news

Lawsuit against Bushmaster dismissed

Posted on by Caleb

Many people remember the DC “Sniper” shootings back in 2002, where two deranged killers used a modified car and a Bushmaster rifle to murder several people before being caught by police.  The rifle itself was stolen from a gun shop in the Seattle area, whose FFL was actually revoked and that ended up settling with the families of the victims during the lawsuit.  Bushmaster was also sued by the families, however yesterday the suit was correctly dismissed under the Protection of Lawful Commerce Act.

What a lot of people don’t understand about the PLCA is that it doesn’t protect a company if they acted negligently, for example the gun shop was negligent in failing to account for a missing rifle and report that rifle missing.  Bushmaster however was not negligent for selling the rifle to the gun shop, because that’s where their participation ended.  It’s all pretty straightforward, and it’s nice to see the Protection Act being used for its correct purpose.

Uncategorized

So, Sarah Palin resigned

Posted on by Caleb

I mostly agree with Uncle about this, and you can read his thoughts here.

http://www.saysuncle.com/2009/07/06/palin-quits/

I was always taken aback by the vehemence with which the media attacked her and her family. Not knowing all the details of why she resigned, I don’t particularly have any comments on that issue itself, just idle musings on the circus that always seemed to surround her.

Uncategorized

Not all is lost

Posted on by Caleb

In the post below this I mentioned that I am a little disappointed about not being able to compete in Steel Challenge this year. That’s not to say that I won’t be shooting any majors – I’m locked in for at least 2, the Indiana State IDPA championship, the Tri-State Regional in TN, and there are a few others I would like to get to. The challenge is right now keeping everything within a reasonable driving distance, and no weeklong events which get cost prohibitive unless I find ways to cover those expenses.

In no particular order, the matches I’m thinking about shooting this year, time and money willing are: Indiana State Steel Championship, Wheelgunner’s Revenge in Michigan, and the Maryland Regional Action Pistol Championship. The Wheelgunner’s Revenge is two weeks from now, which means if I’m going to shoot it I had better start asking Mrs. Ahab right now. Of course, because it’s so close in time, attendance is unlikely, but I can certainly try.

The NRA Action Pistol match in Maryland is a bit more likely, as it’s a two day match well within reasonable driving distance. If I start practicing now, I might be in good shape by the time the match gets here.

Assuming for the moment that I shoot 2 of my three “hopeful” matches, plus the two IDPA championships I’m committed to, that would mean in my first 12 months of serious competitive shooting I would have shot in 7 major matches. Not bad, I suppose. It remains to be seen how many of those matches result in me carrying away a trophy.

shooting/sports

S&W sponsors Steel Challenge

Posted on by Caleb

Smith and Wesson released a presser today saying that they’re going to be sponsoring Steel Challenge this year.  In addition to sponsoring Pendulum (one of the stages) they’ll also be the official sponsor of the Optical Revolver, Iron Sight Revolver, and Women’s division.  Those are probably the most obvious divisions for S&W to sponsor, and if I have to explain why then I don’t know what to do with you.

I’m actually a little bummed out about this though – not because it’s a bad thing, because it isn’t.  S&W has shown a tremendous commitment and dedication to the shooting sports, both in increasing participation from shooters and winning piles of trophies.  No, my sadness comes from the fact that I just found out I’m not going to be able to make it to Steel Challenge this year – which was something I’d had my heart set on doing, but the time just isn’t there.  That bums me out because I was looking forward to seeing some of the people I had met at Bianchi Cup again; and on top of that the opportunity to test my skills again on the national playing field.  I suppose that “these things, they happen” is the best attitude to have, and that I can start planning now for the 2010 match.

Back to the good news though – S&W sponsoring the World Championships is indeed good news.  I’m always, always pleased to see more funds and money being put in the shooting sports, as it helps keep our sport vibrant and growing.  Like I’m always saying, the reason I do everything I do around the shooting sports is that I want to keep doing this when I’m old, and the only way to be sure that happens is to spend money and get more shooters involved.

