Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Do Not Eat...

...says the dessicant packet in the plastic baggie containing the hardware for the door I just installed.  Also, I'm warned not to ingest the silica dessicant in the bags in my gun safe.  A spark in my pea-brain says, "what kind of world do we live in?"  I guess there are people out there that apparently need this kind of guidance.  Either that, or there are people out there ready to exploit the system for financial gain at every turn.  Or both.  I also guess there are enough people that can sit on a jury and decide that a moron that decided to make a meal out of something that fell out of a bag of screws deserves some kind of financial compensation.  Why would I be nervous if I had to go before a jury of my peers?  Well, society's full abandonment of or degradation of common sense, I guess.

Lemme splain

Hey, moron attorney, what the guy did was a FELONY.  It's called aggravated robbery and I really don't think the court cares what the "take" is.  Along the same lines, I wouldn't really care if I had $1,000 or $1 in my pocket if someone pulled a gun on me.  The reaction would be the same.  I'm not going to try and figure out what kind of weapon is being used.  Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

EDIT:  I'm a moron.  I had this all typed up last night and saw people posting on it this morning.  I thought: "Man I'm glad I typed that up."  Guess who forgot to hit "Publish Post".  Goofball.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

A great cause and maybe a great prize

Carteach is running a little fundraiser over at his place.  He is benefitting the Wounded Warrior Project and that is one great cause.  Click over and read up on what Carteach is offering.  I can tell you that this is as easy-peasy as it gets.  The donation is super-simple and you get a chance to win some cool gear.  It doesn't take a ton of money at five bucks an entry (though you can donate as much as you want to get tons of chances to win something). 

More qualified than you

Because only police and law enforcement are responsible enough to have firearms.  While I know the statistics will show that law enforcement as a percentage have a low rate of crime, it is the exact same situation with the community of legal gun owners that choose to carry concealed.  The difference is that people aren't going into hysterics about law enforcement because they are "better" somehow.  Don't even try that "they're better trained" line with me lest you be laughed out of here.  I am going to drop an edit in here to say this isn't a slight on the law enforcement community.  I have quite a few friends that fall into that category.  This is more of a swipe and the anti-crowd's stance that civilians shouldn't own firearms.  Ultimately, at the end of the day we're all people.  There is no distinguishable difference between the flaws of the people that put on a uniform and those that do not.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Happy days are here (again)

It's like getting a new gun in the mail.  Except it's getting back my same new gun.  The Kel Tec has completed its cross-country voyage and landed back on our doorstep.  Thankfully, it happened to be when Mrs. 45er was actually home during the day to sign for the package.  I have to say that Kel Tec was always responsive during the whole process with answers to my questions.  They sent a packing slip telling me what they did.

So, here are the boxes that were checked:

Replaced slide and/or barrel (not sure which)
Polished feed ramp (was happy to see that)
Replaced internal parts (not sure which, I'm assuming the part that was making it not go bang)
Test fired

So, I'm a happy camper again and I'll reset the test-firing rounds from 200 back to zero again.  I am considering this starting over on the test period before carrying it.  Yes, it will cost some more money, but it's just a darn good excuse to get my rear-end to the range again.  Also, I need to test out the new app I downloaded (for android) that I found out about when That Guy sent me a link from Carteach.  I'll do a little review on that as well with some pics.  FYI, the Surefire app for IPhone works pretty well.  We've used that for some training and it did a fine job.  Ok, I'm off to teddy bear the KT around the house again (affectionate term friends and I use to refer to the act of carrying a new firearm around like a kid with a teddy bear).

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Ummmmm

I don't know how to comment on this except to say be careful.  And maybe use more padding to protect your, well... padding, if that is the case.  From experience, those little buggers hurt and that is part of the fun and (I think) helpful if you're doing some training in tactics.  You don't exactly want to have baseball sized bruises all over your body.  That said, this was a little more ouch than normal.

Belated thanks

I'm afraid I have been remiss in recognizing some new followers.  I'm still getting the jist of this.  I do try my best to follow all that have flattered me by following this little blog.  I also like to put followers in the blog roll.  If you notice I'm not following you or you don't see your blog in the sidebar, just let me know.  I tend to rely on the profile of the follower to find their blog and I just found out that isn't always accurate.  So, thanks to all the followers that have been here and thanks to the new ones that have just come online.  DaddyBear, Leviathan from Dharma Combat, Old NFO, Warlock, and Emitt1, Stephen from Standing Outside Looking In - thanks for giving me a chance.  All the others, I probably didn't do this early on because I was (and still am) a baby blogger and didn't think to do it.  You know I dig your stuff from how much I stalk your blogs.

