In With The New - Out With The Old - Goodbye Old Friend

It was a sunny crisp February day two days ago when I drove up to the NYPD range at Rodman’s Neck for my agency’s quarterly qualifications on Tuesday. I was up that way early enough though to make a stop to fortify myself with a hearty breakfast (brunch for you yuppies), so I stopped at the City Island Diner first for a nice helping of bacon and eggs, home fries, toast and coffee. With that all inside of the old furnace I was able to better withstand the cool air at the range over the next several hours. The thing about the range is that even when a day is sunny and has little humidity, it is kind of damp because it is on the water front; and it is virtually always windy or breezy at the least.

As for the business at hand that day, I had to turn in my issue Glock 19. I suppose it was ceremonious on my part, but on Monday night I gave it a good cleaning. It had already been cleaned recently, but certainly not as thoroughly as I did on Monday night. I got into every nook and cranny in my search for fouling, and although there was not much to be found I did come up with a somewhat dirty patch and q-tip or two. Then I packed away the Glock 19 into its original box, with its original set of instructions and warranty paperwork, and with the cleaning rod and feeding device that had come with it. Out of the few folks who had not yet converted to the new issue SIG 229 DAKs, I was the only one who had his Glock in its original box. It really didn’t matter, the head primary firearms instructor took the old pistol, made sure it was unloaded and literally tossed it into a large cardboard box with a bunch of other ones. Then I was handed another gun box, this one containing a supposedly brand new SIG 229 DAK (in .40 S&W), with four 12 round magazines, a gun lock and an instruction manual.

I sat down and took a look inside the box as instructed. Everything was there; but when I checked on the pistol I saw it has a ding on the slide, and further inspection showed it to have an awful lot of fouling and unburned powder residue inside of it. I noted this to the PFI who just told me maybe it was a test gun. I have to wonder if it had been issued and returned for some reason, but will admit that as I shot it that day I could not figure out any such reason so I imagine he may have been right about it being used as a test gun. We got a lecture on the workings of the SIG 229 DAK a double action only pistol. I had heard that scores overall had dropped some when switching to this pistol. I will not name the source but he has been a reliable one and definitely is in the position to know about all of the range scores in my office. During the lecture we were told that was all BS and that scores had improved with this pistol. I found t hard to believe at that moment that scores with a long travel DAO trigger pull would improve over those achieved with a Glock, but time would tell.

After the lecture inside the fairly warm classroom, it was off to the outdoors chill of the range. The temp had already dropped a bit or so it seemed to have done and it was only about 3PM. Once at Frank Range we got to the business of cleaning the new pistols, and especially the mags which had a light coat of something akin to Cosmoline on them. Then we picked up 6 boxes of .40S&W ammo and loaded for some introductory familiarization drills. Even if someone already had been issued one of the SIGs over the past quarter or two, they had to repeat the familiarization drills and that is probably a good idea since the triggers on these things will sure take some getting used to, especially for those of us who had been issued Glocks before. I can say without a doubt that I dreaded the prospect of the long trigger travel necessary to shoot these pistols, and now that I have fired them I dread ever having to use one in a bad situation simply because of the split second longer it seemingly takes to fire each shot as compared to firing a Glock. One thing that we were notified of was that in order for the trigger to reset, it only had to travel about halfway forward, and once a click was heard and sort of felt, the shooter could activate the trigger from that halfway mark and refire the pistol. Of course that would be a good feature in any DAO pistol but then again you would either have to be able to feel or hear that click reliably each time you fired to know when the trigger had rest. What with the added recoil of the 40S&W cartridge, I had a hard time knowing when the trigger was actually reset, and it traveled fully forward at least 75 percent of the time before I realized it had reset. I do not like the amount of trigger travel required from the fully forward trigger position without knowing when the trigger first reset, and I still do not like the amount of trigger travel required even from about the midway point once it has actually reset. In short I do not like the amount of trigger travel required for this pistol.

Other than the amount of trigger travel required, I did not find any fault with this pistol on my first try of it but I must point out that 300 rounds through it is not enough to satisfy me of anything as to this pistols reliability. I much prefer to shot at least 500 rounds through any pistol on its first outing. I had asked for more ammo so I could practice on my own, but we all got the news that ammo is in short supply and that the PFI expects a shipment of about ¾ of a million rounds to come in soon. Once it arrives we will supposedly be issued ammo for practice; and I hope that is correct as I’d like to put it through some of my own testing. As for my day at the range, I will admit I got used to the trigger pull, if not to the recoil, very quickly. Now mind you, I am not a wimp as to recoil, it is simply that firing this will take some getting used to after having fired primarily a 9mm for the past 15 to 20 years or so with the Glock. Man has it been that long, I suppose so, maybe even longer! But I digress, so back to the SIG.

Mine functioned flawlessly. The guy next to me had some problems. He kept getting failures to eject leading to double feeds. I think that was shooter induced, in fact I hope it was, because no pistol costing as much as a SIG should have problems like that. As to cost, how much did they go for? I don’t know, but if you go to this link,  there is an article about the DHS contract with SIG. The price shown for the pistols in a sidebar is over $900 apiece. I cannot believe that is the government price and will have to read the article more than I have already done to see if it mentions the contract price. Yet, even if that is retail, that is darned expensive as compared to something like a Glock which would probably sell at government contract for about half of that by my guess. Again I digress, so let me get back to the shooting of this rather large pistol. Did I say large, funny how the uniformed inspectors at CBP reportedly got smaller versions, and we who work in plain clothes and conceal our pistols got larger ones. Go figure but that is the gooberment for ya.

