IDPA/revolvers

New Gun

Posted on by Caleb

My new S&W 625 showed up yesterday, and I’m very excited about getting this gun out to the range for some IDPA practice.  It’s not the JM special edition pictured on S&W’s website, which means I’m going to have to do a little bit of work on it to make it “better” for a competition IDPA revolver.  I snagged a quick picture with my crackberry this morning.

From Gun Nuts: The Next Generation

In it’s standard configuration, it still has the “black on black” sight picture, and the godawfulhuge factory wood S&W grips on it. Those wood grips fully enclose the backstrap of the gun, making the trigger reach even longer – and everyone knows that the N-frame already has a pretty long reach. The trigger is heavy, but it’s smooth. There isn’t any grit in the take up, and the break is even and predictable.

As far as modifications go, I’m actually not going to do that much to it. I’m going to change the stocks to an open backstrap set of Pachmayr grips, which will reduce the length I have to reach for the trigger pull and allow me to get a better “high hands” grip on the gun. I’m also going to swap out the front sight for a Hi-Viz fiber optic, and that is pretty much it. I might get the charge holes chamfered, but that’s down the road a bit. This is going to be my primary IDPA gun for a while as I learn this whole “revolver” thing, so my practice is going to be on developing the muscle memory and motor skills necessary to reload this gun in a hurry. Right now, “glacially slow” about describes my skill.

news

Dear Outdoor Channel

Posted on by Caleb

I love you guys, I really do.  But you know what I hate?  That I can’t watch your shows online.  Think for a second about the number of “gun people” who don’t have cable, or don’t have a provider that carries the Outdoor Channel.  If Comcast ever decided to drop Outdoor Channel, I’d have no way to watch a good 2.5 hours of shooting sports shows on Wednesday night.

My point, beloved Outdoor Channel, is that you need to get your shows online.  There are a number of ways that your shows can be broadcast online, and the best part is because you’re showing everything to an increased audience, you can charge more for advertising.  In all seriousness though, it is kind of ridiculous that if I want to train using the “Protips” from Shooting USA, I have to read a transcript of it, instead of just hopping over to Youtube and watching it.

rifles

Thinking about rifles

Posted on by Caleb

For whatever reasons, I spend a decent amount of my mental free time (different from actual free time) thinking about guns.  I know that probably comes as a shock to you guys, but it’s true.  Lately, I’ve been thinking about rifles, and especially bolt action rifles.  Me with a bolt action gun may seem a bit incongruous, with my known love of GOING FAST, but I’ve always preferred bolt guns to semi-automatic rifles. They just feel more natural, I suppose. Obviously, you’re not going to win any 3 gun matches with a bolt action rifle, but if you do want to compete with it there is always the option of doing long range matches.

However, what I’ve been thinking of for a bolt action rifle is a bit like Jeff Cooper’s concept of a Scout Rifle, except with a few minor twists. I’d like to have the reduced weight and forward optics of a scout-type rifle, but in 5.56 NATO/.223 Remington instead of .308. Sure, you lose some terminal ballistics, but the reduction in weight and felt recoil make the gun even better for humping around the horrible post-apocalyptic hellscape. Now, what I’d really like would be for the gun to accept NATO magazines. A bolt action .223 that feeds from standard AR style magazines would be the berries for a defensive carry rifle. Since everyone seems to be talking about how the world/economy/social order is going to collapse soon (it’s not) I figured the best rifle for that collapse would be a bolt action .223 with an 18 inch barrel, forward mounted optic, back up iron sights, and the ability to feed from standard AR15 magazines.  CZ-USA makes the closest approximation I’m going to find on the commercial market, the CZ-527 Carbine in .223 or 7.62×39.  It’s pretty much exactly what I had in mind, save for the fact that I don’t think it takes NATO magazines.

USPSA

Bob Vogel wins Area-5 Championship

Posted on by Caleb

The Indiana State Sectional Match is often considered a warm-up for the bigger area championships, and that held true for Bob Vogel.  Coming off his his commanding win at the Indiana State Match, his double title at the USSA Pro-Am in Open and Limited, Bob has now claimed his six or seventh title this year by winning the Limited-10 Division at the Area 5 Championships.  Bob beat out Max Michel by 31 points for the Limited-10 division championship.

In Production Division, Dave Sevigny captured the title, claiming his bajillionth major Production Division win – seriously, he’s that good.  For a full table of the results check out this link at USPSA’s website.  Congratulations to all the winners, and to Bob Vogel and Dave Sevigny in particular.

Uncategorized

Gun Nuts Radio: The Hater edition

Posted on by Caleb

I warned you not to miss last night’s show, but unless you were one of the 200 live listeners, you failed to heed that warning.  It was in short, a GREAT show.  The first half hour or so was dedicated to wailing on AHSA – we talked about where their money is coming from, who exactly is involved with the organization, and why they appear to be trying to clean up their image.  We even had a call from Ray Schoenke*, who confessed on air that he is enemies with NRA**.  Don’t believe me?  You can click here to visit the show page.  If you’d rather have the show in “take it with you” .mp3 format, that’s an option as well – just click here for an .mp3 of last night’s awesome show.