Everyone is welcome to comment and I will always reply.  You can see I try to keep it pretty clean.  I am probably impossible to offend but like to keep this family friendly for all the readers.

Again, I was relying on follower profile to know if a follower had a blog and found that doesn't always work.  If I missed you I'd like to know, so please drop me a comment.  Also, check for your blog (and your friend's blog) on the black list at the top of the right side-bar.  Let me know (or send a comment on the blog to North) to get them on the list.

Thanks again.  If you have tips or ideas, let me know.  I'd love to get feedback from the people that actually read my blog.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

It's in the hole! It's in the hole!

Nostalgia draws Mrs. 45er to mini-golf.  I get a kick out of it myself, but it has been years since I've gone to a for-real mini-golf course.  We tried one on a vacation that was really nothing more than some bumps and humps.  Not really any good.  This time, we had something of a blast.

Looking at the water, I'm guessing it's St. Patty's Day
So, we started knocking balls around and Mrs. 45er put up with my normal level of snark.  Then the rain came.


I know, the WHAT?  It hasn't rained here in..  well, I can't remember the last time.  So, we waited it out in the tunnel just enjoying the cool breeze and chatting.  They offered an umbrella, but we decided if we were going to play through we would just do it in the rain.  We found out later we got exactly zero point zero inches of rain back home.  Typical.

So, the rain stopped.  On to the next hole.


Giraffes don't follow instruction well

At this point, I've started calling the water "Caribbean" green to the amusement of Mrs. 45er.  I'm thinking I want to "stay on the marked path" as the sign demands for fear of falling in the porta-potty water, but more on that later.  The giraffe was left to fend for himself.



*FLUSH*


We continued to climb and whack the poor, defenseless balls when we came upon an awesome sight.


Someone have a plunger?
I was mesmerized by what can only be described as the most vomitous Tommyknocker-green fountain I have ever seen in my life.  At this point, you're at the pinnacle of the course.  On top of your game.  But the worst is yet to come, because in the next water hazard, there are zombie seals that will eat your soul.


 Click for BIGNESS.  Really, you have to see the eyes.  That's how you can tell a live from undead seal.
mmmm, souls
I can only guess that the foam is what the excrement of digested souls looks like.  It's ok, though, since according to the anti-freedom (gun/hunting) crowd, I'd be quite safe in that regard since I probably have no soul.  Mrs. 45er almost lost her ball in here, but it's ok I had a putter and was able to fend them off.  Luckily, I didn't damage it since the signs every 10 feet told me that would cost me a $20 bill.  Well, and I needed it to finish the course.  I didn't feel the need to yank out the old Glock 23 for some silly old undead marine mammals.

All-in-all, we really had a great day.  I almost feel about mini-golf like I feel about going back and watching old episodes of The A-TeamGreat in theory, but better left to the annals of your imaginative youth.  Actually, we had a great time and we won't discuss scores.  That's just not good form.

Friday, August 26, 2011

More ATF challenges

This is the first individual store I've heard in Texas challenging the ATF of reporting rules.  The good news is this place isn't too far from here, so I guess I know who is getting my business.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/26/texas-gun-store-challenges-atf-reporting-rule/?test=latestnews

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Make my day

A friend has a timely post on his blog.  I watched Dirty Harry this past weekend.  You know the classic line:  "...the most powerful handgun in the world...".  Well, in 1971 at the time the movie was made it really wasn't (technically).  This was. (Edit for clarification, I just mean the caliber)  It's ok, I'm going to give it a pass because A. the .454 Casull wasn't available for commercial use at the time B. it's Clint Eastwood and C. the movie is just awesome.  I'm glad to hear That Guy is planning on trying to take something with a handgun this year.  That should make things interesting on the lease.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Evil

It exists.  Don't fool yourself and believe that it doesn't.  When people shelter themselves and think that the state will protect them, they are risking whatever may befall them from people like this.  By NO means am I saying that victims are at fault for what happens to them.  The blame is solely on the perpetrator.  It's just that preparedness can go a long way.  Fighting up front on your own terms beats fighting on their terms wherever the monster is taking you.  This isn't the only person like this out there.  We see it on the news too often.  Be prepared.  Don't let nanny tell you whether or not you can defend yourself. 

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

THE list

The Gun Blog Blacklist is turning into (well is) a great resource.  I hope we can all help North keep it the up-to-date resource we'd all like it to be.  This is a great thing for new and old bloggers alike.  If you're new to blogging (me), head over and take a look.  You might find some great blogs to follow.  If you're an old pro you may find something new.  Either way, you will understand the scope of why we are winning.  We have a lot of passionate and intelligent folks.  Thanks to North for taking up the endeavor.