Like I said, while shooting it, it worked flawlessly, at least mine did. Luckily I had no problems with inadvertently dropping the mags while shooting. What is that about you wonder! Well the PFI explained in the classroom that these have a large overly sensitive magazine release button. As it turns out I had to make a concentrated effort to keep the thumb of my right hand off of it while shooting. In fact we were even told not to take a normal grip of this pistol to avoid hitting the mag release. That is fine at the range, but how many will remember to take that extra step if under fire in a shootout? Leave it to the gooberment to order something that is broken before it ever gets touched! I do not know if anyone on Tuesday dropped any mags because of the design, but to me that seems a design flaw that needs to be addressed immediately, in fact that should have been addressed before the pistol every went into production and if discovered only after production then it should have been remedied before they were ever issued. The other thing I see as a design flaw is the slide stop since it reportedly, again according to our PFI, can be activated by the thumb of the left hand when shooting from a two hand hold unless you hold this pistol differently than I have ever held any other pistol I have fired. I had no problem with that, and I held it a few different ways just to see if I would have the problem. I cannot attest to whether or not anyone else had problems, at the first shoot, but I can tell you there sure seemed to be an awful lot of alibi shots fired, more so than on previous range days when everyone was shooting pistols other than these SIGs.

As for hitting the target, I did well. We shot three qualification courses. Since I also have a Glock 26 as a secondary firearm, I shot twice for qualification with the SIG and once with the Glock. I scored 247 and 249 respectively with the SIG (out of a possible 250). I scored 249 with the Glock. A friend of mine of many years shot 3 perfect scores with the SIG. Some others did well, but it seemed a bunch did not shoot as well, and at least three shooters had to requalify, one at least two extra times before he achieved a passing score. There will be some teething issues with the changeover for some shooters for sure. As for my shooting, since it was getting markedly colder by the time we got around to the quals, I put on leather gloves for the 2nd qual with the SIG. With the gloves on it made the trigger travel seem much less on follow-up shots. The gloves fit well into the trigger guard of the SIG, nowhere near as tight as they went into the Glock trigger guard. I did note that after having fired a good number of rounds through the SIG and then firing the Glock, some of my shots with the Glock were going several inches higher than usual. I attributed this both to wearing gloves and to having been somewhat effected by the long trigger pull of the SIG. What I mean is that once the Glock had fired, as I followed through and came back toward a firing position, I had already tightened my trigger finger somewhat on the trigger (I suppose due to muscle memory of the longer trigger pull on the SIG, and due to the fact that I had on gloves which already had pressure on the trigger a bit with the Glock and its smaller trigger guard area). So I wound up firing when on target but before fully following through on recoil – thus a bit high for some shots. Thus when switching from the SIG to the Glock in the future I will have to make a conscious effort to remember the qualities of the trigger pull on each. Although I don’t think would have happened without my having on gloves, it did happen nonetheless. Things likes this are one reason that I strongly recommend carry a backup pistol that is essentially the same as your primary handgun in almost all respects; that way there is no adjustment that you need to make between firing one or the other. As to other operation of the Glock as compared to the SIG, everything else is similar enough to not require any drastic change in how to operate one from the other when shooting.

Taking the gun down for cleaning is a breeze, and I much prefer the method used to disassemble the SIG as compared to that of the Glock. Yes it is also very easy to disassemble a Glock, but the Glock requires that you activate the trigger to be able to field strip it. This is not good in my estimation and can lead, and probably has led, to unintentional discharges of Glocks. With the SIG, you take out the source of ammo (the magazine), then empty any round out of the chamber that might be in it, then lock the slide to the rear. Once the slide is locked back you can operate the disassembly lever on the left side of the frame and then pull the slide off of the frame. Remove the recoil spring and guide rod, then take the barrel from the slide, then clean it. Reassembly is also a snap. Where as the Glocks did not like it wet, the SIG reportedly likes it wet so a good application of oil was recommended to all metal parts that move against one another.

I have noted one thing about the SIG that is of some concern to me, and just noticed that this morning. While it is a DAO pistol, and the hammer is bobbed so you can not manually cock it with your thumb, and the interior section of the hammer apparently has no full cock notch, the SIG can be set at what amounts to half cock by partial activation of the trigger. That in itself is of little concern to me as it seems the amount of trigger travel required to fire the pistol from half cock is the same as if it were fired from an uncocked position. What is of concern is that if someone inadvertently places enough pressure on the trigger to have the hammer go into what seems to amount to the half cock position, there is no way to decock the pistol from that position without activating the trigger to its full extent. That is at first glance. I have to check the manual on that, but I did not see any decocking or safety lever on the SIG, and we were not given any instruction about that at the range or in the classroom. Of course, I plan to point this out to the firearms instructors as soon as feasible. I imagine the biggest risk with the pistol being at half cock would be if it was dropped and could fire from that position. Our instructors told us that these pistols have been drop tested repeatedly and have not fired, but I wonder if they were first set in the half cock position and dropped in that condition, or were just drop tested with the hammer fully down! The other problem I see with the pistol being able to go into half cock, is that some shooter not as familiar with guns as another, might see the pistol in that condition and then try to remedy it or get it back to hammer down position and may wind up pulling the trigger on a live round having been distracted by the problem of how to drop the hammer. Yes that would be an idiot, but they are out there, a few even working for government law enforcement agencies. I need to make a phone call on that pronto, so my article ends here.

Edited on 02/21/09 to add: Okay, so it did not end there where I just said it ended the reason being that I have some info on the half cock thing. It is a normal feature for this pistol, albeit a very confusing one at least for me. One of the range officers told me it is normal, and they forgot to mention it in the classroom the day I was there. He was happy I brought it back to mind because they want to make sure everyone knows it a normal feature of these pistols. The thing that confuses me is there is no reason I can see for having the pistol go into half cock when you pull the slide back and then let it slingshot forward. I guess it could be looked at as an indicator that you just loaded the pistol if you had a mag in it when you pulled back and slingshotted the slide, but why bother? Now you are left with a half cocked pistol, with no way of lowering the hammer except to unload the gun and squeeze the trigger. Yep, that is right, there is no decocking mechanism. Now mind you, the hammer being partially back does not indicate there is a round in the chamber, you can do the same thing without any ammo in the gun - so again I say why bother. All I see the half cocked hammer as being is a place into which lint and other debris can gather to screw up the works. It seem ridiculous to me to have this gun go into half cock each time you activate the slide. Of course maybe SIG has a good reason for this, but if they do I have to wonder why it is not mentioned in the manual.

