Ordered An Uncle Mike's Pistol Mag Case...

...from Amazon, for my Glock  30 magazines. I put the order in on Monday and the package was delivered maybe a half hour ago. Not bad until you consider what was inside the bubble wrap envelope:

Yep, that was all that was inside the package - the backer-board for the magazine case. I actually ordered two of these, one from an outside retailer via Amazon and one from Amazon Prime. This was the order from Amazon Prime; the other one is due Friday. I got in touch with Amazon customer service via their automated robo-assistance online and asked for someone to call me. A rep got in touch with me, I am guessing from Pakistan by the sound of him, within a few seconds. He quickly arranged for a replacement to be shipped to me. 

In the same phone call, I also cancelled a return I had arranged for several Hydrosorbent Silica Gel packs I ordered a couple of weeks ago. When they were delivered, I looked at the bags in which each of the eight of them I ordered were packed and saw they were all leaking a black powdery substance. Usually the stuff inside the canisters of this particular brand of silica gel are small round beads. 

I showed them to my son a couple or few days after I received them and had arranged for the return. He said something to the effect of: 'Pop, you realize you're looking at a picture on the outside of the packaging!' Well, to be quite honest and humiliated, no I had not realized that. I had thought the packaging was clear and I was looking at a mess inside. The black stuff I was seeing was just what I guess was an artistic shadow under the image of the product on the outside of the packaging. I canceled that return before I told the Amazon rep about the missing mag case. Man, was that ever so embarrassing. Getting old sucks (or at least I can blame my mistake on that).

Oh well, it's not like I am mistaking what I saw (and did not see) in the magazine pouch package; a double mag pouch would be hard to miss! The replacement should be here on Friday - hopefully they get it right this time.

All the best,
Glenn B

Check Your Gun Gear Regularly

Complacency can kill and that can apply to becoming complacent about your self defense weapon's gear. A perfect example being my every day carry pistol's holster - a DeSantis model 042, aka The Facilitator. 

One of the best holsters I have ever owned.

 

It looks to be in good condition in this and the shot above.

 It's been an excellent holster and I have carried my Glock 26 in it almost everyday since my son gave it to me as a gift and that was at least 7 years ago if not further back. The holster is a Kydex/Leather hybrid type. The holster itself that cradles the pistol is Kydex that was molded to fit the particular model of pistol it carries. The back section of the holster that is essentially forms the belt loops is made up of two pieces of leather sewn together. It was a sturdy design and lasted me a good long time of almost every day wear. You'll note, I phrased that last sentence in the past tense. I did that because the holster is either in need of a major repair/parts replacement or has come to the end of its useful life.

The second layer of leather is intact but this is now useless.

I discovered, only last night, that the front belt loop had become abraded and had that the leather had partially split or been cut. This was quite the surprise to me as I thought I looked it over often enough but it seems I had not because I had become complacent (satisfied with the current situation and unconcerned with changing it, often to the point of smugness) While I was satisfied that the holster was in good shape and that I had been checking its condition often enough, that seems maybe to have not been the case. My complacency (a feeling of contented self-satisfaction, especially when unaware of upcoming trouble) could have gotten me into a bad predicament had I wound up in a fight and someone had grabbed my holster. If that had happened they might have ripped it from my belt or been able to rip it partly away and have easier access to doing a gun take-away and disarming me.

When you look at the damage, you may think it simply cracked and split because it was old and the leather had dried out. I am certain that was not the case. In fact, when I was last moving stuff in and out of a storage locker I rented for my move, I banged it into and caught it on the door frame a couple or few times and where did the door frame catch it but seemingly right where the damage is on the holster. Banging it into things while in tight places had happened at least a few more times over the years but never seemed to damage it before. Maybe the leather had been weakened in that area and the damage was unnoticeable, that it unnoticeable until now.

Anyway, last night, I noticed it. It's been over a week since I was digging around in and rearranging the storage locker; so, I guess I was walking around with a compromised holster for that long. Of course, I changed my pants a few times in that week, and thus took the holster off of my belt and then put it back onto the belt each time and since this was so noticeable yesterday, I think I should have noticed it sooner (I discovered it by feel); yet, I did not. 

