens, it should be a fun day!