  

 

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Just...wow

So, we're watching The Learning Channel which, honestly, is a lot less about learning nowadays and a lot more about dysfunction.  True to that line of reasoning, I saw a commercial for this.  From the commercial I saw, it appears the point of the show is to find the kookiest, craziest group of "preppers".  There is a reasonable amount of prep that everyone should do.  I'm thinking a show like this will make people view even reasonable preparation as "loony".

Knife vs Gun

I know the news is old (December of last year) but I had never seen this video.  I usually search news every once in a while for guns in the news (GITN) and follow other people that link to guns in the news.  I don't know how I missed it and I also don't know why there are only 46 views on this video on YouTube.  This is a GREAT example of why you should have a firearm for self-defense.  Now, while there are lots of things to say like "should have had it on you" and "carry chambered" (notice the slide cycle), the reality is at least the guy had one and got it into play so I'll put that in the +1 for firearm defense category.  Yes, he was lucky that he was even able to since the guy was able to get to him before he got it and he didn't have his fighting mindset rolling yet since you can see the shock in his face even as the guy is attacking him.  There is also hesitation as he begins to reach for the gun and can't decide what to do.  So, we should take another lesson from this; that mental preparedness is just as important as training preparedness.  Don't let the shock of violence take you out of the fight.  Now, as a warning there is some blood in this one due to the knife.  It's probably one of the most graphic attacks with a gun used in self-defense I've seen on video.  I'm not going to go against what I just said by saying "don't watch if you can't take it".  If you can't take this, you're in a world of hurt if you have to deploy your defensive firearm. 



Also, here is the link because Blogger doesn't like you to watch embedded video full-screen.

EDIT:  I found a news article that gives a little more information.  It happened in Turkey.


Thursday, August 18, 2011

The new underwear bandit

But not like you think.  If the underwear doesn't make you laugh, surely the flower-print dress will.

So, I have started to put videos up with the idea of running scenarios.  What if you were confronted with this?  Well, in this case if you could pick yourself up off the floor after rolling in laughter you'll see the many times he shifts his attention completely from one person to another.  In other words, plenty of time to act.  Really, I just put this one up because of the goof factor.

It was also a...  brief robbery.

Waa waa waaaaaa

Geeking Large


A life-size Imperial AT-AT.  If Lucas gives the go-ahead, I'd love to see it.  Heck, I'd pay to see it.  As far as effectiveness, I think every 30+ year old geek-at-heart would have it defeated in about 30 seconds.  We've seen the rebel manual. 

Or as That Guy put it: "So, instead of Luke Skywalker in an A-Wing and a tow cable it will be Cleatus in an '82 Chevy C-10 4x4 with a Gadsden flag bumper sticker and a Warn winch."

That's a much more colorful way to put it.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Seriously

WTF?

At first, I was reading this as just another nutty kid that was (thankfully) caught before he carried out his nutty plans.  But then, this little gem:

"Authorities said Cano has multiple juvenile arrests.  Charges have included burglary, carrying a concealed weapon, altering serial numbers on a firearm and drug possession.  All have been either dismissed or no action has been taken."

Read that list and tell me any single one of those isn't a serious offense that required a little attention from the courts.  Some of those are serious felonies.  How does someone (even a juvenile) just get to continuously walk on things when otherwise law-abiding people are getting hung for felonies on stupid firearms laws?  This was very close to being another one of those stories where we were all wondering why the perpetrator was allowed to run free.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Lemon Vinaigrette

You know how mistakes have given us some of the best things on earth?  Well, this was kinda like that.  I'm not at all comparing this dressing to penicillin (because it tastes way better).  It was funny the way it came about and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I was in the mood for some homemade pizza and got a recipe from That Guy at Rock in a Sea of Chaos for one of his wife's pizzas.  Don't go there for the pizza recipe, it's not there either.  Good news!  That Guy posted the recipe for the Pizza de Parma.  Lucky you.  Oh, was it ever fantastic, but this isn't about the pizza (for now).  The recipe called for a drizzle of lemon vinaigrette.  Well, the local store didn't have any.  At all.  We did, however, end up with a lemon olive vinaigrette which I like but was no good for the pizza recipe (and my wife despises olives).  There is a significant difference between olives and olive oil.  Just FYI, but I'm sure you knew that.  Anyway, I just HAD to have this pizza, so I decided I'd try to make the dressing on my own.  It turned out so good I've made and gone through three batches already.  On top of that, it was EASY.  Here it goes, you won't be disappointed.  I used a shallot and a clove of garlic because when I did the test recipe 2 cloves was just too much garlic for me.  If you don't have a shallot you can exclude that, but I'd caution against 2 cloves of garlic.

