Gun Nuts

We’ve covered previously how the 1911 no longer exists and discussed why. While the original 1911 was very durable and reliable it wasn’t a stupendously accurate or ergonomic sidearm. Talented gunsmiths like Hoag, Clark, Swenson, Wilson and others brought a number of innovative parts and modifications out for the 1911 which made the pistol more accurate, more usable, and more desirable.

NEWINGTON, N.H. (January 12, 2015) — SIG SAUER, Inc., introduces the classic P220® single-stack pistol chambered in the powerful 10mm Auto cartridge.

This weekend while I was out, I received what is possibly the strangest comment I’ve ever gotten. It was left on the “Team Gun Nuts page”; people will sometimes post comments there when the post they wanted to comment on has had its comments section closed. Here is the comment in its full glory:

I like wheelguns. You might have guessed that from reading the blog, but I hadn’t really thought about the scope of it until yesterday when a reader asked me on FB to post a photo of the round gun collection.

I was actually thinking about selling some revolvers recently! But then I went through them and realized I didn’t want to sell any of those guns. I mean come on, which one would you sell? The badass 625 with Crimson Trace laser grips? The j-frames? I couldn’t even sell one of the three GP100s, because those are my main match guns for IDPA. Maybe I could sell one of the two Security Sixes…but one of them is kind of rare, and the other one has been worked on by Clark Custom guns. Yeah, not selling that.

For whatever reason, I have a lot harder time selling revolvers than I do semi-autos. Maybe it’s because an auto is just a tool to me – something that goes in a holster for a specific purpose and never really gets loved. Wheelguns on the other hand…wheelguns are special.

In case you live under a rock, SHOT Show starts in less than 2 weeks. In case that rock you live under is huge, SHOT is the biggest and best trade show for the firearms industry. I noticed this week as I was prepping for the show that my feelings about the show have changed over time as my position in the industry has changed. I went to my first SHOT in 2008, in Las Vegas. I was there again in 2009, skipped it in 2010, was back in 2011 and haven’t missed a year since. This show will be my 7th SHOT, and it’s actually pretty fun for me to look back and see how different things are now.

By now you’ve likely heard of the horrid terrorist attack in Paris that claimed the lives of 12 people, including two police officers. The perpetrators are still at large, having escaped after a brief gunbattle with the outgunned Paris police. If you’re not up to speed, today in Paris at least two gunmen armed with AK variants and yelling “Allah Akbar” attacked the offices of a satirical French newspaper, killing 10 employees and two police officers. You can see brief footage of the attack here, which I should warn you is graphic and includes the execution of a wounded cop.

The M16 series has been in service with the US military longer than any other individual rifle not due to conspiracy, complacence, incompetence or frugality – but because collectively it still represents the state of the art in portable lethality.

Ranger Up has an excellent article about the “problems” with the M16/M4 platform. Their article is written in response to a piece written in the Atlantic about how terrible the M4 is.

If you’re one of the lucky people that lives in a state that experiences this thing called “winter” you’ve probably faced the same dilemma that I face every winter. What to do about training? Let’s face facts, no one wants to go to the range when it’s -22 F outside, setting aside the fact that going outside when it’s that cold can be quite dangerous. But you don’t want to not train, you don’t want to be lazy, so what to do?

In 2014, I spent a decent amount of time shooting the Beretta Px4 Storm. I didn’t shoot much in 2014, probably only 7,000 rounds of pistol or so; of that about 2,000 was through the Px4 Storm. I had three posts that covered using the gun, including a review of the Px4 Storm. I shot it in several action pistol matches and at Bianchi Cup, I learned that you can put the “D” spring from a Beretta 8000 series in the Storm to greatly improve the trigger, I discovered that the rotating barrel makes the gun unusually accurate, and that the recoil system is about the most pleasant 9mm I’ve ever shot. In short, I learned that it’s a pretty good gun…and not a lot of people like it.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE-RGR) is proud to announce the new Ruger® GP100® Match Champion™ with adjustable rear sight. This new model shares all of the same great features of the original fixed sight model, but now includes a white outline, windage and elevation adjustable rear sight which, when combined with the fiber-optic front sight, creates a great sight picture that can adjusted based on the type of ammunition being shot.

After World War II the US military had so many 1911 pistols in inventory that they saw no need to buy any more. Ever. (Although the USMC very recently did buy a small quantity of 1911 pistols from Colt) The wartime production had pretty much flooded the market with 1911 pistols and post-war prosperity made surplus guns relatively cheap and readily available. Market prices for a good do not always reflect the quality or costs of producing the good in question. If you happened to be the guy who bought a Gibson Les Paul in 1956 or a 1971 Hemi-Cuda in the Maliase era days, you’re quite happy about that.

Justified is one of my all time favorite TV shows, and it’s a favorite of gun nuts everywhere. The writing and gunplay are on point, and it seems that’s there is something for everyone in the show. We like it so much that we featured The Guns of Justified in the December issue of GunUp the Magazine, which you can download on your iPad at this link. But now let’s get to my five favorite moments from the series. Oh, spoilers for people who’ve never seen the show, duh.

Checkpoint Charlie. There is a museum located on site right next to Checkpoint Charlie’s location. It’s an interesting visit, although I’d have to say of the places I’ve visited this week it was by far the most disappointing.