Gun Nuts

Fans of Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International series will know that the best character in the books, Earl Harbinger carries a Smith & Wesson 625 revolver as his go-to sidearm, usually accompanied by a Thompson SMG as his primary. I don’t know if Earl has Crimson Trace lasers on his 625…but he should.

Our friends at Umarex sent us a care package the other day, their new NXG-APX. It’s a pump-action air rifle that shoots pellets or BBs, and it harkens me back to my old Crossman Pumpmaster that I had when I was a child. Except now it’s all polymer and awesome looking, and made by the German wizards in Arnsberg. Nothing kills office productivity faster than a care package that you can safely shoot indoors.

There is a huge market for small guns, and it makes sense. There are entire sections of the internet dedicated to telling people how difficult it is to carry a full size gun. A few weeks ago, I decided to conduct a science experiment by carrying a full size Ruger GP100 with a four inch barrel in an OWB leather concealment holster.

You’ve seen it before. A guy who only “trains” like he would fight. I used to be that guy after I left the Corps (Honorable, infantry for those interested).  In a way, it’s easier to simply go take a carbine/handgun “tactical” class than it is to decipher UPSA/IDPA rules, match times, and more importantly to find a match local to you and to set aside the hours needed in order to attend a match and shoot for seconds.

Ruger Expands the Popular Line of Lightweight Compact Revolvers with the Addition of the 9mm LCR

Ruger GP100 in .357 Magnum, wood stocks, Galco Summer Comfort IWB holster. A self defense combo that’s been around for 30 years, and works just as well today as it did in the 1985.

Over on pistol-forum, there is a thread discussing the concept of the “command shot/break” with regard to pistol shooting. This is based around the idea that there are times when you want to make the gun go off RIGHT NOW as opposed to the more classic “surprise break.” An example of this would be shooting a swinger in USPSA, there will be a point where the target has an optimal presentation, and you need to shoot it when it’s there.

The NSSF has produced an infographic that looks at the changing face of the American target shooter. Click the image to go full size:

I like to fix speedloaders the same way I fix broken magazines.

Washington State is probably going to lose a big piece of the gun rights battle soon, because it looks like Initiative I-594 is going to pass. Now, I hope I’m wrong. I hope the polling data is wildly incorrect, and that the initiative doesn’t pass. But things aren’t looking for Washington right now, and it’s because at least in that state, they’ve lost the language battle around background checks.

I really like this photo by Shelley Rae. You can see individual rain drops as well as each case falling to the ground on the reload. And yes, my hat does have my name on the side of it.

This is the perfect round for IDPA SSR. I know that’s a bold statement, but if you’re not going to handload for IDPA SSR, you need a bullet that does three things: works with a lightened action, is easy to reload, and makes power factor. The 130 grain FMJ load from Federal does all three of those things.

To the membership of USPSA,

The Officers and Directors of the US Practical Shooting Association became aware yesterday of an allegation that a significant number of expenditures were persisting on a “suspense” listing because they had not yet been reconciled against receipts. Our current understanding is that the receipts are available and that there had been a plan in place to reconcile these items as soon as the Nationals were completed. Sadly, what should have remained an administrative task at USPSA HQ has now become a public controversy, damaging the reputation of our organization despite there being no evidence that any funds were lost or misused.

Standing policy requires that the headquarters office comply with generally accepted accounting practices, and we note that both a 3rd-party accounting firm and a periodic 3rd-party review are already included in the normal headquarters process. We take these allegations very seriously, and will be asking the accounting firm to oversee the reconciliation process and provide guidance on how this situation should have been addressed. We expect a “clean” suspense report when that reconciliation process is complete, and will publish that report in order to address member concerns.

Sincerely,

USPSA Board of Directors

If you read this space regularly, you have probably deduced that I have a special sort of hatred for people who offer bad advice on self defense. Doesn’t matter much to me whether it’s some ridiculous gunstore lawyer telling people they can’t take aggressive action against a carjacker or a doddering old fool in political office telling people to fire “warning shots” to scare away bad guys, it really urinates in my Cheerios when feckless idiots shotgun unforgivable ignorance into the public consciousness. In the moment where someone is facing a grave threat to themselves and their family, they need clarity and solid information…not the vapid pontifications of gasbags who lack the experience or intellect to avoid beclowning themselves every time they open their benighted suck.

Ashley finished as high Junior at the 2014 Nationals and 2nd Lady. She’s one to watch for on the action shooting circuit!

The following was provided to me by an anonymous source, and has since then been posted on the Area 6 FB page as well as other forums. USPSA’s accountant resigned from USPSA, with an effective final day of September 30th because corporate funds were not being properly accounted for. Here is the entire text of her resignation letter:

At the 2014 IDPA Nationals, I did more reloads on the move than I had done at every single IDPA national match before that combined. This despite reloads on the move being generally illegal, except for one caveat: if you run dry in the open. Revolvers run dry in the open a lot, it seems.

Photo by Shelley Rae

Yesterday, I mentioned that it was time for fault lines in IDPA. I opened up this discussion on my facebook page with some interesting results. If you participated in that Facebook thread, I want to flesh the idea out here and explain how we could use fault lines in IDPA while preserving the spirit of cover.

Having iMovie makes me giddy with power.