From NRA:
SB1113 AZ Restaurant Carry passed the Senate 19-8 at approximately 6AM Phoenix time and will be transmitted to the governor. She has 10 days (not counting Sundays) to sign or veto it
Cool.
My first Performance Center gun is on the way
A while back I was debating whether or not I should get an S&W 627 in .357 or .38 Super. Being the gunspaz that I am, I ended up getting neither, because I saw a GunBroker auction for a Performance Center 646, an L-framed gun in .40 SW. I ended up getting this gun because it’s a bit lighter than the N-framed 627, and it allows me to make use of my existing stock of .40 ammo, including my beloved “light 40” load for ICORE and Steel.
The downside is that because it’s a PC gun, I can’t shoot it in Production Division for Bianchi Cup…but what I can do is find one of the non-PC 646 guns and shoot that in Production. I’m so excited I just can’t stand waiting.
A year of Gun Nuts Radio
We mentioned it in passing on the show last night, but Gun Nuts Radio officially hit its 1 year anniversary last year. It’s neat for me to see how far the show has grown in just a year. Compare the stats from the very first show on the 24th of June, 2008 to the “average” Gun Nuts Radio broadcast now.
First show
Live listeners: 16
Downloads: 426
iTunes DL: 0 (we didn’t have iTunes integration back then)
Average June 2009 Show
Live listeners: 119
Downloads: 1572
iTunes DL: 453
That means that the average episode of Gun Nuts Radio pulls down 2100+ listeners every Tuesday night, almost 5 times our “first show” numbers. I call 500% listener growth in a year a pretty solid number. In that year, we’ve had some great shows as well. If I had to pick a favorite show (that’s like picking a favorite child!) it would probably have to the be the show we did with Tom Hughes of NRA about NRA Action Pistol. It was incredibly enjoyable to talk to Tom, and to get a feel for what NRA had in mind for Action Pistol and the Bianchi Cup.
Our highest rated show is kind of a surprise – it’s the “Better Shooting through Science” episode, which has received a whopping 5k+ downloads via BTR and iTunes. Not far behind is our show with Gordon Hutchinson, author of The New Orleans Gun Grab. If you click in to listen to that show with Gordon, make sure you pick up a copy of his book from the Amazon.com sponsored link as well in the show page.
It’s been a great year for Gun Nuts Radio. We’ve had tremendous growth and now have established a positive and loyal base of listeners…which means it’s time to start moving on to the next level that I have planned for the show. Not quite world domination, but I want to significantly broaden our market exposure and grab more listeners. My goal is to have 1000 live listeners per show by this time in 2010 – but I need your help. Tell your friends, tell other gunnies about us: Tuesday nights at 9pm Eastern at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts!
Last Night on Gun Nuts Radio
It was all about America, with a dose of lawn care, listener mail, and some good old fashioned humor thrown it. As usual, I very much enjoyed doing last night’s show, as it gave me an opportunity to hear from you guys why exactly you’re still proud to be an American, even in times like these. Because make no mistake, I am proud to be an American, and I’m proud of my American heritage. To hear what other folks said about how kickass the USA is, click here for the show page. If you’d like to download the .mp3 file of the show, click this link for a downloadable version.
I was a little surprised how long it took people to start calling in though – last week when we asked you to complain about the feds, the response was instant and overwhelming. Then last night, we said “yeah, our government sucks right now, but what do you think is awesome about America”, I had to browbeat ya’ll into calling in. To everyone who called in, thank you. To the people reading this that have never called in (and there are a lot of you), give it a try! We’d love to have you join us live even for just a few minutes. The ability to connect with out listeners is what makes the show such a joy for both of us.
Here are some of the best answers as to why America is still awesome:
- The 2nd Amendment
- American Individual Ingenuity
- Freedom to say government sucks
- “The Next Election”
- And many many great examples
I think one of my personal favorites was that one our listeners pointed out we’d had a contested election in 2000, and a hotly contested race in 2008, and yet it was pretty much “business as usual”. In other countries, these sorts of things often turn themselves to shooting wars, but here we just held out collective stuff together and went on with life.
I think if I were going to summarize last night’s show in three words, it would be pretty simple: America…f*** yeah.
Another Scout Rifle idea
So, when I was thinking about rifles, Shooting Buddy asked me about the possibility of doing a scout rifle “on the cheap” so to speak, by converting a mil-surp rifle to a scout configuration. Aside from the fact that I couldn’t get one in .223, it’s actually not a bad idea. If I were going to do it, I’d use one of two rifles: either the Schmidt-Rubin K31 or one of the jillion Yugo 24/47 Mausers out there.
The K31 would be my first choice because it’s just soooo sexay – those Swiss could sure build a neat gun, and with Prvi Partisan loading factory new ammo for it, you can actually shoot the darn thing for a reasonable price. The 7.5mm Swiss round falls in between the .308 NATO and .30’06 in terms of hitting power, making a good round for the “true” Scout concept.
The Mauser isn’t a bad idea either, if for no other reason that you’d be hard pressed to find a more reliable action than the ’98 Mauser. Like Tam said, an avil may be more reliable, but it depends on the anvil. The big benefit to the Yugo Mauser is that you can buy 673 of them for a reasonable price and a boatload of surplus 8mm ammo and go whack your shoulder all day long, all day strong. Plus, the 8mm round the Yugo guns chamber will pretty much kill anything on legs in North America, although I would not be excited about taking after bears in Alaska with them (but then again, I wouldn’t be excited about bears in Alaska with anything shy of a field gun).