A possible reason I did not find the damage sooner, besides not visibly checking the holster at least every couple to few days, is that maybe the damage got worse each day over the past week and it finally split yesterday. Another reason could be that it was damaged like this the whole week and I simply did not place my fingers in the right place to feel it until yesterday; and, of course, as I said I failed to visibly check it. Shame on me. Luckily though, I discovered the damage while at home and not while someone was trying to take my gun away.

This incident has reminded me, quite loudly so to speak, that I need to visually and tactilely check the condition of not just my pistol but any gear I use with it and to do so on a daily basis at best and at least a couple times a week and after any possible damage is caused like by me banging it on the door frame of the storage locker.

There was another result of this holster mishap. I am going to start carrying one my Glock 30 pistols, at least until I either have the DeSantis holster repaired or replaced. Luckily, a new Bianchi holster I recently ordered for my Glock 3o pistols arrived earlier this week. 

So, I am good to go - well almost.  What I need to do is to go out and grab a double magazine holder, off the shelf of a local gun store, that will fit the Glock 30 mags (shame on me for not thinking of ordering one when I ordered the holster). For now the mag will have to go in my pocket(s).

All the best,
Glenn B

The Russian Lives - I Know It In My Soul

He is not dead, he lives and of that I have no doubt. There is no way that either of the two clowns who tried to put him down got in a fatal shot. Yeah, they hit him, maybe even more than once and maybe  tagged him with a head shot but that's no reason to think they put a toe tag on him. They couldn't find him  - didn't even have enough brains between them to look up into the tree under which his blood trail and foot prints ended. He didn't just disappear into thin air - he was up in that tree at least alive if not well. They were idiots, damn they mistook a deer for him and chased it down and killed it and as Chrissy said - if they were trying - they'd never get a shot like that. Now bear in mind - they were hunting the Russian. So what makes anyone think they got him. 

Now, I'll grant you this: despite his boasting about it not being cold and that the cold didn't bother him, I'll admit maybe he did feel it biting him to his core that night or maybe even over the next couple of days & nights until he was able to work up the strength to crawl away. It may have taken him some time to get out of that  predicament but my bet is he had the survival training he needed to get him through it and he was one tough bastard. He knew could eat what there was in those woods to save himself; he knew which berries were poisonous and which were not. No squirrels ate him like Paulie said would happen. It'd be more likely there were a few less of those rats with bushy tails left alive in that forest by the time he got out but whether or not he reduced the gray squirrel population he did get out. Yes he lived and still does even if they never portrayed his deliverance in the show.

It was the biggest disappointment for me though that he never appeared again. It was one of the biggest foul-ups in television history as far as I am concerned. The show left no doubt, at least in my mind, that he was still alive. It was or should have been the cliffhanger of cliffhangers and the writers and producers went over the cliff and crashed into the rocks below! There would have been no more suitable a way to end the Sopranos than to have that Russian bastard come back and blow at least Paulie and Chrissy to hell or better yet, the whole crew to hell.

Of course I am talking about the "Pine Barrens" episode of the Sopranos, season 3 - episode 11, the first episode I ever watched (I watched most if not all after seeing that one but it remains my favorite) of the Sopranios and it hooked me good. It's the one in which Paulie and Christopher take what they thought was the body of a Russian mobster, they thought they had killed, to the barrens to get rid of the evidence. When they open the trunk to take out his body, he's still alive. He was tough, they were incompetent. Then, instead of digging his own grave with the shovel they gave him he pummeled them with it and took off running. He was a fighter they were assholes. Many shots later, it looked as if Paulie scored a head shot and he may have but it may not have been a kill shot. Head wounds bleed profusely. They searched for him but his blood trail and footprints ended under a tree and they wondered aloud where he could have gone. They were stupid fuckers. 

He was up in that tree, it was the only possible scenario unless little gray men zapped him up to their flying saucer and while the Sopranos was fiction, it certainly wasn't science fiction. Anyway, those two Mafioso moronic henchmen get lost in the woods looking for him and then lost even worse looking for their car. Tony Soprano has to come to the rescue with Bobby. Once they are safe, Tony then leaves it up to Paulie whether or not to look for the guy or just assume he's dead and leave it be. Paulie takes the easy way out saying let's go home or something to that effect. Man did the writers and producers fuck up there - the Russian was alive, no doubt about it - he survived. He should have come back and wiped em out at the end. 