Edited on 01/25/2011 to add: After a good long while of shooting the SIG 226 DAK, there are some issues with it that I would like to point out or reiterate. Quite a few of the other agents, with whom I qualified, inadvertently hit the magazine release while shooting it (and a few did so while holstering or drawing it) causing the magazine to fall out our at least pop out part way. This was a problem for several shooters and happened again and again. Another problem was with the slide stop being activated while shooting. It happened over and over again throughout several qualifications for some of the shooters and took a long while for them to adjust their grip to avoid doing so. Then there are the grip screws and the frame material. The screws are steel and the screw holes are in an aluminum alloy frame. They were easy to over tighten and thus to ruin the threads in the frame. In addition, the screws became easily rusted in normal use of the pistol, much more easily than in any other pistol I have owned .(I am guessing because of the quality of the steel or the finish or both as I am talking rust while being worn in the holster without a lot of sweat getting on them.) As I think I said earlier, I also do not like the trigger pull, too much travel and too heavy. I got used to it but much preferred the trigger on my previously issued Glock 19 and personal Glock 26.

Later for you.

All the best,
GB

Backups??????

Anyone know how I can go about backing up all of my rants in this blog. Is there some way to do it with a few mouse clicks, or do I have to cut and paste every blog I have ever written here individually (I hope not)?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Never mind, I found out myself, and I was very surprised at how easy it was to do. Of course it backed up text and no photos, but that is okay by me for now, although I would like to figure out how to back up those photos along with the text all as one integral blog file.

All the best,
Glenn B

Anyone Want To Guess...

...just how I spent a few hours on one recent afternoon and evening? One look at the pic should give you a pretty good idea. (I actually did not use the oven cleaner although I had thought I would need it.)

What a pain in the behind it was too, especially because once I was done I found out that the gas tube on my newly acquired SKS did not fit right. Yep, that means I finally got a replacement Yugo SKS from SAMCO after returning the one they initially sent me as 'new' but that had repaired damage on it.

This one was supposed to be 'new' too, but I noticed right away that the price was about $20 or $30 less, and then saw the serial numbers on the stock and handguards did not match one another, nor did they match any of the serialized metal parts! No wonder the gas tube did not fit properly. Then there is also the gas valve that has corrosion on it, blued over corrosion at that. Otherwise it is in very good condition maybe even excellent (mind you I said otherwise), albeit refinished condition. It just ain't new - no way - not even 'new' for an arsenal refinish.

I do not understand exactly what is up with ordering from SAMCO - but I am wondering if they have a problem with the word 'new' when they describe their products, or if they think I am a moron, or are they simply inept! I sent em an email requesting either a refund, or a replacement gas tube and if that fits told em I would keep the SKS - but if not then they have to give me a full refund and I'll return it. I don't know if I want to go through this a third time, so if I get a refund this time around I may just cancel the whole order. Then again third time could be the charm. Decisions, darned decisions!

All the best,
GB

Biweekly Gun Shots 4 - Remington Model 1858 New Army (by Cabelas)

What's this? Two revolvers in a row. You betcha! This one is a black powder reproduction of the Remington 1858 New Army. The particular one pictured is available through Cabelas (I believe it is made for them by Pietta). This is one big sized revolver, and I guess a lot of that is due to its .44 caliber. It needs the heft to control the round and load needed to propel it. It weighs in at 2 pounds 11 ounces, is 14" long and has an 8" barrel. An extra nice feature of this revolver is that it has interchangeable cylinders. No not so that you can fire another caliber, but so that you can reload 6 rounds swiftly. I don't know if this is the same model of gun, but it reminds me of the one used by Clint Eastwood, in one of his westerns years ago, where the character changed cylinders to reload. This is available from Cabelas right now at the sale price of $189.99. For a bit more it is available with target sights, and there are other models also available such as one with case hardened steel, and another with a brass frame. Go here for more info on this particular model:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0006195210082a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=remington+army&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1.

I cannot afford one right now (nothing new) otherwise I would pick it up at the sale price . I have owned one or two black powder pistols over the years and I have got to say they are lots of fun. The one that comes to mind immediately was a cap and ball Derringer. I put that one together from a kit. It was a load of fun; but a six shooter in a black powder firearm as opposed to that single shot Derringer, and one for which you can get additional cylinders, sounds like an absolute blast.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Obamessiah Obsession

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell on earth. Their very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be 'cured' against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with imbeciles, infants and domestic animals. - C.S. Lewis, from 'God In The Dock' (A doff of my virtual hat to Pete K who sent me part of that quote relative to our current financial mess and politics.)

It is a good warning appropriate and applicable to the politics of today, especially so to our current administration under President Obama. Will it be heeded? I tend to doubt it, not at least until it is too late and certainly not before almost irreparable harm has been done to our nation and to our Constitution. Why is this so? Under President Obama, and under politics of the far left in general, too many people want to be among the moral busybodies who need, who are compelled by their own egos, to do good for others, to make sure that we live life as we should but always according to them. Too many believe they are in some way morally, intellectually, politically, financially, ethically, or somehow else superior to the rest of us and they are of the firm belief that they must make life better for the rest of us by ruling over us with the full force of a tyranny. They are compelled by their own conscience, their own inner demons, to do so; now the rest of us must suffer the whims, urges, compulsions, of these demons while they who exercise their will over us take solace from those same demons as if sent from Heaven itself. Sooner or later this form of government, the Nanny State as we call it today, or that of the 'benign' Depot, leads to one thing and one thing alone - revolution! The sad result is that revolution all too often results in the same type of government all over again. With luck though, and with hard work - good planning - a realization that each of us is worth his salt if we have earned it (and earn it we must), then at least for a brief spell in the scheme of things tyranny will be defeated and something akin to our great Republic will be the type of government to emerge from the battle for self rule as governed by law, and for freedom and liberty. One can only hope that someone in Washington will come to the realization that we are more than barnyard animals or mindless imbeciles before it is too late.

