Todd talks about shooting activated targets such as movers, drop turners, and disappearing targets.
Remember kids
When you shoot ammo of completely unknown origin through your gun, and then said ammo blows your gun up, it’s clearly the fault of the gun. The OP in the thread says that he acknowledges that the ammo was suspect but that the Beretta he nuked should have been “built better”.
I ask the question, exactly how much better? At the previous blog meet in Indy, I was talking to a guy who knows a thing or two about Berettas, and that they had seen frames with round counts in the hundreds of thousands, shooting 9mm NATO ammo. When you get into the world of gun show reloads, or mystery reloads from someone you don’t know or trust, you’re on dangerous ground right there. I’m not saying that you should only shoot factory ammo through your guns, but if you are shooting Santa’s Magic Reloads and your gun goes boom – odds are it wasn’t some design flaw in your Glock/Sig/Beretta that caused it.
New Burger Column
The latest burger review column is up – on my favorite place to hang out on the patio and drink beers. Check out the post on the Broad Ripple Brew Pub!
Gun Nuts Last Night
Hit up the Gun Nuts Radio Blog for info on last night’s show, where we covered swine flu, self defense myths, and even had you call in with your favorite “crazy” things you’d been told by fellow gun people! If you’d like to go straight to the show page, just click the link on the top right to take to you straight to the Gun Nuts Radio show page. And of course, don’t forget to visit one of our chief sponsors, FrangibleBullets.Com – if you’re in need of high performance ammo, they have it in stock!
Interview with Mike Esposito
Cam Edwards of NRA News has a very revealing interview with Mike Esposito, the teacher who is taking his students to Albany to lobby for more gun control. In three parts presented here:
I think the most telling part is that when Cam confronts him on the issues, Mike actually doesn’t know the definition of some of the things he’s lobbying for, getting ammunition encoding and microstamping confused. The entire interview is a rather fascinating look into the mind of someone so dogmatically committed that he can’t even acknowledge opposing opinions.
Quote of the Day: Jeff Cooper
“The dream world of Walter Mitty continues to entrance the rabbit people. Rambo and his clones are all the rage. We note, however, that they seem to have got it wrong. This combination of bare skin and a gloomy visage is totally out of touch with reality. One does not enter a fight with his oiled muscles gleaming and the facial expression of a freshman who has just flunked math. One keeps his skin covered when there is any possibility of flashburns, and the killer hero, if he manifests any expression at all, grins.” – Gunsite Gossip, 1986
Jeff Cooper was a very astute man. Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, the imaginary action hero was in fact just as described, oiled up and grimacing on the battlefield. Fast forward to 2009, and our Walter Mittys have changed their appearance to more closely emulate the true warrior; but their lack of understanding at the warrior’s mind is still evident in their grimacing faces. While real fighters are very serious about their work, I have never met a single combat vet or high-speed type that did not have a very well developed sense of humor.
Anyone who’s been in the service can attest to this – when they’re “on the job”, our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines are all business. But off the job, the jokes and humor run free. Rarely will you find the sort of grim “end of the world as we know” sort of mindset that seems to dominate the websites and blogs of those self-styled “warrior-patriots”, people whose only combat action was that time they had to elbow for position at the Dunkin’ Donuts counter.
We have a tie
Tonight’s Gun Nuts show was going to be left up to listeners – but as I checked the poll at 0900, we had a tie between “Myth-busting” and “What do you do when you run out of ammo”. So, because that’s what you voted for, that’s what we’re going to give you. We are going to bust some common self-defense myths. Self-defense myths include:
- Running the slide on a pump shotgun is the ultimate deterrent
- You shouldn’t have a light or a laser on your gun because you’ll give away your position
- You shouldn’t resist an attacker
- You should birdshot for home defense because it penetrates walls less
- If you point a shotgun in the general direction of your target, you’ll get a hit
It seems (as I type the list) that a lot of the myths are shotgun related; which makes sense because as home defense weapons go, the 12 gauge pump gun owns a pretty permanent place in our collective gun owning psyche. So don’t forget to tune in tonight at 9pm Eastern time for Gun Nuts Radio at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts!
Match Hollowpoints
Joe Lyle from Ultimak (thanks Unc – ed) explains something I’ve always wondered about when it comes to rifle ammo – the difference between a match hollowpoint and a standard defensive hollowpoint. It’s interesting, especially for me because I’ll be the first person to tell you that I know just about diddly about rifles and their ammo.
She canna take much more of this!
My irony meter, that is. So sometime today, some dude rolls into Tam’s blog at the linked post and leaves a set of odious comments. He starts off as “Anonymous”, because the courage of his convictions is obviously so strong that he needs to hide behind the internet. To his (small) credit, he did man up later and post more comments under his handle, which is Tom. Tom said some stuff that was not smart, and even posted his email address, which he has since removed. Here’s a pretty classic sample, with the bad word redacted.
How did the redhead learn to be a nice person and you [Tam] became such a c***?
Now, so he’s obviously established what a classy cat he is. This is part where I do my best Scotty impersonation, because my irony meter just canna take much more of this. Here’s a post from Ol’ Tom bemoaning the rudeness of people on the internet. I am not making this up.
Funny how people send insulting comments anyway when explicitly told they won’t be published. No cure for stupid, is there? But there is. Comments are off. You’d be better suited to Anonymously write your own blog than to send me random insults or perhaps learn some couth. Both?
I lol’d, then I lol’d some more. I mean, you almost have to admire the balls on a guy that would write this, then a month later roll over to someone else’s place and do exactly what he was crying about. I say almost, because I can’t admire that lack of self-recognition.
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE: See, it seems our wee little friend wrote a post just for Tam’s readers that were coming over to hand him his lunch. Again, I need to redact the naughty words, because while we’re all grown ups, this blog is also where I work. But presented for your enjoyment:
YOU GOT A SPECIAL F*** YOU AND THE WHORES YOU RODE IN ON POST FOR CLOGGING UP MY MODERATING BOX DEFENDING A C*** WHO IS BORDERLINE TRAITOR TO AMERICA AND NO HERO IN THE SHOOTING SPORTS.
I can’t get enough of it, I really can’t. He is both the funniest troll ever, and the worst troll ever. If you’re wondering why I took time away from my usual gun and shooting sports blogging to poke this guy with a stick, well there are a couple of reasons. First off is that Tam is actually my friend, and I disapprove of people talking about my friends like that. Secondly though is that it really is that funny. I mean, this guy has gone completely around the bend. He seems to think that somewhere Tam has claimed to be a “hero” in the shooting sports, or some kind of IPSC Grand Master, and he just can’t deal with the fact that someone would call him on his BS. It’s so freakin’ awesome to watch his antics spiral deeper into lunancy.
Remember kids: INTERNET=SERIOUS BUSINESS.