Yeah, just watched that episode last night on Amazon Prime. I just keep thinking they fucked up big time but I also think it's not too late. Bring him back in a new show, maybe about the Russian Mob or about a Russian hitman going after the Mafioso. Make him the main character.   

What better way to open the new show than to see Tony & and his crew walk into the diner where the show ended. As they are sitting there stuffing their faces, the camera pans to a lone figure in the shadows across the street, head bowed as he is looking down while he is keying his cell phone. On the last jab of the keys, the camera pans back to the diner and it blows sky high in flames with the mother of all booms. We see pieces of the diner and body parts raining down onto the street.  Panning back to the lone figure, we see him hunched over shielding his head from the debris with his free hand, phone still in the other. As he lowers his hand and starts to raise his head up to take a look, in the light of the flames we see a ghoulish figure with an odd shaped dent along the top right side of his head, an obviously healed but once catastrophic wound. As the lens zooms in, you see his face and he is smiling - that mad dog Russian smile - as he says: "It wasn't too cold for me comrades".

Then a flashback to the Pine Barren with those two arsehats standing under the tree where his trail ended; as they walk away we see a drop of blood falling from above and hitting the snow under the tree. After they walk away, we see him falling out of that tree and later crawling away and ultimately out of those woods. Then just take it from there into the new show with him in the lead role. Damn, the Russian lives, I just know it in my soul - so bring him back already!

All the best,
Glenn B

PS: Remember, if they do a spinoff like this, you read it first here! I want royalties.

Just One Brief Thought On Mueller

I am surprised, no - I am amazed, that Democrat politicians, the mud slinging media and other leftists of all sorts have not already made accusations claiming that President Trump must have paid off Mueller to be his stooge while being grilled during the Congressional hearing.

That is all,
Glenn N

Not Even Worthy Of The National Enquirer...

...let alone being reported on by a national media outlet; yet, Fox News has reported that a minor squabble in a restaurant included one woman calling another the headline grabbing "n word". How the fuck that managed to become headline news is beyond my comprehension; it's like this blog-post becoming national news because I just printed that struck out expletive.

Let's face it folks, while the word is patently offensive and usually meant to be offensive, especially when uttered in anger, such an incident is frivolous at best as compared to truly news worthy items and does not warrant a spot in the headlines. It is akin to calling someone a redneck, a chink, a bonehead, a wop, a mick, a guinea, a kraut, a dego, a spic, a cracker, a slope, a darkie, an Indian giver, a round eyes, a queer, a homophobe, a slut, a whore monger and on and on and on but tell me, does someone uttering those words, in a minor altercation, really deserve becoming national news!

For an editor to have somehow arrived at the conclusion that it was newsworthy enough to be reported on the homepage of a major media outlet, I think, was absolutely preposterous. There are far more important things taking place in this country and in the world that could and probably should have filled the space that this report filled.

While such reporting is sometimes interesting and can fire the emotions, it is merely trivial in the scope of things. For some reason though, petty happenings of little to no importance are evidently extremely attractive and apparently more important than valid news worthy happenings - at least to those who report them. It is about time that the media gets it's priorities in order and moves beyond the reporting of negligible events by reporting on the truly important current events that are honestly news worthy. 

All the best,
Glenn B

Correction: The original version of this blog-post showed that Fox News was now run by Disney. This was and remains incorrect as far as I am now aware. While Disney bought out some of Fox, they did not purchase Fox News.

The Wide Open Spaces Of The Gun Shows Of Arkansas...

...that I have visited astound me. 

Brendan has been to several gun shows here in Arkansas since he moved a few months over two years ago and I've been to at least 4 or 5 of them since my first visit not long afterwards. Of course, he's been to more than me since he's been living here full time. Most of the ones one I have attended, the first in Hot Springs and the latest one yesterday in Little Rock, have had what I can only call piss poor attendance. One in Conway that Brendan and I went to together earlier this year, or maybe it was last year, had fairly decent amount of people there but even that palled to gun shows I've been to in NY.

