Thanks to Xavier, I have what is the funniest Ebay listing I’ve ever laid eyes on. In case you can’t believe your eyes, that is actually an auction that claims to be for Billy The Kid’s holster for his…1911.
The story is just so fantastic that I couldn’t even make it up. The only way it would have been better would have been if aliens were involved somehow. Because time traveling aliens might have been more plausible, actually.
Sebastian has a post up, which links to a post from Instapundit, which finally links here. Go ahead and click the link, but if you’re like me you’ll end up angry in about 33.2 seconds. The short version is that the female author of the blog has been receiving death threats and graphic photoshopped images of her in sexual, abusive, and/or mutilated positions. Okay, so she’s pissed some people off.
Sebastian makes the quite valid point that our corner of the blog world is probably less susceptible to that sort of jacktardery, due in no small part to the fact that if someone decided to break into my (or his, Bitter, Kim, LawDog, Tam, or any other gunblogger’s) house, they would most likely earn a bullet (or 5) for their trouble.
Now, despite the awful things said and posted about the author of the blog in question, the actions of the little scumbags that perpetrated this aren’t what really pissed me off. No, it was comments from the blog author herself, reproduced below for your reading pleasure.
I have cancelled all speaking engagements.
I am afraid to leave my yard.
I will never feel the same. I will never be the same.
Now, I can understand being afraid, that is a perfectly reasonable response to having people threaten you with rape, mutilation, and death. What I don’t understand is the cowering in fear part. She talks a lot about how the threat made by the disturbed people is what really does the damage, in that it makes her wonder how deranged they really are, and what they’re capable of. Wondering what they are capable of is what has now reduced the author to staying inside her house.
I have a cure for your fear, madam. It is called “action”. Take steps to protect yourself. Take steps to protect your family. The police cannot protect you 24/7, and will probably not be able to arrive in time to stop a violent crime. Purchase a firearm, and learn how to use it. By living in fear, you only grant additional power to those who make threats against you.
The best cure for fear is action. When it comes to protecting yourself, and protecting your family, the buck stops with you. It would be very difficult for someone to act on their disturbed fantasies about you with a pair of .357 holes in their boiler room.
You will continue to be fearful for only as long as you allow yourself to be consumed by your fear.
Another beautiful day, and another fun trip to the range. Today’s trip was exceedingly educational, as I had several very interesting things happen, which of course I’ll share.
First off, if any of my readers are in the Indianapolis/Metro area and went shooting at the Eagle Creek Park pistol range today, you probably saw me. I’m hoping in two weeks time to have a “What Would John Wayne Do” custom T-shirt all made up and wear that.
Okay, but on to the fun stuff. Today’s haul consisted of my EAA Bounty Hunter .22 with both the Magnum and Long Rifle cylinders, my ‘58 Remington cartridge conversion, and my trusty sidekick the Walther P22.
First up was the Remington, I had some Ultramax 200 grain loads and a box of 20 Hornady 255 grain rounds. I learned two things. The Remington doesn’t really like a 200 grain bullet, and the Hornady is loaded a bit hotter than the Ultramax or the Magtech I’ve got. It also shoots the Hornady rounds into even tighter groups than I’ve seen before. I took the opportunity to shoot it off the bench at 25 yards, and five shots landed one ragged hole in the paper. I was quite happy with that.
So, I shot through the .45 Colt ammo and switched to the Bounty Hunter. I was using the magnum cylinder first, and wanted to do some serious work with the pistol. I had always just sort of dinked around with the .22 Magnum, but today I wanted to do some real work with it, and see just how accurate it could be.
Here’s the answer.
The shots at 6 o’clock were the sighters at 15 yards to see where it would print. The next twelve are right on the money. Once again I find myself needed to declare my undying love for the .22 WMR.
So, after I shot up all my .22 WMR ammo, I switched to the .22 LR cylinder and tried some of the Aguila Sniper Sub Sonic or SniperSubSonic if you prefer. My Walther has always liked those, and out of it I’d not encountered the tumbling that often occurs in rifles.
The EAA could have liked them better, they didn’t exactly group well (not like the Winchester 40 grain SJHPs above), but hey, they didn’t tumble. Out of the revolver, the report was a mild “pop”. The next time that cat of the neighbor’s starts yowling under my window at 0300……you get the idea.