All the best,
Glenn B

Biweekly Gun Shots 3 - The Ruger New Model Blackhawk Convertible

I cannot recall myself ever owning a single action only revolver, so that would be something new for me. Going with the concept of 'new' I figure that a gun with new in the name would fit right in. The one I have chosen for this edition of Biweekly Gun Shots is the Ruger New Model Blackhawk Convertible in .45 Long Colt/.45 Auto. Yep it can fire both and comes with interchangeable cylinders one for each caliber. Being that I have never owned a firearm in .45 caliber of any sort, this would be another new addition for me. Now if I opted to be on the frugal side then I'd go for this fine revolver in .357/9mm. It would be a tough choice, but if I had enough money to buy what I wanted, I think I would opt for the .45 first just for a plinker. Of course it would be a pretty good gun to have in hand if some evil doer broke into my home and tried to harm my family or myself although I must admit, in that case I would much prefer a double action handgun, or my Remington 870 to be in hand.

The .45 version of this revolver is available with either 4 5/8" or 5 1/2" barrels. They both come with a blued finish, ramp front sight, adjustable rear sight, have a western style grip. The shorter barreled version weighs in at 42 ounces, and its length is 10 1/2". Its barrel has 6 grooves with 1:16" RH twist. The longer barreled version weighs in at 44 ounces. It has an overall length of 11 1/4". The grooves and twist specs are the same as for the shorter barreled version. The cylinders of each hold 6 rounds. The MSRP is just under $600. (All this info can be found on the Ruger site at http://www.ruger.com/Firearms/FAProdResults?function=famid&famid=19&variation=.45%20Colt%20/%20.45%20Auto%20Convertible&bct=Yes&type=Revolver.) By the way, the one shown in the pic is the BN-455XL (the 5 1/2" version) as opposed to the shorter BN-44XL not shown

I could just imagine myself having to get western cut jeans and a pair of decent boots before going out to shoot this one. Nah, not really but the attire would fit right in with the gun, that is for sure.

All the best,

Glenn B

Today In History - The Saving of a Monarch

I am monarch of all I survey,

My right there is none to dispute;

From the centre all round to the sea,

I am lord of the fowl and the brute.

You may have heard or read those words before, I know they are familiar to me, but the truth be told I never knew to whom they referred or the why of them. As a matter of fact, I never read the rest of the poem, and as can already been seen in the second stanza, being monarch of all you survey may not be such a good thing as you might expect:

O solitude! where are the charms

That sages have seen in thy face?
Better dwell in the midst of alarms

Than reign in this horrible place.

On this day in history in 1709, the reign of that monarch in "this horrible place" finally came to its long hoped for end when Alexander Selkirk departed Juan Fernandez Island off the coast of Chile. His stay there had been a lonely one as a castaway, a long lonely one. He had been on the island for about 4 years and 4 months without another soul to keep him company.

While my guess is that you are not likely familiar with the exploits of Selkirk, or indeed even with mention of his name, you are most probably quite familiar with the name of the fictional character whose time stranded on a desert island was probably based upon Selkirk's real life ordeal. You see, Selkirk was likely the inspiration for Daniel DeFoe's Robinson Crusoe. My guess is you have heard the Crusoe name before. After reading the brief account of Selkirk's time on the island, and after reading a poem he supposedly wrote about it, I have to say he was a strong willed man to have toughed it out, especially after twice finding it necessary to hide from possible antagonists who landed on the island before his rescue. Talk about Survivorman - this was the real deal. Check out the references below to learn a bit more about the man, the real Robinson Crusoe!

All the best,
Glenn B

references:

http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Selkirk

http://www.poeticbyway.com/xcowper.htm for the complete poem supposedly penned by Selkirk himself.

Ah, The Glories of Socialized Medicine...

...or should that be the 'GORIES'.

Twenty-two (22) people have lost their site in either one or both eyes after free cataract surgery offered by the government of India. Now before you start saying oh that is in India so please do not make an analogy to the USA, please bear in mind all of those doctors and nurses named Patel (or with some other Indian name) - so yes it could happen here too. You see (definitely no pun intended), it is not the fault of doctors of Indian descent, it is the fault of the type of medicine being practiced, and that type is socialized government has the answer to everything medicine. Government control of such aspects of our economies does not work. It does not work in Canada, China, England, Germany, India or elsewhere. This is just another warning from outside of our borders that if we turn to socialized medicine, then our medical system is due to fail catastrophically.

Read the article here:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,490828,00.html

All the best,
Glenn B

Bad Week For Blogging - So Far (graphic)

...and I can only hope that by some miracle my week will improve. Everything was gong pretty much fine right up until Sunday evening. Well, wait a minute, that is just not right. it was just another weekend last weekend for me. Things were going normally for me, which certainly does not mean everything was fine, I guess I have become rather immune to somethings having to be crappy that I sometimes do not even notice them or otherwise except them as ordinary. On Saturday I visited my mom in the rehab center, and she knew who I was and was happy to see me so that was good. I stayed with her a couple of hours but she just kept nodding off. Before I left though she made sure to tell me to see my Aunt Jackie soon really not my aunt but my Godmother and like my mom very old and in frail health. So before I left my mom, I dialed up my aunt so the two of them could chat awhile, and I could ask her if she wanted me to pick her up someday soon to visit with my mom. My aunt did not answer the phone, so I left a message for her. Later, once home on Saturday night, I kind of felt short of breath and very run down, it was one of those all of a sudden type things.

