Michael Bane on NFA

Bane talks about the general silliness of the current NFA rules as applied to suppressors, short barreled rifles, and short barreled shotguns.  I am in 100% agreement with him on this one – if anyone remembers my stalled 10/22 PDW project, one of the big reasons why it hasn’t gone anywhere is the massive amount of trepidation that I have when it comes to navigating the spaghetti maze of NFA regulations surrounding short barreled rifles.

What would happen if the Federal “controls” on barrel length of rifles and shotguns were lifted tomorrow? NOTHING AT ALL, except we’d all have access to a whole new generation of handy rifles and shotguns. Would such guns be “more concealable” than their long-barreled counterparts? Depends on whether you live in the Real World or not…for a fact, no such short-barreled rifles or shotguns would be nearly as “concealable” as a 1911, much less a Bond Derringer in .410 (with a rifled barrel!).

It’s classic Michael, and he’s really right about it.  I can kind of understand wanting to regulate machine guns, but the restrictions on barrel length in shotguns and rifles are completely arbitrary and nonsensical.

Project Frankenshotty

The Horrible Frankenshotgun is now complete; I took parts from a grand total of 5 different shotguns that I scrounged from the internets (and in one case was found by an intrepid reader) to complete my awful monster. I apologize for the expression in the photo, I was not expecting the camera to go off when it did, otherwise you’d be treated to the exact same smile that I have in all the NRA Convention photos.

I need to get out to the farm and see how it handles slugs, buckshot, and birdshot. My original intention behind this gun was to use it for Canada Geese, however after some research it seems that the general consensus is that 20 gauge 2 3/4 are a little light for geese unless you’re taking extremely close range shots. I’ll probably pick up a 12 gauge to begin my war on the Feathered Menace.

I’m sure I can find some use for a light kicking 20 gauge shotgun though, if it’s reliable with slugs and buck it would make an excellent gun to keep by the bed in the event of a home invasion zombie apocalypse.

Vidcast: Bowling Pin Shoot

Had a great time at the Bowling Pin shoot this weekend at Marion County Fish & Game Association, as usual the match was a lot of fun. One of the highlights was the guy who brought his .445 SuperMag and shot a round with it – my buddy Greg was standing at the point next to him when he set it off, and was not expecting the “flash and thunder” that came out of that gun.

A couple of cool pictures before the video stuff – first is this picture of a broom handle that apparently caught a ricochet from one of the pins. We use this broom to sweep pin debris off the table – the odds of it catching a ricochet perfectly in the center like that are pretty long. As usual, click all pics to embiggenate.

It’s a perfect shot – I must confess, I’ve never seen anything like that before. Right through the center of the broom.

The next picture is kind of cool as well – it’s another one-in-a-million photo. I only wish that I’d had a camera other than my camera phone, but it worked out okay in the end.

The reason why I like this picture is that it’s one of those cool “gun pictures” that you see from time to time. If you look closely, you can see that I’ve got brass in the air from my P22, but all five pins are standing up. I shot this run clean, so that means that the bullet is somewhere in the air in between the muzzle of the gun and the first pin on the left. Kind of neat if you ask me.

But anyway, on to the video. First up is my buddy and reader Greg shooting his Beretta 92 – he had a pretty good day actually.

Next video is actually two videos, I ran the two clips of Greg running his Remington .22LR rifle in the pinheads match. Our club does the .22 LR match the following way, if you’re shooting a pistol with iron sights you have five pins, a pistol with an optic gets 6 pins, a rifle with iron sights gets 6 pins, and a rifle with an optic gets 7 pins – which is why Greg has so many pins to knock down. In the second part of the video where Greg’s gun starts jamming, the laughter you hear is coming from the R.O. – Greg still won that heat as the other guy’s gun jammed as well.

The last video is me shooting the .22LR match with my P22. This is the short barreled P22, not exactly what I would call an “ideal” pin gun, as at 25 feet the front sight was the same size as the pin head. However, I’ve shot this gun a lot, literally thousands of rounds, so I ended up doing much better than I had any business doing – I made it to the final stage and only lost the championship match by a hair. This video is the semi-final round of the pin-head match.

As usual, I had a blast-and-a-half shooting the pin match. The guys at MCF&G ran a safe, fun match. I’m starting to slowly get the hang of this “bowling pin” thing – I was hitting the targets cleanly with my 9mm, but not necessarily clearing them off the table until one of the RO’s told me to hit ’em just a little higher. Sure enough, I adjusted my point of aim up a hair and the pins started moving off the table. Next time, I’m going to switch to a 147 grain bullet for the 9mm and see if I can’t get those pins off the table with a bit more alacrity.

Podcast: Paul Helinski on the shooting industry

At the NRA Annual Meetings, we (the other bloggers and myself) had the opportunity to sit down for a chat with Paul Helinski, the President/CEO of GunsAmerica.com.