At first I was wondering why gun show attendance would be so low in a state that is much more friendly to the RKBA than is a state like NY and I must admit I was befuddled. I asked the promoter at the Hot Springs show why there were so few people walking around looking at and buying guns & ammo and he told me because it was Sunday; he also said that the place had been swarming with people on Saturday and that is the norm for shows in AR. I call balderdash on that if only because I think I attended all the other shows on Saturdays. Of course, his idea of swarming may have been that a few hundred more folks was a swarm. The truth is that each gun show I have gone to here in AT, with the possible exception of the one in Conway, never seemed to have more than 75-100 people in the venues at any given time. I think 100 would be a stretch but maybe it got that high; in fact, it often seemed to me they'd have been lucky if there were 50 people in them at any given time.

Yesterday's Little Rock Gun Show was a good example. It was a fairly large hall and I am going to guesstimate that maybe there were 250 to 300 tables; and I know the venue has one room that can accommodate 300 tables and another room that can accommodate 100 tables and this was the larger of the two rooms. Not a big show but one big enough to draw a fairly large crowd throughout most of the day like gun show of similar sizes that I've been to in various parts of NY state. Such shows in NY as those at: Albany, Middletown, Saratoga (I think this one is no more), Yonkers (extinct, killed off by anti-gunners), White Plains (also extinct) and a couple small shows on Long Island were packed; the one in Albany I last went to was truly like being inside a Japanese subway car. Those shows were often so packed as to make it very difficult to walk up and down the aisles or to get close enough to a table to really see anything. The show yesterday in Little Rock probably never had much more than 75-100 potential customers inside at any given time, while I was there. Maybe they had more at opening time (which I missed by about an hour) or at closing and I left an hour before that.

So why was the show not packed for at least most of the day; even if there were 100 people in there at any given time, that is just one person for every three tables. Man it was slow.  So, I got to wondering why, once again, why do the gun shows in AR seemingly have such poor attendance. There are only two things that struck me as the possible cause. First is that maybe the selection of guns offered sucks. I looked around quite a bit and have to say, while not as wide a variety as I would have hope to see, there was a decent amount of diversity (yes I can be politically correct) of the gun lover's kind. I am guessing you know what might be the other possible major cause. If you are guessing it is the prices for the guns & ammo; well then, you hit the nail on the head or at least I think that's it.

Here are some of the I remember seeing:

Kel-Tec PMR-30 pistols with an asking price of $650.00 plus tax (and the particular dealer selling them told a customer the state sales tax was 10% although when I looked it up later, sales tax for Little Rock, AR is 9%). So, price plus a bullshitter of a dealer and yes he was a bullshitter as far as I am concerned. He had a certain pistol for sale which I looked over, a Beretta 1934. The finish was less than 40% in my estimation as that is what I believe is a very conservative estimate. As soon as I picked it up to look it over, he was on me like white on rice giving me his spiel. He told me how rare of a pistol it was, saying only 23,000 had been produced and how it was a fine shooter. Then he told me it was an excellent deal but I certainly thought it was more like highway robbery at an inflated price for its condition and considering that more than one million of them had been manufactured. There were many other way overpriced guns, in my opinion, at his tables and each time I stopped there to look something over it was like he was jumping on my back to try to make a sale. I think maybe that was a good clue as to how little business he was doing.

Then there was a Winchester Model 12 at another dealer's table. It was a 20 gauge in at best 80% but probably much closer to 70% finish condition. They were asking $700. Now the 20 gauge in this model is quite desirable and demands a premium over a 12 gauge but still, the going price for one of these, in better condition than this one, is usually closer to $500. 

Another gun I looked over closely was a Llama small frame pistol in 22 LR. It in essence looks like a Colt 1911, some have a rib others do not. They had had four of them, two in 22LR, one in 32 ACP and one in 380 Auto. They were asking $475 for the two in 22 LR. I had to bite my tongue to keep from blurting out how ridiculous was that price and from laughing out-loud. I mean really now - at 100% condition the highest value in a reputable firearm pricing guide is shown as 325. These were maybe 95% at the very best bringing the value down to $200 according to the same reference. That is one hell of a difference.