Lemon Vinaigrette

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (use good stuff for this, it makes a difference)
4 tablespoons freshly sqeezed lemon juice (yes, FRESH)*
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme (stripped from stem and finely minced)**
1 clove garlic (minced or I prefer using a garlic press)
1 medium shallot (minced or pushed through garlic press)***
1 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (I love Kosher salt)
fresh ground pepper (to taste, a couple of pinches at minimum)

*1 lemon = about 1 tablespoon juice
** thyme can be optional, but it is really good
*** no shallots?  be careful using more garlic.  I'd use a couple tablespoons of sweet yellow onion first.

I mix everything together in a 2 cup or larger measuring cup (olive oil first to measure correctly).  Whisk it together or just pour it into your dressing bottle and shake it up.  Keep refrigerated.  Serve at room temperature and shake well before drizzling on salad (or pizza if I'm allowed to give the recipe).

Yields about 1/2 cup of dressing.

Enjoy!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Sweeeeeeeeeeet!

I pull up to my parents' house today and this is what I see in the driveway..

Hey, baby, how about a ride?

Well, this wasn't here before.  This hunting season is going to be a blast.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Ohhhhh, That's Gotta Sting!

Individual mandate ruled unconstitutional by 11th Circuit.

It's just another step on the ladder to SCOTUS, but it's a win.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

I'm baaaack...

MHA upped the ante for Larry.  I always wonder where the top end is for getting better, but he hasn't found the top yet.  I won't be doing a huge review.  I will just say that there were multiple story lines running and it never was confusing.  Every time a story line ended, I just wanted so bad to know what happened, but since that storyline ended and another started that I was wanting to get to I just couldn't stop reading that one either.  The book was multiple layers of addiction.  Each character was addicting, each storyline was addicting, and the whole book was addicting.  It sat on my desk at work and tempted me all damn day.  It's an awesome read.

Also, you gun bloggers are crazy.  I can't even catch up with all of the posts and information I've missed in just a couple of days.  I'm doing the best I can.  Again, I think it's awesome we have such a huge base of passionate people.  Keep it up.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Off the radar

You probably haven't missed me making snarky comments on your blogs, but I've been consumed for the last couple of days since I received my copy of Correia's Monster Hunter Alpha in the mail.  The Uncle Hugo orders were delayed a little due to a late book shipment.  I've been totally consumed in it in the evenings, so I'll let you know how that turns out.  A sick kid delayed my one to two day reading schedule.

And on that note, here is an interesting story out of Minnesota.  Chupacabras are getting to be like the Virgin Mary.  People are seeing them everywhere.  Also, that slideshow is a hilarious compilation of mostly coyotes.  Still, imaginations are fun.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Video Surveillance Tactics

So, I mentioned finding videos and putting them out there for tactical review.  In almost every scenario I find there is opportunity to get your gun into play.  Most low-life criminals don't have much of an inkling of how to handle a gun even though they use one in their "job".  However, in this situation, I'm going to say you're pretty much hosed.  I put myself in the employee's shoes (though I'm not going to say I'd be at an adult store, but that's another issue).

http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/Man-with-shotgun-robs-adult-video-store-126991963.html

Not a great way to start my series of tactical reviews, but a great example of when NOT to try something.  The problem with news is they edit video.  However, from what I can see the guy walks in with shotgun leveled at the employee and never waivers in having the muzzle cover him.  The only time it is taken away is when he turns to leave.  Eh, that's legally iffy in most places.  I guess at that time I would draw and just make sure if the guy turned or came back I would be at the ready.

Other thoughts?  I'm going to say if I'm constantly staring at the muzzle of a shotty, I'm leaving well enough alone unless I see action that makes me think the situation might get worse.  The only other thing I could think would be to look behind him repeatedly to make him think there was something needing to draw his attention from me, then make a go of it.

Analysis of a Bus Shooting

For the last couple of days, I've been mulling over the bus shooting in Philadelphia.  This thing was bone-headed on so many levels that it is almost hard to wrap your head around as a law-abiding, normal individual of the collective hive of society.  This morning, I thought I would attack it from a personal defense angle.  I'm assuming that people that write and follow gun blogs view situations like this in the way that I do.  What would I have done in that situation?  One of the things that I do as a kind of mental exercise is seek out and find surveillance video of robberies and assaults and try to pick apart what could have been done if I was inserted into the situation while carrying concealed.  It is another form of "scenario" that brings some real-life situation to your playbook.  An obvious flaw is that you KNOW something is about to happen, but it's no different than running IDPA where you know you're going to shoot something.  When I find a video, I watch it the first time wanting to be surprised by the events so that I may mentally react.  Boy, was I surprised by these mental buffoons.