AHSA wasn’t the only target in our gun sights though – the last 30 minutes or so of the show was dedicated to taking callers, and letting our listeners tell us exactly “what is pissing you off about the government right now”.  In addition to being a very cathartic experience, it was also a lot of fun to host, and a lot of fun to listen to.  Our very first caller nailed it when he said “An easier question might be what isn’t pissing me off about government right now”; a sentiment which was echoed in the chat room.

I say this every week, but if you’re not listening to the show live, you’re missing one of the best components of the show – the live chat and video interface.  The chat room is a pretty vibrant and active place, with 50+ users on a regular basis all chiming in their opinions on the topic at hand, and sometimes topics that aren’t at hand.  The dynamic nature of the chat and the show is what makes the live experience such a blast.  Of course, you can always download the shows, because 9pm Eastern isn’t the best time for everyone.  You can still get the show on iTunes as well, either by going to the iTunes store and searching for “Gun Nuts Radio”, or by clicking this link for instructions.

One of the big announcements on the show was the Gun Nuts Charity Auction, which will be held sometime around Christmas this year.  Proceeds from the auction are going to go to benefit the Honored American Veterans Afield program.  We already have a couple of sponsors on board who have donated items for the auction, and in the time in between now and the actual auction date, expect to see the official sponsor/prize table grow.  I’m personally very excited about this, as it gives readers and listeners of Gun Nuts Radio the opportunity to buy some cool swag as well as show their appreciation to the men and women that help preserve our liberties.  Keep watching for more updates on the auction, and make sure you listen to Gun Nuts Radio on Tuesday at 9pm Eastern!

ICORE/shooting/sports

Revolver Championship Match Summary

Posted on by Caleb

I had the results of the International Revolver Championship up in a previous post, but I wanted to link you to Julie Golob’s excellent recap of the match.  It’s one thing to have me tell you what happened at a match, but it’s another thing entirely to have a first hand account from one of the match champions.  Julie also has an excellent video from the Junior Shoot-Off, which after watching it a few times I have to say that I’m impressed.  Texas stars are hard enough as is, and doing them with a revolver just increases the level of difficulty.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve probably bored you to death with it, but the IRC is on my “must shoot” list of matches. The Hogue Action Pistol Range (where the match is held) is dead in the middle of two of my favorite places on earth: Morro Bay and San Lois Obispo. Situated in the heart of California’s Central Coast Wine Country as well, the area around the match offers a smorgasbord of activities, from wine tasting, fresh seafood, shopping, and even a giant chess set if you’re so inclined. Essentially, if you’re there to shoot the match and your spouse/partner/whatever doesn’t want to watch you haul a revolver around all day, there will be plenty of activities in which they can participate outside of the match. They could even drive up the coast a bit to Hearst Castle to see what happens when a person has more money than sanity.

Uncategorized

How are your ammo reserves?

Posted on by Caleb

Because my friends at FrangibleBullets.Com have ammo in stock! I keep meaning to give them a call and order a bunch of .40 SW for my new 646. The International Cartridge Corporation ammo they sell is top notch stuff, accurate and flat shooting. If you order from Frangiblebullets.com you’ll also get excellent service from the company.

http://frangiblebullets.com/

You need ammo, they have ammo.

shooting/sports

Bob Vogel wins Pro-Am

Posted on by Caleb

Actually, Bob won both the Open and Limited division at the Pro-Am this year, taking more steps assert himself as one of the top shooters in the circuit right now.  Here’s the crazy part though…he won the Open division at the Pro-Am shooting his Limited division gun.

Apparently nobody told Bob Vogel who claimed the ProAm Open division title after being forced to shoot his limited pistol when his open gun went down. The shock of winning with a limited gun even caught him off guard.

There’s a good, and then there’s a level of good that is just sort of scary.  Bob has been rapidly making a run at the big guns in the sport, winning the Production Nationals last year, the IDPA Winter Nationals this year, and now both divisions at the Pro-Am.  He also cleaned up at the Indiana State Sectional Match, winning every stage in Limited-10 division for total match points.

news

Not gun blogging

Posted on by Caleb

But I saw this headline in my news feed, and I just rolled my eyes so hard I think I severed my optic nerve: Stimulus to add 600,000 jobs in June!

The economy has shed 1.6 million jobs since the stimulus measure was signed in February, far overshadowing White House announcements estimating the effort has saved 150,000 jobs. Public opinion of Obama’s handling of the economy has declined along with the jobs data.

Even if the stimulus adds 600k jobs, if you add that to the 150k that they “say” the stimulus has saved, we’re still at a net loss of oh, 750,000 jobs.  I can’t wait to see how we’re going to salvage those jobs, especially since most of the 600,000 jobs that we’re going to “add” to the economy are seasonal jobs, like kids working at the local pool, summer camp jobs, and paying guys to hold signs and lean on shovels.  Adding 600,000 jobs that pay $7.25/hour isn’t going to replace the 1,000,000 high income tech industry jobs that have been lost, guys.

Is it too much to ask for someone in the administration to have a grasp of freshmen level econ, and junior high level math?