On Sunday the day was a nice one, I got up and did some things that needed doing. Then I was off to a meeting of the Long Island Herpetological Society. I enjoy the company of some fine friends there as usual, then headed home. By the time I got home I was feeling a bit under the weather, a sore lower back and a headache at the top sides of my head and at the base of my head where it meets the neck.When I walked passed a mirror and took a look, I saw a peaked reflection in the mirror. I guess it was about 7:00PM when unexpectedly the damn burst. The flood cometh and the waters were muddy. I was sick like that until about 4PM yesterday, and was literally ill over 40 times in 2 days. You would think I had dysentery, and I wondered when the waters turned from muddy to black and I had not eaten or drank anything other than water in over 36 hours when that change came about. The most amazing thing of all throughout all of this was that I did not wind up needing to be hospitalized due to dehydration. The second most amazing thing was that I did not eat a single morsel of food in 46 hours. Though I had my first meal last night, a can of chicken noodle soup, and had a small light sandwich later, and a couple of pieces of toast today, I must say I am none to hungry. Matter of fact I am still feeling squeamish about eating, not so much because I dread another bout of the runs, but because after eating I feel sickly and weak again - go figure.

I was not really thinking about anything getting worse last night, but before it started to get better last night, things took a turn for the worse, much worse. Well truth is they had already turned that way, I had just not found out until last night. My Aunt Jackie went in to the hospital for cardiac arrest on Friday, she passed away on Tuesday. My sister called and gave me the news last night. Now we are debating whether or not to tell my mom. I would prefer telling her, even taking her to the funeral parlor if possible. It is a difficult decision to make because my mom is not in good shape either. Finding out will be tough for her, very tough. She and my aunt were long time best friends, since grammar school, and I do mean best friends. They were members of the 24 club, and my mom is one of the few surviving members of the club having been born in 1924. I will regret not having seen my aunt in recent memory, shame on me for that. She was as good a Godmother as one could hope for and helped put some joy into what was an otherwise pretty troubled childhood.

This morning I felt quite the bit better heath wise. I even drove myself to the doctor's office for a checkup. All she told me was that I probably have a bad stomach virus that seems to be going round but that I also seem to be getting better. Heck I could have told her that. I spent most of that day today recuperating. Could things be any worse? Well not really worse but some annoyance added to the mix. This afternoon, I found out my government car parked out front has a parking ticket on it, because we have alternate side of the street parking, and it belonged on the other side of the street on Tuesday. I just moved it to a spot around the block and that was a major effort. Guess who has to pay the ticket - yep me. Usually we get away with it, but my boss decided if I get one parked at home I also get to pay it. Hopefully they will reconsider because I have been so ill, but in the end it is up to the judge here where I live and he is no friend of mine.

So, sorry I have not blogged more this week, but I think you can understand why I have not kept up on it. I'll give you some good stuff by the weekend, I have a new Yugo SKS to write about (yep SAMCO sent me a replacement for the other one that I returned to them).

Its been a tough few days; and even right now things seem to be getting a bit tougher as I type. I am again starting to feel much more run down, weak, and the headache and backache seem to be coming back. I almost cannot believe that moving my car, and now sitting here and writing this have made me feel so weak again. So for now I am calling it quits, I am going to go lay down to rest so that maybe tomorrow I'll have enough strength to attend the funeral parlor services.

All the best,
Glenn B

Biweekly Gunshots 2 - The Beretta Jetfire

Okay, the first guns that appeared in this feature were rifles, pretty rugged ones at that and suitable for all sorts of jobs from hunting, to home defense, to possible military or law enforcement use. For the second my Biweekly Gun Shots feature I thought I’d stick with a defensive firearm, but a diminutive one at that. So small in fact that many consider it a waste of metal and plastic as far as self defense goes. I beg to differ, and I can tell you I would depend upon one of them as a last ditch backup piece any day of the week. In fact, I have owned at least 4 (and if I recall right actually 5) of these small pistols.

The pistol to which I am referring is a fine piece of craftsmanship whether you are lucky enough to find one of the Italian made ones, or buy a more current production American made edition of it. It is the Beretta Jetfire (model 950) in .25 caliber. Please do not mistake this small pistol with the Beretta Model 21, it is a significantly different pistol. I am not taking anything away from the model 21, it is a good little pistol. I am, however, saying that I wish Beretta could have manufactured the Jetfire in .22LR (as they did with the model 21) instead of just manufacturing it for .25 and .22 short calibers. The Jetfire in my opinion is a much better made and much better functioning pistol than is the model 21 (and as I said the 21 is a good pistol); but for whatever reason Beretta declined to chamber them in .22LR.

All of the ones I have owned were chambered in .25 caliber as I remember; but I owned my last one many years ago and memory may fail me on that. So, I could have owned one in .22 short but I think not. Yes, I know, the .25 caliber round is considered virtually ineffectual at best and totally useless at worst. Again, I beg to differ. The Beretta Jetfire pistol came with blued steel slide and barrel, a black anodized alloy receiver, and black plastic grips. It was able to hold 9 rounds fully loaded, 1 in the chamber and 8 rounds in the box magazine. They can be loaded via the magazine, or individually by operating the barrel pop up feature and feeding single rounds into the chamber (same as the barrel pop up feature on the 21 series). The sights consist of a small hump front sight, and a groove cut into the top and rear of slide. It was single action only pistol and could be carried cocked and locked, though I usually carried mine in a pocket with hammer down on a live chamber. Mind you not the safest way to carry this little pistol as it had an inertia firing pin, but safe enough for me at the time, and safer than with it cocked and locked. With its small size it fit very nicely into a pants pocket, or into a boot holster. In fact it was easy to conceal almost anywhere on the body. I knew one supervisory Border Patrol Agent who had one and carried it exclusively in his boot as a backup weapon. To that end he removed the plastic grips and replaced them with sheet metal grips of his own making. He just cut out two pieces of sheet metal with the same perimeter as the grips and drilled in some screw holes slightly counter sunk. They made it all the more concealable because the grip are was now thinner and flatter. NOTE: Never try this with a model 21 series pistol from Beretta. The Model 21 I owned had its recoil spring set under the grips, and that spring was dependent upon the grips on each side for holding the springs in place. In fact, I do not even recommend this modification with a Jetfire even though the design back then did not make the recoil spring dependent upon the grips.

