Gun Nuts

The August 2014 issue of GunUp the Magazine is available today; hit up the iTunes Store to get your subscription and copy!

Whoever did this to a classic Colt 1917 is a bad person.

I get the idea behind making a Fitz Special, but don’t do it a 1917 Colt. There are jillions of crappy old guns that you could do this do. Go buy an old Charter Arms or something. Found on Gunbroker, of course.

I’ve bought and sold a lot of guns. My co-workers have noticed that I don’t get particularly attached to guns, and as a result I’ll buy a gun, shoot it a little bit, get bored with it and then let it go to someone else. I’ve never really been into collecting guns for their value as collector’s items; other than a short period of time where I collected obscure Berettas. One of the cool guns I let go was an old S&W revolver; specifically a Model 1917.

One of the perks of my job is I get to shoot and carry a lot of different guns. In the past month I’ve shot some guns that aren’t even on the market yet; I’ve carried all kinds of guns, I have the HK VP9 on my desk. And yet when I’m not carrying something specifically to write about it, I always seem to end up right back here:

Here are the submissions from last week! Make sure to keep ‘em coming for next week, email submissions to gunnutsmedia@icloud.com or just hashtag #muzzleflashfriday on instagram and twitter. Here’s our winner, hit the jump to see them all!

Today on our slightly longer than 90 second gun reviews, I’m reviewing the new Smith & Wesson 929 9mm Revolver.

This one isn’t paranoia, unfortunately. According to Executive Order 13662, one of the companies listed is the primary Russian manufacturer of Saiga shotguns and new AK pattern rifles. Bearing Arms has a great breakdown on what this means for you.

The last stage of my first day at the Freedom Munitions Memorial Match was filled with multiple 3 gun clichés. Firstly, they included a “pick-up gun”. A pick-up gun is a surprise firearm, often provided by a sponsor, which is meant to throw a shooter for a loop. Often the shots with the pickup gun are are not scored or they only affect one’s time. They are not usually anything one can prepare for, but they can be a great opportunity to get behind some pretty rare weapons. Also, we were provided ammo by the title sponsor for our shotguns, which was staged in a dump barrel.

In the discussion about the possibility of the military purchasing new sidearms to replace the Beretta M9 there has been much nonsense. Most of the discussions of the virtues of a new pistol has centered around the irrelevant, trivial, or even the completely untrue. Despite this, there are some perfectly sane reasons to look at acquiring a new sidearm.

Photo by Mike Dickerson

What happens when a prairie dog meets a Hornady 40 grain V-Max bullet at 3000 FPS.

You’ve probably seen the Instructor Zero videos on youtube – he does a lot of silly “tactical” stuff with putting bags on his head and his combat rolls, but he never struck me as an incompetent shooter. Making a head shot at 25 meters in 0.8 seconds is no joke; that’s a tough shot to make.

Now, we don’t know how many runs that took, because the downfall of youtube is that you could put together “hoper” runs over and over and over again until you get the result you want. If I only show you the footage where I connect with the target, but delete the 19 other takes I needed to get that perfect hit, that doesn’t really tell you anything about my skill level as a shooter.

Still, 25 meter head shots are no joke. I have to respect the shot, and I’ll just assume that he only took a couple of tries to get it.

Pulling one from the archives today, we have a short review of the Lionheart LH9 9mm semi-automatic pistol.

Wednesday isn’t humday any more, it’s #pumpday! Send your submissions to us for next week at gunnutsmedia@icloud.com and we’ll pick the best ones to run on the blog on PumpDay!

Here are this week’s:

GunUp the Magazine editor Shelley Rae with a Remington 870 Tactical in FDE

From Jeremy Van Gieson

Mossberg 500 in .410

Loads of fun, reasonably priced, awesome looking. If I lived not in the city, I’d buy one of these in a minute.

Sometimes you just need meat and potatoes. The AR15 market is so crowded right now; everything from basic entry level rifles all the way up to multi-thousand dollar high-end near custom guns. It’s quite similar to the 1911 market, to the point that the phrase “AR15″ is nearly meaningless other than to describe an idea of a rifle. But what if you don’t want to build your own gun or spend $3,000 on a custom build? What if you just want a .223 caliber rifle that feeds from 30 round detachable box magazines, runs reliably, has good features, and nice ergonomics? Well, if that’s what you want, perhaps you should check out the Smith & Wesson M&P15 MOE.

M&P BODYGUARD 380 Pistols and M&P BODYGUARD 38 Revolvers Now Fitted With Integrated Laser Sights from Crimson Trace

Good article in Rolling Stone on the rise of the women’s gun culture. Page 2 had a pleasant surprise, pictures of GunUp the Magazine!

In part 4, I ended up taking a look at how USPSA was managing the money generated by Front Sight, an unplanned detour that lead me to the question of whether or not USPSA’s ad sales staff is really doing a good job. Today I want to regather my focus and look at Nationals, the single largest expense on the USPSA tax returns. We’ll post the cost of Nationals and the revenue generated for each year going back to 2008′s tax return.

For the past few months I have been amazed at how much I am enjoying the shotgun portion of my 3gun training. While it’s easier to hit a target it’s takes more brute force to control than a pistol or rifle. Yet even with my pathetic excuse for upper body strength, I really like this new challenge. This was the mindset I had as I approached a 32 round shotgun stage at the Freedom Munitions Memorial Match in Clinton, South Carolina.