As you may know from my past blog posts, I've been known to pick up a bolt action shotgun now and then. So, when I saw a Mossberg 183T in 410 bore, I was thinking I might like to make a purchase. That was until I looked at the price tag - a whopping $300! In 100% condition it might sell for the recommended $175 that is shown in one of my reference guides. his one was maybe 85-90% as I saw it and they were asking $300. In my mind it was a $100 to $125 gun at most and that is somewhat higher than what the reference guide says. Now, I'll admit, one of these shotguns recently sold for $175 on GunBroker; the thing is that one looked to be in about 98% condition - a lot nicer than the one I saw at the gun show and remember the one at the show had a $300 price tag).

I also saw several average, at best, Mosin Nagant Model 91/30s for sale with asking prices of between $450 and $500. Nothing even mentioned on the tag as to whether or not they had matching numbers and once I saw the prices I just dropped em like hot potatoes. There was also a so called Mosin Nagant sniper rifle being offered at $800; now that is right at asking prices at other places where I have seen them being sold but I think this one was faked. It looked as if the original bolt handle has been taken off, then a hole drilled into the bolt and a bent bolt secured in that hole. For some reason, I do not think that is how they made the bent bolt handled bolts for these rifles in Russia back in the day.

There was also the Ruger Mini 14 with a price tag of $900. Yes you read that right and it was a used beaten up clunker with an early serial number prefix of 183 and nothing special about it.
 
Table after table, dealer after dealer, the prices were outrageous in my estimation. Of course though, there were some decent deals to be had if you looked but they were apparently few and far between from what I saw. 

 

Ammo, I think, was another thing that went along the same lines, it was mostly overpriced but maybe not as badly as were the guns. None of the ammo dealers seemed to be doing brisk sales as far as I could tell. I saw Blazer 22 LR ammo at one dealer (not the one pictured here) with a price of $5.00 per 50 round box. Even Cabela's sells the same sized boxes for $2.99 (source). That ain't cheap for this stuff but it isn't bad compared to the $5.00 per box that was to be had at one table at this gun show. 

Granted, I suppose anyone could have tried to haggle on the prices but what would that have accomplished on a gun for which a seller was asking more than double the book value of a used gun or was about 35 to 40% more than the going gun store price for a new gun. What would likely happen is that the dealer would come down in  price and an uninformed buyer would think he was getting a good deal while he was actually being hosed.

Remember, in addition to high prices, each customer had to pay $10 to get in at the door, or $12 for so called VIP tickets if bought online. VIP evidently meant no waiting. Me, I did it on the cheap; I paid $8 because I copied a discount ticket from the promoter's website and showed it to the cashier. I did not wait longer than showing her that, paying my money, getting my hand stamped and walking inside - all of maybe 30 to 45 seconds.

I almost wish I would have gone back today, to see if any of the pricing came down for the second day or if attendance was any better, but I decided to stay at my son's place with him to kill the day. Then again, no I really don't wish that, not even almost, because  I did not need to be disgusted for a second day by seeing those prices. I am guessing that very few if any, who attended the show yesterday, went back again today for much the same reason.

As to why gun shows in NY are attended more, well I think its not so much that the prices are good, they suck too yet I think are nowhere nearly as high as comparable to those here in AR, but that in NY people are grabbing guns as fast as they can before King Cuomo outright bans them all. In NY prices can be high and people still flock to the shows. As for AR flocking to a gun show is an oxymoron. My solution to the low attendance at the AR guns show which I have visited is for the dealers down this way to bring their prices down to competitive levels since it is not like their state government is hoping to ban anything. If they did that, I am willing to bet that attendance and sales would skyrocket.

All the best,
Glenn B

First It Was Pseudoephedrine, Now It's Wasp Spray

Meth chemists have been stirring up a hornets nest law enforcement scrutiny, in West Virginia, with their use of wasp spray as one of the ingredients they have used to make their product; it's been killing users.

"We're seeing this here on the streets in Boone County," Sutphin told Charleston's WCHS-TV. "People are making a synthetic type methamphetamine out of wasp spray.""

Reportedly, 30 cans of wasp spray were sold in one day in Boone County, WV. More at the source. Being summer though, I wonder if that is above average for sales in an entire county and I wonder who is keeling track and why. Wasp spray was formulated to destroy vermin and I imagine some might say that is exactly what it has done in the deaths of people using meth tainted with it.