IDPA/revolvers

After the match report

Posted on by Caleb

This past 4th of July weekend, I shot my first IDPA match with my new S&W 625, which was a very education experience.  On the very first stage I shot, I completely forgot I was shooting a revolver, so my first six shots sounded like “bangbang-bangbang-bangbang-click-@*&#!”, which the RO found pretty humorous.  I ended up not finishing too poorly, ending up second out of the wheelgun shooters.

Pros:

  1. Reloads were generally pretty good actually – the time I’d spent slinging moonclips at the cylinder paid off for the most part.  The worst reload I had was when a moonclip bound up on the grip.
  2. Target transitions weren’t too bad either.  The 625 weighs approximately 1 million pounds, but the nice thing about that all that weight is that it swings pretty fast once you get it going.

Cons:

  1. My trigger control was pretty rough.  There were more than a couple shots where I could tell that I didn’t have an even press through the trigger and that resulted in bullets not going where I wanted them to go.
  2. Sights.  It was slightly overcast on Saturday (and actually started raining), and the “black on black” sight picture was actually pretty hard to pick up.  I need to either a) buy a punch from Brownells, or b) just take the rig to a gunsmith and have them put that new HiViz sight on the gun.

The biggest thing that I need to do is practice with the gun.  Certain actions that are “automatic” with a 1911 haven’t yet reached that point with a revolver, including reloads.  That stuff is just a matter of time and practice though, because since August of last year I’ve fired over 50,000 rounds through semi-automatic pistols and done countless reload and presentation drills.  The advantage of the wheelgun over the semi-auto in the “practice” arena is that I can simulate everything about a course of fire except for recoil all the comfort of my own home.  I see lots of dry firing in my future.

ammo

A little help

Posted on by Caleb

I am hoping (two fingers crossed here) that someone out there in blog land can point me in the direction of a large supply of a very specific round of ammo: Magtech .40 S&W 160 grain lead semi-wadcutter.  While not a very popular round for autochuckers since Glocks don’t like lead bullets and other pistols in .40 struggle with the semi-wadcutter, I’ve shot this round out of a friend’s 610 before, and it’s absolutely the berries for shooting revolvers in .40.  It’s available on MidwayUSA, but there’s no “bulk purchase” option, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay $26 p/50 rounds plus shipping and handling.

So if anyone knows a shop, or if you’ve got a shop and are sitting on a stack of this stuff, shoot me an email and we’ll work out a fair price for it.  In the next few months I plan on consuming stacks and stacks of .40 ammo…so I’m looking for a good supply of this particular round.

Hoosier/IDPA

Hey Hoosiers

Posted on by Caleb

Want to celebrate the 4th in a truly patriotic fashion?  Swing out to Atlanta CC tomorrow for a little “Independence Day Pistol Association” (IDPA) action. We’ve got shambling looters, a shotgun stage (!?!?!), moving, and more reloads than you can shake a stick at. I’ll be there with my new 625 trying to not make a fool of myself trying to reload this thing in a hurry.

You know, speaking of the revolver, I have learned one thing with my training regimen, and that’s to SLOW DOWN. The problem that I’ve been having is that I want to be able to reload that as fast as I can jam another mag into a single stack gun, but that’s just not going to happen. However, when I slow down and focus on getting everything done the same way every time, I generally tend to have a lot better runs. Not Jerry Miculek fast, but fast enough to get the job done for now. Plus, the advantage of slowing down is that I don’t build bad habits…I hope.

However, the moral of the story is “come shoot IDPA with us” tomorrow. Registration opens at 0930, and safety meeting is at 0945 – you have to be there for the safety meeting if you want to shoot, no exceptions. We made an exception last month, and the result was we let someone shoot who did not have their “mind right” when it came to safety. However, if you show up at 0930, listen to the ROs, and try to have fun, then we’ll all have a good time and get some blasting done on the 4th of July. Who needs fireworks anyway? We’ve got guns.