As for being easy on the draw, it was quite easy to draw from a pocket, or a holster, or a boot, or a handbag, or wherever due to its small size. Once it hand all the controls such as the thumb safety, the barrel release, or the hammer were easy to find and operate. The trigger was smooth and crisp on all of the ones I owned. As for accuracy it was pretty accurate and I could easily place shots, using the sights, into center mass on a man sized silhouette at up to 15 yards. I was able to do the same at 25 yards to, but it was not as easy as at 15 yards. At 7 yards or less it was a point and shoot type of pistol, and for me it always hit that at which I had pointed it.

If the Jetfire been chambered in .22LR, it would have been a much more fun gun to shoot. The .25 caliber rounds are centerfire ammunition and therefore are quite expensive. As for the Jetfire in .22 short, while the ammo was not as expensive as .25, it was at least two to three times as expensive as was .22LR. Despite the ammunition, this is a well made little pistol that is good for a last ditch effort pocket gun. It is made well, and stands up to a lot of abuse but what else would expect from Beretta! As for me having owned 4 or 5 of them, I wound up selling at least two maybe three because I wanted to buy something bigger. Then I wanted something smaller and got another each time. Two other ones – well they succumbed to corrosion, but that was to be expected considering the conditions. One was a constant companion pocket gun in the sweltering heat of Calexico, CA and it got both soaked with perspiration and covered with salt from salt cedars. After a while (about 2 years of that), no matter how often I cleaned it and oiled it, it gave way to some surface rust. I liked the pistol more than enough to promptly buy another. My last Jetfire was in my pocket when on a detail to Key Largo, FL when we loaded bale after bale of seized marijuana onto a boat. First we had to carry it through the water to get it back to the boat from the mangrove swamp in which it had been dropped off. Did I neglect to mention it was saltwater. I forgot it was in my pocket and many hours later (about 10 or 12) finally remembered it. Oh well! Even had that one been stainless steel, it probably would have corroded quite a bit. As I said though great little pistols, I would have another anytime and hopefully not put them through as much abuse as I did some of my previous ones.

All the best,
Glenn B

Biweekly Gun Shots 1 - The Saiga Rifles

This will be a new feature of my blog, and will probably appear biweekly (as in twice per week - not every two weeks). It will be one in which I present pics of guns I'd like to own (or of other guns of note even including clunkers now and then). That is if I ever become wealthy enough to be able to afford them (maybe once the son is out of college but by then my wife will probably want a cruise around the world, and why not). So lets get right to it.

I am going to start out simple, with a rifle that I'd like to own right now, and one for which I have been waiting arrival at my local gun store. Ever since my purchase of a Yugoslavian SKS through SAMCO fell through because they sent me a rifle in condition other than what I ordered (and I returned it for a refund), I decided to look for something else that would be somewhat similar in price range, design and function to an SKS. I came up with what I think is a fine choice although the design certainly differs somewhat but not all that much for my purposes, and the function is just as good from what I have heard. As far as price goes, well they have gone up in price since the recent election of our 44th president.

The rifle I am talking about is the SAIGA in 7.62x39 (click to enlarge the pic). It sure looks to be a handy rifle for defensive purposes, and I am willing to bet it would be a load of fun at the range. Of course that is it would be a load of fun at the range if the price of 7.62x39 ammo ever comes back down to earth (now $399.99 at CheaperThanDirt.com for a case of 1,000 rounds). Despite the price of ammo, and I suppose due to the fact that I have some on hand in the ammo locker, I suppose I still could have a good deal of fun shooting one if they ever again become available. I mean I'd like to do my share of stimulating the economy and buying one of these for starters would be my way of chipping in to the economic stimulus package. For more info on this model go to: http://www.raacfirearms.com/Saiga.htm

I am patiently awaiting the arrival of an ordered batch of these rifles at the gun store just a few blocks from my house. Now, if they don't get in one of these in 7.62x39 before they get in one in .308, well I may just be tempted to go for one in the larger caliber. Sure it will be more expensive, and so too will the ammo over the long haul, but the Saiga in .308 sure is pretty, well at least the .308 Ver. 21 is pretty, take a look. For more info go here: http://www.raacfirearms.com/Saiga_308v21.htm. They also offer a more mundane version in .308 without the thumb-hole stock.

Of course, they also offer yet another version, in both of the above mentioned calibers and .223. This one comes with the option of a more tactical looking stock, although I don't know if it is truly tacticool enough for Mall Ninjas. I do like the look of it though, and if this one became available first, I'd likely go for it. Why am I not all that choosy about the one I'd take if they had it in stock - just that - they its the if factor! The if they had it in stock! Right now I cannot find any of these anywhere. I suppose they sold out very quickly after our latest president was elected.

The decision would not be difficult to make if they just get one of em in, but if they get all of the above models in at once with all of the available calibers, well them it may take me all of 5 minutes, a few coin tosses, a quick discussion with Brendan, and a count of cash on hand for me to make up my mind.

All the best,

Glenn B

Two Heroes To Note In One Week.