If this trend continues, my guess is that by next summer, you will have to supply ID to purchase the bug killer, cans of it will be smaller and you will be limited as to how many you can purchase as it was with pseudoephedrine, what next!.

All the best,
Glenn B

Texas Bound

I'll be heading to the Texarkana area tomorrow hoping that an apartment I have been waiting to come up vacant is to my liking. Texarkana is certainly not number on on the hit [parade for places where I'd like to live in TX but it is only about 1.5 hours from where my son lives and would be not too far and not to close, so to speak. If I do take the apartment, once I am settled in there, I will start looking for a house.  Buying a house may have to wait until this divorce thing is over and I know how much money I will have as income but I can look at some in the meantime.

I may stay over that way a couple or few days. Anyone know a good, not chain type, restaurant. Home cooking, general American style eats, is what I hope to find. A great place for breakfast would also be nice to know about.

All the best,
Glenn B

They Refused - Now They Blame

 

All the best,
Glenn B

R-12399N

I ordered one of these online earlier in the week. Stock photo but it looks exactly the same. It is the Century Arms C39V2 - MOE, model number: RI2399-N, with milled receiver. It is 100% made in the US of A.

It shipped on the 10th and was delivered on the 11th, same day I got the email notifying me it had shipped. That was quick. I picked it up at a local pawn shop - R&J Pawn And Loan - that handled the transfer for me. Met the owners, husband & wife team, there were extremely nice folks and they only charged $20.00 for the transfer.

Looked it over and it looked good to go. Hope to bring it to the range tomorrow.

There I had been thinking I'd buy myself a nice AR as soon as I got out of NY and I went for this instead; so, the AR has been put on hold for awhile. This will be the last gun I buy until I sell at least a few others and then I'll get an AK.


All the best,
Glenn B

The Ultimate Progressive - Destroying The Status Quo Of The Progressives

If you discussed politics right after the last major federal primaries and through the last federal general election in November 2018, you probably did some talking about NY's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who was elected to the House of Representatives. Since then she has become almost daily news for her outspoken demeanor on just about every political from so call Climate Change (aka: Global Warming) to her quest to oust several incumbent democrats from her own party because she apparently believes them to be less than progressive enough. She is a ballsy bitch so to speak and has been relentless in her opposition to President Trump and seemingly so toward anyone with who she has an ideological disagreement such as House Speak Nancy Pelosi of her own party. Right now she is leading the charge against incumbent democrats in an effort to have them ousted and replaced by those more in line with her own views (source) and thus she is gaining power as she steamrolls her once upon a time allies. Where to from there if she is successful - maybe the White House itself. Think that last is not possible - you are thinking just like those who thought she did not stand a chance of winning the democrat primary let alone the election.

She is backed by another ideologue, Saikat Chakrabarti, whom she supposedly chose to be her chief of staff; although, I have often wondered if he was he who chose her to manipulate to his own ends. His philosophy of advancing progressiveness, echoes or maybe guides her's, and is evidenced here: 

"It’s all part of a broader strategy to deploy inside-out organizing, Chakrabarti said. Staying connected to the progressive movement — and the public eye — through attention-grabbing demonstrations and social media is part of gaining policy leverage.
In other words: Don’t expect them to back down.

“When you shoot for big stuff, you stay true to the movement, you fight unapologetically on the inside, that is a very, very powerful way to pass the radical solutions that are necessary to face the radical problems that you have,” he said." (Source.)

His major political success seemingly has been the election of Ocasio-Cortez and the ousting of the incumbent democrat she faced down in the primaries. He has a lot of progressive goals and his puppet Ocasio-Cortez is riding high on his agenda. That is not to say it is also her own agenda as well but I think one can safely bet, with a record like Chakrabarti's, he is fanning those flames of ultra progressiveness within her. 