The more I think about this though, the Yugo Mauser might be a better idea. Due to their popularity in the C&R market, there is a decent cottage industry of aftermarket parts available for them, and like I said, you can get a lot of ammo for not a lot of money.
Gun Nuts Tonight: America, F*** Yeah!
Last week, if you listened to the show, you know that we had about a 30 minute bit where our listeners called in and told us what was pissing them off about the government. Tonight’s show, at least in part is going to be the exact opposite of that – we’re going to talk about what you think makes America the most awesome country on earth, despite all her flaws. We’re also going to be reading some of the pile of email that I’ve gotten from listeners – you guys and gals have asked me a lot of questions in email, and it’s high time that you got a response on air. That’s live tonight at 9pm Eastern time at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts. Tonight we want you to call in and join us: 347-539-5436 to tell us what you think is great about this fine nation in which we live.
We have a pretty solid line up of shows coming up in the next few months – as I slowly try to corral my herd of cats into a coherent line-up you’re going to be hearing about some of these shows as we get them. Keep it on BlogTalkRadio for the best in political and shooting sports information!
Lead ammo ban
A recent report issued by the California Department of Fish and Game shows that levels of lead in the blood of California Condors is “inconclusive”. Gosh, it’s almost like the lead ammo ban in California was just a stunt to drive up the cost of hunting and push more shooters and sportsmen out of the state.
NSSF has more in their official press release.
“The problem all along with linking the use of traditional ammunition and the health of the California condor has been lack of conclusive scientific evidence that justifies banning ammunition containing lead components,” said Steve Sanetti, president and CEO of NSSF, trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry. “This report only serves to support industry’s position that the ban is unwarranted.”
Now, I don’t exactly expect the California legislature to run out and reverse the lead ammo ban, but maybe someday the people of California will get tired of the clownshow in Sac-Town ruining their state and do something about it. That happens and I’d move back there in a heartbeat.
More on reloading revolvers
I have never “had” to reload to revolvers fast. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’m learning the new motor skills required to do this in hurry – however I’m taking advantage of a lot of expert advice I’ve acquired in the process. The one thing I have learned though is that “fine motor skills” are the enemy of speed at least during the learning process. When I was exclusively shooting semi-auto pistols, if I had to do a slide lock reload, the only “fine” motor skill that had to be used was my weak hand thumb hitting the slide release to chamber the round. I didn’t use the “over the top” method, because it was about 0.02 seconds slower; but more importantly because a Bo-Mar sight will eat your hand up if you slip doing the “over-the-top” slide release.
But back to revolvers for the moment. I spend about 10-20 minutes each evening just throwing a moon clip full of .45 ACP snap caps in the cylinder of my 625 and then bringing the gun back on line to shoot. Of the three methods of reloading that I’ve tried, there isn’t one that is clearly “better”. The Miculek method of thumbing out the empties with your weak hand, and then holding the gun in your weak hand while slinging a .45 ACP moon clip in the cylinder makes my hands get all tangled up, the “Classic” method is really slow, and The Ahab Reload I talked about yesterday doesn’t stabilize the cylinder as well as the Miculek method.
I did actually see the Ahab reload used in competition though – I was watching my DVR’d ShootingUSA from the USPSA Nationals (I know, it’s like 2 weeks old) and one of the revolver shooters they used in an establishing shot uses the method I’ve been practicing…although it looked like he tossed the moonclip in from about 100 feet away from the cylinder. I guess I’ll just keep annoying my wife with the constant “clicking” of the cylinder locking in place for the time being.
One other thought to remember if you’re trying to learn a new skill is that only good practice helps – when I find myself starting to get frustrated and tired of the gun, or I start thinking about turning the moonclip into a satellite, it’s time to put the gun down and go read PJ O’Rouke or something.
Why I don't go to Chicago
Tam explains Indiana’s pistol carry laws, which are weird to say the least.
http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2009/06/toters-permits-in-indiana.html
I’d guess it’s because John Dillenger probably once carried a loaded and concealed pistol without a permit. In all seriousness, Illinois’ lack of reciprocity with Indianastan is why I don’t go to Chicago. I have a very good friend that lives up there, but as long as Illinois and Chicago criminalize actions that are legal in 48 out of 50 states they won’t see a dime of my money. I may not be able to change Chicago politics, but I can deny them my money.
Combatives, MMA, gun games and warrior-wannabes
About a million years ago in internet time, I used to frequent a forum that was frequently involved in forum wars with Bullshido, due to in a large part the fact that the population of Bullshido is composed largely of martial artists that train for MMA competition. The members of the other forum were generally all believers in “reality based self-defense” which is a tacticool way of saying “eye gouges and dick punches”, also sometimes referred to as “combatives”. The combatives guys would often say that they didn’t believe in contact sparring because you couldn’t use their techniques without seriously maiming or injuring someone, and the MMA guys from Bullshido would say that if you’re training for a fight, you might want to actually suit up and get hit.
By now you can probably see where I’m going with this, because I’ve seen similar arguments played out on this very website between “gun gamers” like me, and people who think that if you’re practicing for COMBAT! then playing games is going to get you killed; because in USPSA you’re not being shot at, etc. This parallel has gotten me to wondering idly if the warriorz guys in the gun community think that training for MMA fighting is useless in a self defense context, and if the combatives guys think that IDPA, ICORE, IPSC, et al are useless in a self defense context. Of course, you still probably won’t get one of the combatives guys to suit up in the ring against Brock Lesnar, and you won’t see the warriorz guys at a run-‘n-gun match, so I guess we’ll never actually be able to objectively test their skills. Must be tough being so deadly that you can’t play with your friends.