Finally, I opened up the case and pulled out the Walther P22. I’ve fired over 1000 rounds through this without a single FTF…until today. I had three in one magazine, and of CCI Stingers at that. After some inspection of pistol and ammo, I was able to conclude that this specific box of Stingers was extremely waxy, and that there were excessive amounts of lube on each bullet. Out of 50 rounds I had three or four misfires, which isn’t too bad – the other box of Stingers I had ran just fine.
All in all, it was a great day to go play outside with guns.
I like reading comics on the web, the amount of creativity that you’ll find is rather pleasant. I haven’t really read newspaper comics since Bill Watterson stopped writing Calvin & Hobbes, but there are quite a few webcomics that I read on a regular basis.
One of those is called Way Too Random, it’s written by a friend and fellow veteran (although she’s from the Army), and is quite funny. You should go check it out.
I am a product of the “internet generation” or the “technological revolution”, or whatever the hell you want to call. Suffice to say, when I was a kid, “cell phones” were something that you carried in a bag; or were the size of a field radio. As I grew up, I literally watched computers get faster, phones get smaller and more powerful, etc.
A Blackberry can do things my first computer (a 386 IBM) couldn’t even have dreamed about doing. My cell phone is also an .mp3 player, my organizer, and a video game platform. Growing up in this time has definitely had an effect on the sort of guns that I enjoy as well.
While my first love has been (and should continue to be) revolvers of all shapes and sizes, my techno-lust finds its voice in my gun hobby through mouseguns. Just as the smallest cell phone is the coolest, so is a tiny pocket rocket pistol, hence my love of mouseguns. Anything light, compact and full of neato technology to make it so automatically gets my attention.
Currently, I’m gathering the disposable income to buy one of these. When I think of tiny mouseguns that use lots of technology, the Smith & Wesson 351PD is about the top of the list. According to S&W’s website, it weighs in at a paltry 10.6 ounces, which is only 1 oz more than the NAA Black Widow revolver. The 2 inch Black Widow weighs in at 9.5 ounces, but it’s only a five shooter, and it’s single action. The S&W on the other hand is a seven shot revolver and is also double action.
It’s so cool it hurts. Obviously, I must have one to sate my craving. That’s my idea of a bar-b-que gun right there. “Oh, you have an ivory handled Colt Delta Elite? That’s great…my gun weighs less than your cell phone.”
Ah, Fridays. You know, I really do enjoy writing the Wisdom of the Duke feature. Today’s entry is about our favorite subject for flogging, politicians!
Cuthbert H. Humphrey, Governor of our territory, is a cull. Do you know what a cull is, ma’am? A cull is a specimen that is so worthless that you have to cut him out of the herd. Now if all the people in the world were put in one herd, Cuthbert is the one I would throw a rope at. – John Wayne, McClintock!
I love that quote, as it so adequately describes the vast majority of people that take up politics as a career. I personally find politics to be a distasteful, yet necessary pursuit for some people. It is unfortunate that many politicians have lost sight of the fact that their job is to serve the people, and they do so at the discretion of their constituency. Unfortunately, we are saddled with agenda-pushing blowhards on both sides of the aisle, men and women dedicated to expanding their power base and furthering their own agenda.
Certainly, there do exist politicians that remember why they were elected; it just seems to me that they are the exception rather than the rule.
To take an analogy from the gun world, if a person of average height is a full sized Glock 17, I would be a a Glock 19. I’m not a midget, but at 5’6 I don’t exactly loom over anyone (with the exception of midgets). This has over the course of my life lead to the expected jokes about compensation when made in light of my hobby. Additionally, my three brothers all clear six feet in height (where’s the love?), and my college friends were not ones to pull their punches. This resulted in me hearing literally every short joke you can possibly imagine (on that note, go ahead and post them in the comments).
While I generally take the short jokes and associated ribbing with a sense of humor, it has also led to some uncomfortable realities that I’ve had to face in light of my hobby and my desire to exercise the RKBA. The most inconvenient of those realities is that is quite difficult for me to conceal a full pistol or revolver without putting significant forethought into the process. While I can conceal full sized firearms such as my GP100, the process is neither elegant nor particularly effective especially during the summer months.