Earlier this week I celebrated one of the happier days of each of my years for as far back as I can remember, this year it was extra special because the Ground Hog on Staten Island, NY bit mayor Michael Bloomberg. Too bad it did not sever an artery. I got a bit of amusement out of that if only because it showed that even a rodent knew Bloomberg was an enemy.

Today is another day in February that I celebrate, but a much more serious one. Today is the birthday of the greatest president within my lifetime. No, I do not mean Jimmy E. Carter Jr., Barack H. Obama, Lyndon B. Johnson, George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Gerald R. Ford, George H.W. Bush, Richard M. Nixon, Dwight D. Eisenhower (you will note I listed them in ascending order as to level of their worth as president in my opinion - but that can change as the current one carries out his term).

I do mean Ronald W. Reagan. He was a true man among men, a true leader of our nation, a guiding light to the rest of the world. He simply was the best who got more accomplished in his tenure as president than any other president I have experienced during my 50 plus years on this earth. Today I salute him and his memory.

All the best,
Glenn B

One Victory For Taxpayers

That victory would be that the alleged tax cheat Daschle is out! Good riddance. Hopefully he will also resign his seat in Congress (edited: My mistake, I guess he is no longer in Congress having lost his last election). As I see him he is probably a crook and a tax cheat, and does not deserve to be in a seat of authority. I heard a democrat senator today saying how wonderful is Tom Daschle's integrity - I guess that means whoever was saying that just has absolutely no clue as to the meaning of integrity!

My bet is that the calls placed to elected officials had a lot to do with this. I tried calling my senators today and got a busy signal about 30 times each. I also tried to write to the White House but the email would not go through. is that because the new President has changed things and doe snot allow The People to send emails, or maybe because they were so inundated by them today that the systems could not handle all of them.

If you contacted a senator, representative or the president's office to oppose the appointment of Tom Daschle - good for you. We won a small victory today.

All the best,
Glenn B

Economic Stimulus - Let's Get Transparent

I tend to imagine that the politicians involved in the economic stimulus dealing in Congress right now are mostly hypocrites, at least they who are trying to get this bailout (or whatever they want to call it) pushed through so they can give away our billions and billions of tax dollars to the already rich. Here is how I figure it:

1. President Obama and most of the Democrats are all screaming at the rich saying they need to pay more taxes, that is not just that they pay more based upon a flat rate for everyone whereby they make more then of course they pay more, but they want an actual higher tax rate for them. There is already such a rate system in place and they already pay more but that does not matter to the Obamites, they want the wealthy to pay at an even higher rate so the poor will have more - or so they say. The glitch of hypocrisy here is that they also want to give hundreds of billions of our dollars directly to the already rich to bail them out. So they have to pay higher taxes but get to use the taxpayers money in order to do so. Yes folks once the government give the the so called Economic stimulus, any taxes they pay can be paid with that money. So they are getting off absolutely free and who suffers. The middle class will suffer most, the class that socialists have always tried to eliminate.

2. All the politicians are screaming that people need to pay their fair share of taxes, and that means a higher rate for those with more money. Yet two people recently in the limelight have not paid their taxes, at least not until they were caught not paying them. Then they suddenly found the ways and means to cough it up to the tax man, but only so they could get into positions of power in our government. If an IRS employee failed to pay some of his or her taxes over a few years period they would likely be fired and have the case referred to the office of the United States Attorney in the relative district for federal criminal prosecution. I have to wonder, since President Obama apparently favors tax cheats, will the cases of Daschle and Geitner go to the office of the U.S. Attorney for criminal prosecution! You can bet not, anyway I certainly am betting that way; and if by some chance they do - you can bet they actually will not be prosecuted.

3. There has been a lot of talk coming from President Obama's mouth about transparency in government. Okay let's see that in action. Let's see if he and every Congressperson (yes every Senator and every Representative) will allow us to see their stock and bond dealings. Most of them are screaming for us to give our money, in the forms of hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, to all sorts of businesses that are failing. Some of those business, apparently the worst off, include two major automobile manufacturers, many banks, many mortgage companies, many giants in the financial industry - all business who sold stocks and bonds. If the financial bailout (aka: the economic stimulus package) is really such a good thing, then politicians should have faith in these companies in that once they have received stimulus monies they will recover and recover strongly. The proof is in the pudding so to speak so lets see some transparency to the pudding. We should demand, and elected officials - each and everyone of them from the president to the vice president, to the senators to those in the house of Representatives should show us their stock and bond portfolios. Why, because then we would see if they truly believed that the stimulus package would work or not because those who believed it would all be holding stocks and bonds in the companies who need stimulus money. In fact if they are not holding stocks and bonds it would be obvious they have little faith in the stimulus plan, and if they recently sold whatever stocks and bonds they had it would be even more proof to that hypothesis. of course a shrewd one may buy up all the stock he can right before the money is doled out hoping to make a killing when his stocks in a particular company are revitalized by a bailout. That guy should just be arrested outright because such would be a felony conflict of interest. No matter how you look at this the criminal mind can prosper.

Hey wait a minute, what did I just say about criminal minds prospering. That thought goes right back to alleged tax cheats being supported by the president and allowed into high power political appointments. As far as I can see, it is all hypocrisy folks, it is all a scam, if you do not see it you are blind. Maybe you have been blinded by all that pudding, well I say let's force them to make it transparent so we can see for ourselves how much faith these elected officials and political appointees have in their own plan. Call your senators and representatives today and demand transparency and also demand that they vote down the economic stimulus package because all it amounts to is robbing the tax payer!

All the best,
Glenn B

Pittsburg Super Bowl 43 Champs - and Me I Am The Big Money Winner

Yes folks, this evening I put my money on the Pittsburgh Steelers is for no other reason than they have been in Pittsburgh for as long as I can remember, and that goes as far back as when I used to be a football fan. Those Arizona Cardinals, on the other hand, just seem to flit around way to much from one home to another. Then of course there was that other reason, both Brendan and Julia told me they were rooting for the cardinals, and so was Onkel Hans at whose home we were about to watch at least the first half of the game (we'd have to leave at half time so Brendan could drive Julia back to her college, but I got to watch the rest of the game at home). With them deciding to go for the other team, I decided to make a big money wager on my team and that is just what I did to show my faith was in them all the way.