Paul is originally an IT guy, having gotten into the online gun business back in the mid 90’s. One of the things that he spent a good chunk of time talking about was how important it is for us as shooters to support our stocking dealers, and the dangers to the industry inherent in “direct to consumer” sales without going through stocking dealers. The relevant audio section is about 7 minutes long, you can listen to it here.

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Paul makes a couple of pretty good points, especially about how the number of stocking dealers has been on the steady decline in the past few years. Supporting the shooting sports doesn’t just mean sending your checks to NRA, it also means getting out there and patronizing shops and stores that cater directly to the shooting sports. I didn’t necessarily agree with everything that Paul said – but when it comes to supporting our sport by buying from local dealers, he and I are in 100% agreement on that issue.

If the above flash player doesn’t play the audio correctly, you can either click here to download directly from my site, or here to listen from iTunes.

PX4 Storm Subcompacts shipping in June

From John Snow at The GunShots:

Beretta says its sub-compact versions of the PX4 Storm pistols are going to start shipping on June 1. The pistols come in either 9mm (13+1) or 40 S&W (10+1) and list for $600 and $575 respectively.

Did someone say “sub-compact 9mm Beretta”? Maybe I can get John to send me their test pistol for uh…further testing and carrying.

Sidebar note: I’ve added a new category for posts, labeled “Beretta”, since I plan on doing some Beretta specific content here in the future.

Pin Shoot tomorrow

At Marion County Fish & Game Association.

MCFG allows for a “minor” category on pin shoots, which is usually shot w/9mms and .38s, where the pins are placed a foot closer to the back edge of the table than they would be if you were shooting a “real gun”. My plan for tomorrow is to shoot minor, mostly because I need to practice reloads with my carry and home defense guns, both of which are Beretta 92 style guns. I say “style” because one is a Taurus Pt-92, and the other is an actual Beretta 92. That and I’m a little short on .45 ACP ammo.

My quandary, dear reader is what bullet to use. I have at my hands the choice between 115 grain, 124 grain, and 147 grain 9mm rounds. The kinetic energy figures for each round is as follows:

115 gr FMJ: 1150 FPS at the muzzle, for about 330 foot lbs of energy.

124 gr FMJ: 1130(ish) FPS at the muzzle, for about 350 foot lbs of energy.

147 gr FMJ: 1000(ish) FPS at the muzzle, for about 325 foot lbs.

Update: Curse you, typo.

Based on those numbers, it seems like my best bet would probably be the 124 grain rounds which are super accurate (for whatever reason) from my Pt-92. Plus, I’ve got 5 mags for that gun, so I figure if I miss I’ll just shoot a lot of rounds really fast and hope that I can keep up by volume of fire.

Shooting pins with a 9mm is tricky, even with the extra foot of distance they spot you versus the bigger guns, you have to hit it just right to get a knock down. Since the bullet is lighter and faster, your margin for error with a 9mm is a lot smaller than it would be with say, a .45 Colt or a .44 Special.

I’ll have a report up on Monday, complete with horrible amateur cell-phone video.

Home defense

Short post on this one – you know how some people keep a key hidden under a planter or something on the front porch in case they get locked out?

I don’t want to offend anyone, but that is a stupid damn idea.

Honestly, if you’re worried about getting locked out, get an electronic keypad for your garage door and carry a spare 9 volt with you in case the battery in that dies.

The 5 most badass Presidents ever

I saw this thing on Cracked.com yesterday and it seriously had me in stitches for hours on end.

Anything that has phrases like the following quotes is okay with me and John Wayne.

Referencing Andrew Jackson’s nickname of Old Hickory:

If you’re wondering how a guy we’re calling a bad ass got such a lame nickname, it’s because he used to carry a hickory cane around and beat people senseless with it, and if you’re wondering why he did that, it’s because he was a f***ing lunatic.

Or my favorite president, Teddy Roosevelt:

Teddy Roosevelt was a badass of the people. Roosevelt received letters from army cavalrymen complaining about having to ride 25 miles a day for training and, in response, Teddy rode horseback for 100 miles, from sunrise to sunset, at 51 years old, effectively rescinding anyone’s right to complain about anything, ever again.

Honestly, that made my day yesterday.

Speaking of the Coast Guard

That last post reminded me of the movie The Guardian, or Top Gun for the Coast Guard.  Not great, but not terrible.  There is one line in the movie that cracks me up, because it reminds me so much of something that would been said at the Academy.  When addressing a new class of potential ASTs (rescue swimmers), the commanding officer says the following:

When storms shut down the entire force, we go out. When hurricanes ground the United States Navy, we go out. And when the Holy Lord himself reaches down from heaven and destroys His good work with winds that rip houses off the ground, we go out.

It’s meant to be over the top and cheesy, and it succeeds marvelously at that aim.  On the flip side, it’s also completely true.  To this day, I get pissed off at people who complain that the federal government “didn’t react quick enough” after Hurrican Katrina, because as I point out – the Coast Guard never stopped flying.  Once, when I pointed that out to a stupid person, their response was “well the Coast Guard isn’t really the government” at which juncture I just had to walk away.