This has lead my down the road of smaller pistols, of which I have the options of the micro .45s, the micro 9mms, snub nosed revolvers, and then your host of “underpowered” cartridges that you normally find in smaller guns. I don’t particularly enjoy shooting micro .45s or 9mms, which would mean that I would never put the necessary range time into them that you need with an everyday carry gun. I do like snubnosed revolvers, but for some reason don’t own any. I used to have a nice SP101 with a 3 inch barrel, I have no idea why I got rid of that gun.
Right now, my EDC is a Walther P22, although when the situation allows I will carry the GP100. I detailed why I love the Walther in a previous post yet there is always a certain sense of “gee, I hope this bullet is big enough to do the job” whenever I pack the little gun. Of course, if Walther would just respond to my emails and chamber a P22 in .380, all my problems would be solved. I had one gun, a Llama .380 that looked like a mini 1911. That gun would have perfect, except it had all these sharp edges that could cut my hand up with the recoil, so that was out. I just couldn’t justify spending $150 bucks on a dehorning job for a $200 pistol.
Some of you might remember my gun snobbery experiment which resulted in me purchasing a Hi-Point C9. I will state the following one time. Despite my success in getting the Hi-Point to reliably feed 6 rounds of ammo every time, I am more comfortable carrying my P22, which has fired thousands of rounds without a jam than I am carrying that particular Hi-Point. Because of the amount of tinkering I had to do to get it to run, I am less than enthusiastic about it as a carry gun – although it does make for a fine way to shoot 9mm rounds.
Maybe I should just bite the bullet and buy another SP101, I know I’ll like that. My problem really boils down to the fact that I’m always a bit uneasy when I’m carrying anything other than a fullsized pistol. Of course, since I can’t strap on an M9 and go wandering around without attracting some undue attention, it seems that I’ll simply continue my search for the perfect carry gun.
I’m going to tease you with this entry, but we’ve worked out a format for the Mousegun postal matches; as soon as the weather turns I’m going to post announcements for the first one.
Stay turned, as updates are forthcoming.
Well, sort of. Despite his goofy earring (sorry, I had to) I feel like he’s spot on in his description of why he never fell in love with the .40 S&W. He also quite accurately mirrors my feelings on the subject, I don’t like the .40 S&W for about the same reasons.
Plus, I’d rather carry a wheelgun.
I’m anti-war. Before my four readers start flaming me, I should probably qualify that statement. I’ve actually seen the elephant; and unlike your “antiwar” moonbats, I understand the nature and necessity of war.
That doesn’t meant that I think war is good. It isn’t. War is a horrible thing which does terrible damage to the people that fight them, both those killed, and those who survive. I’m not “anti-war” in the sense that I oppose the current war, I’m anti-war in the sense that I’m opposed to the concept of war. I would like to see political disputes solved without 19 year old kids shooting each other. However, I’m not naive, and I understand the necessity of war. After all, war is politics by other means.
If wars could be ended, they should. However, they can’t. There will always be a great need for a nation to be protected by armed, rough men who are willing to put their very lives on the line for one another and for us. When I say “I support the troops”, I honestly do. I have been that 19 year old kid who was placed in a situation to do a job he had been trained to do. I understand what you carry with you after that job is over and you go back to being a normal person.
I don’t want our troops to be pulled out of Iraq; to do so would do both a disservice to the Iraqi people and to the men and women that have given their lives over there. What I want is for our troops to be supported, specifically because I’m opposed to the concept of war. If war is an ugly, violent thing, should we not then give our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines the tools and support they need? Should we not allow our boys and girls to do what they were trained to do, to fight the enemy? Of course we should, but instead the “anti-war” movement does everything they can to hamstring our fighting forces, all while claiming to “support the troops”.
War is ugly. War is violent. War is hell. War is necessary. There are people, organizations, and countries now and throughout history that do not respond to diplomacy, or foreign aid, or strongly worded letters from the UN. Those people respond only to the tip of the spear, and by so doing create the necessity for armed conflicts.
I would like to live in a world with no wars. That would be truly a magnificent achievement on the part of the human race. I have a prediction for you, however. It’s not going to happen. There will always be people who need to have that spear thrust at them; and we should always have people ready to hold our end of the spear.
I’m going to conclude today’s entry with a simple request to those of you that say your support the troops, whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, Independent, or whatever I would ask that you put your money where your mouth is. This page links to several different ways that you can show your support for the young men and women overseas.
I’m tired of the goddamn moonbats saying that they “support the troops”. If your support is nothing but words tossed out to further your political agenda, it is worse than meaningless.