They are the dynamic duo of the progressive movement. While many laughed, still laugh at Ocasio-GuevaraCortez and think her a fool, I think they are individually both dangerous and much more so when aligned with one another. She is the type of leader the current crop of leftist loons find not only as acceptable but as an outstanding specimen of progressive political correctness despite her apparently being fairly clueless when it comes to fact versus fantasy on many current issues and events as well as on historical ones. When you think about it - that has been the hallmark of nearly every tyrant who has ever lived from petty ones all the way up through and including the most heinous and vicious. Her type scares me and should scare you. Mind you, being scared is good, it keeps you on your toes and more likely to act than being comfortably wrapped up in the status quo. Bear in mind the reasons to be concerned is that should she be successful in ousting long time democrat whackadoos from her own party then the next will be those on the other side of the aisle and if she becomes powerful enough the Constitution may follow. Who knows what would follow!

All the best,
Glenn B

Damn, That's A Lot Of Noise...

...and it sounds nice in a really a patriotic way, a perfect way to enjoy Independence Day's night is it! I have not heard as many pops, bangs, whizzes, crackling and loud explosions on the 4th, nor have I seen as many colorful rockets up in the sky even before full dark, in NY 15 years or more. Arkansas is a freer state than NY will be on its best day if only because this is the way the 4th of July, our Independence Day, should be celebrated!

All the best,
Glenn B

Hope You Are Having A Happy Independence Day...

  
...ours has been excellent so far. 

Brendan and I drove out to Pigeon Roost Range and had a blast. We were lucky because while it rained a bit along the route, it stopped by the time we got there. We were also lucky when we got there because there was only one other shooter on the line and he was safety conscious and a genial type.

We brought along a decent variety of hardware. Brendan hauled along his Bulgarian AK with a few typical 30 round mags and both a 75 round drum mag & a 100 round drum mag. He also brought his Mosin Nagant M44 and his Beretta M9A3 with silencer. I grabbed my Schmidt Rubin 1911 rifle (unfired sine I bought it), two Glock 30s, Remington R1 1911 and Rock Island Armory 1911 A1 FS pistols.

My first impression of shooting the Schmidt Rubin 1911 was the relatively light kick. I liked that and so did my aging bones, especially my right shoulder. It shot high at 50 yards, maybe 4 to 6 inches and did not group all that well for the first 20 rounds shooting PPU 174 grain soft points. The first set of shots I took was at a 6" Shoot-N-C target at 50 yards. I did not hit it once and forgot to mark off the other shots already on the already well used target that we found at the range (yeah, we forgot to bring a stapler so had to use what paper was already on the available backers) so I had no idea where I had hit. 

Then I switched over to a clean piece of cardboard with two circles painted on it of about 10-12" diameter each that I found lying behind the firing line. I impaled it on the frame of a shot up lawn sign that also was at the range. At least shooting at that cardboard target let me know where I was hitting - high and a bit left. Probably the same place Brendan had also hit for the eight or so shots he took when shooting at the Shoot-N-C on the used backer.

Next time around, I decided to give the Shoot-N-C target another try but went downrange but marked off most of the holes in the backer before taking another shot. Funny, I needn't have bothered with doing that, that time around. I don't know what I did right, maybe we just had fouled the barrel enough with the first twenty or so rounds and that helped because I shot this four shot group next, all shooting was done sitting at the bench elbows supported on the bench. 

This 6" Birchwood Casey Shoot-N-C Target was pasted
onto a well shot up paper target we found at the range,
this was my best group of four shots including the flyer.

Of course, I was aiming about 4-6" or so low this time, lolipop style,  since it had been shooting high before and that got it pretty closer to center elevation wise. I am thinking maybe if I use some different ammo, I may get it right on the money when holding dead on as far as elevation goes. As for the improvement in my windage, it wasn't shooting to the left any longer and I am none to sure what I must have changed to accomplish that. I figure it had been user error on that for the first few volleys and that maybe I was just concentrating a bit more and inadvertently corrected whatever I did wrong in the first place.  Anyway, I like it, it is not an excellent shooter but is a good one and trying out various ammo weights and brands may be the key to getting it dead on the bullseye.

As for the Mosin Nagant, which Brendan had not shot since buying it, we did not have the same luck at improving the group size. Oddly enough all of the groups were also going high and left but the best was a group that fit in an oval about 6" wide by 4" high. Another thing was that while the bolt closed easily enough, it took an awful lot of effort to get it turned up all the way to the point where you could pull it back. After checking it later, I think the fact that there is glazed on dry Cosmoline on a lot of the parts of the bolt may be the cause. A good soaking in a solvent and a good brushing down of all the parts when wet is probably going to help with that.