The first thing I did was determine my position.  It's important to make that decision ahead of time so you don't have a tendency to put yourself in the best possible scenario.  That's just human and shooter nature.  Here, I put myself on the bus.  I was glad I did since it offered the toughest decision on how to react. 

Second, make your decisions real-time as you watch the video and then review them afterwards.  Were you right?  In this scenario it was tough because there were so many angles that it made it hard to make a decision.  The raw footage helps make a decision from inside the bus, but after you run that scenario it cuts to outside the bus.  I ran this in my head, too.

Things I noticed:

People do stupid things.  Notice the unarmed people either not moving away or moving toward the threat due to their curiosity.  It killed the cat, you know.  It almost cost some people in this situation.  It also complicates your defense scenario if you chose being on the bus.

In my head, I had to move to the threat side of the bus to engage in order to avoid someone standing up in front of me.  If I would have been alone, I would have obviously chosen to move to the off-side of the bus to engage.

I chose to engage very early on when I first saw the weapons.  From inside the bus, you didn't really see the weapons until they were already out.  At least from the camera angle.  Still, they were out of play (pointing at the ground).  I chose to engage the perp with the handgun first.  Why?  The rifle seems like the bigger threat, but there is no stock deployed.  To me it screamed ineffective at best.  That doesn't mean not dangerous, there's a difference.  From the angle I chose I could engage them both together.  When the doors opened, the handgun dude had just run up and was standing next to rifle guy.

Shooting through glass.  It sucks and this is why I was glad I put myself on the bus.  It was the toughest scenario.  It had to be done in this situation unless you wanted to jump right in front of the threat at the doors. 

Time.  For someone paying attention (and the sheep were noticing a problem soon, so you'd better have been on it before them) there was a full 10 seconds from the start of the lethal threat to engage the target.  You would/should have been on high alert and in the Red Zone before that from just the physical activity. 

If you were on the sidewalk at the bus stop, this threat could have been eliminated before cotton-headed ninny muggins rifle dude was able to wiggle it halfway out.  Handgun idiot first, then rifle moron.  This depends on what you notice first.  Rifle soft-head was drawing a whole lot of attention to himself.  You have to be careful.  I can see getting focused on rifle moron and not seeing handgun idiot running along the bus.  That could be a problem.  There also appears to be a third person that keeps putting his hands down to his waist.  This is where your threat scan begins.

Maybe I helped put another tool in your toolbox.  If you already had the tool, how did you handle this?  Even if you don't normally do this, what would your reaction have been?  What might I have gotten wrong?

I may start finding and posting random videos to scenario with a 1, 2, 3, GO!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Happy Day!

A friend of mine is getting a new toy.  And not just any new toy!  I'm pretty excited for two reasons:  that he has decided to pull the trigger so to speak and that I get to try out an STI.  I have had a Les Baer for many years and it is just a joy to shoot.  I'm real interested to see how STI does things. 

Also, I'm going to do my best at not complaining about having to send in one little gun.  I mean, really, this is a pretty good cross section of companies out of one collection.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Home is where the Kel Tec is... going

They say you can never go home again.  Well, the Kel Tec is going to be doing just that.  The P3AT has developed this little quirk.  It stops shooting.  That's pretty concerning for a defensive carry handgun.  Originally, I described it as a DAO handgun.  That's not technically correct.  It does fire in double action, however it requires the action of the slide to reset the firing mechanism and trigger.  Well, every once in a while it just doesn't.  So, it chambers a live round but the trigger no workie.  All but one time a simple failure drill (slap, rack, bang) put it right back in action.  However, one very concerning incident resulted in me not being able to get it to reset at all.  I stripped it down multiple times and looked it over, but not until I got home did it start working.  Even then, it was that magical "it just did it on its own" kind of fix that makes you all warm and fuzzy that you didn't fix the actual problem. 

Here's what I have to say about Kel Tec:  Their customer service is outstanding (so far).  I've heard nothing but good stories about their customer interaction and that is one of the main reasons I went ahead and went with the Kel Tec.  Almost everyone I know that has one have not had many problems, though some do and some can't seem to win for losing.  Sometimes, stuff happens.  This will be my first time to actually send a firearm back for repair, so I've been very lucky so far.  Karen with Kel Tec customer service asked a few questions to assertain the issue and immediately offered to email me a shipping label.  Me not having to ask for that put a "plus" in their column.  Now, I just need to drop it in a box and send it off.  They are telling me about 2 weeks for repairs on new guns.  Let's hope all goes well.