Of course, there was some shooting where aiming did not matter and I kind of screwed up there. I don't know why I didn't think of it but the thought of shooting Brendan's Bulgarian AK with the drum mags never crossed my mind; heck I didn't even shoot it with the conventional 30 round mags. I had a lot of fun anyway just watching Brendan shoot it, his Mosin Nagant and his Beretta. Of course I had hands on fun shooting my 45s, the SR1911 rifle and his M44 flamethrower. I suppose though it would have been a lot more fun shooting the AK too - hopefully there is always next time. Anyway, as I said, Brendan had some fun shooting it and aiming did not matter much the way he was shooting it.

You just need to watch that short video to realize 

the extra fun  I missed out on. Next time, I will 

make darned sure to shoot a drum-load or three.

 We were probably at the range about an hour when the other guy there left. Shortly after he left, a group of four other shooter showed up, two guys and two gals. They were okay, all seemed pretty safety aware and that was good. We shot for another hour or so and I am pretty sure that without saying it to one another we both were feeling like it might be time to get some eats cause neither one of us had anything but coffee for breakfast. 

At about that point another shooter showed up. We shot awhile longer, maybe 15 or 30 minutes and in that time we realized this guy was a bit of a dickhead when it came to range safety. So, we kept an eye on him. He sat there at his bench, at least twice when the group of four other shooters went to check and fix their targets. Each time, there was a magazine in his AR and the action was closed. When he started shooting later without changing mags it became obvious the gun was loaded when the others were down range. At least he did not touch it then, but we decided no more going downrange.

By that time, two more guys showed up and they were worse than the guy keeping the loaded Ar on the bench with other shooters downrange. First of all, both walked onto the range without ears on while not knowing if the range was hot or not. They were less than safe as to where they pointed their rifles. While one fiddled with his guns on the bench, while the oter four shooters were again downrange, the other went back to the parking lot and came back with a modern legal version of what was essentially a sawed shotgun. He passed my son pointing ait at him. The only thing going for him at that point was he did not have his hands on the gun so his finger was nowhere near the trigger. Yet, it was sitting atop something else he was carrying so then again that was another unsafe act with a gun right there - zero hand control of it.

We did not wait for the two latest arsehats to start shooting and decided to leave immediately. So, we packed up and got our arse to the car. On the way back toward benton, we had hoped to stop at Bubba Brew's Sports Pub & Grill in Bonnerville, AR. As Brendan had guessed, it was closed for the 4th. The thing was, we had passed another of what I am guess is a chain - Bubba Brews - On Lake Hamilton - on the way to the range earlier in the day. I gave them a call and they were open. We an a truy delicious meal there starting off with an appetizer of oysters of the Rocky Mountain variety. First time for Brendan and he liked em. In fact, while a bit too salty they were delicious.

Some tasty tidbits.

For a main course Brendan has fried clam strips and I had their 14 hour Smoked Brisket. We each sampled a bit of the other's main course. Brendan's was excellent but I have to say, Brendan was right when he said that my smoked brisket was the best he ever tasted; I thought the same of it as compared to any I had ever eaten as well. Damn it was wet (fatty), pulled apart with the fork (I asked for a knife then wondered why I had bothered) and extremely delicious. That meal and no traffic of which to speak for the ride back to Brendan's place were the perfect ending to an outstanding Independence Day outing.


As I said, hope yours went as well as ours.

All the best,
Glenn B

Blondes - Sometimes You Have To Wonder, Are They Really...

...as dumb as the stereotype! 

A woman, reported to be a a "fashion branding student", reportedly had a few drinks while donning her new bathing suit. The report goes on to say that after a trip to answer the call of nature, she could not understand why her nether regions were continually being exposed. So, she contacted the swimwear company to complain about it and sent them a photo of her in the ill fitting suit. 

The reply was precious, here is part of it: “I have had a look at the picture you sent and believe you are wearing the swimsuit upside down..."  More here at the source.

I wonder, is she a natural blonde?

All the best,
Glenn B