From the early score by Pittsburgh, to the absolutely awesome all time Super Bowl record touchdown/interception return run (or whatever you call it), to the touchdown with less than a minute to go, to the fumble caused by the Pittsburgh defense with seconds remaining - Pittsburgh did not let me down. Now I have got to point out, those Cardinals sure helped make it one heck on an exciting game. No matter which way it turned out that was one amazing 60 minutes of football; and it just so happened that it turned out in my favor! Thanks to the play of Pittsburgh, the nonstop full 60 minutes of play, I am so much the richer tonight.

Well, at least I will be so much the richer when my son pays me the single dollar I won from him. Now that I think of it, I just gave him eight bucks in singles I had in my pocket for a bit of extra pocket change, and all I'll be getting is one of my own dollars back. Oh well it was an exciting game anyway. I may have that dollar framed, but my bet is Brendan would like to burn it.

All the best,
Glenn B

HR 197 - National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2009 - Just So Much Window Dressing

I just read about HR 197 over at Cap'n Bob & the Damsel. Then I checked it out a bit further. Here is a link to a site that gives information about it: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-197 and I have copied and pasted the full text of the bill below. Before you read it, let me tell you what I think of it. It is a great bill, it is about time that someone introduced such legislation but whom is this Representative trying to kid by introducing this bill under the current regime administration. It it would have been well worth contacting our Representatives and Senators to show our support of it if it had been introduced during an administration that was in any even tiny way friendly toward the right to keep and bear arms. The fact is that it has been submitted to committee under what seems to be the most anti-gun administration within my lifetime, and probably within the lifetime of our nation. Does the Honorable Representative Clifford Stearns of Florida, who introduced this bill, actually think it even has a chance of passing through and surviving committee? Does the Honorable Rick Boucher believe that his co-sponsorship of this bill will matter? I just find it all to be wishful thinking.

Having said all of that, will I support the bill. You bet I will. I will be making calls, sending emails, writing and mailing letters to my elected representative Carolyn McCarthy all the while knowing it will do absolutely no good in swaying her mind on the issue of gun control. She is the most rabidly anti-gun person I can think of in the United States. Yeah, I know, her hubby was killed by a lunatic gunman on the Long Island Railroad, and she rode that fact all the way into a seat in Congress. She still hangs her hat on it too. I can feel for her, but I sure would never vote for her, not with her anti-gun agenda; but I will try to sway her over to our side regardless. It is too bad she did not strike out against the real culprit in the case of her husband's murder - she should have called for the death penalty against the dirtbag who killed him. Then she should have tried to make it so that every citizen could be armed for self defense and defense of the Constitution. Had her husband, son and others on the train been armed, maybe they would have killed the criminal instead of being shot themselves.

The thing is that is my way of thinking and not hers. The thing is that the HR 197 bill is Representative Clifford Stearns' way of thinking not hers, and not the rest of Congress' either. It is a real shame that this bill was not introduced at a better time, when it at least stood a chance of becoming law. It is, by my guess, just so much window dressing for something else that Jones has up his sleeve. Of course, I have been wrong before on matters of great importance like this one and that is why you can bet your bottom dollar that I will support it just as I said I will do. If enough people support it, well maybe it will pass, or at least make us feel good that we tried getting it passed. Wasn't it our current president who said his administration will be one of change? What a change this would be indeed!

Without further babble from me, here is the text of the bill:


HR 197 IH

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 197

To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a national standard in accordance with which nonresidents of a State may carry concealed firearms in the State.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 6, 2009

Mr. STEARNS (for himself and Mr. BOUCHER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a national standard in accordance with which nonresidents of a State may carry concealed firearms in the State.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2009’.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL STANDARD FOR THE CARRYING OF CERTAIN CONCEALED FIREARMS BY NONRESIDENTS.

(a) In General- Chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 926C the following:

‘Sec. 926D. National standard for the carrying of certain concealed firearms by nonresidents

‘(a) Notwithstanding any provision of the law of any State or political subdivision thereof, a person who is not prohibited by Federal law from possessing, transporting, shipping, or receiving a firearm and is carrying a valid license or permit which is issued by a State and which permits the person to carry a concealed firearm (other than a machinegun or destructive device) may carry in another State a concealed firearm (other than a machinegun or destructive device) that has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce, subject to subsection (b).

‘(b)(1) If such other State issues licenses or permits to carry concealed firearms, the person may carry a concealed firearm in the State under the same restrictions which apply to the carrying of a concealed firearm by a person to whom the State has issued such a license or permit.

‘(2) If such other State does not issue licenses or permits to carry concealed firearms, the person may not, in the State, carry a concealed firearm in a police station, in a public detention facility, in a courthouse, in a public polling place, at a meeting of a State, county, or municipal governing body, in a school, at a professional or school athletic event not related to firearms, in a portion of an establishment licensed by the State to dispense alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, or inside the sterile or passenger area of an airport, except to the extent expressly permitted by State law.’.

(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of sections for such chapter is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 926C the following:

‘926D. National standard for the carrying of certain concealed firearms by nonresidents.’.

Well there it is. I recommend supporting it, but just not getting your hopes up too high.

All the best,
Glenn B

Onkel Hans' Super Bowl Party...

...will kick off at about 5PM this evening. Brendan, Julia and I will be going and I imagine he will have a couple of other folks over. He is planning on having pizza, a 3 foot hero, and some good bier. I told him that this time, instead of bringing a case of Warsteiner, I would bring horses ovaries hors d'oeuvres. So last night I went out and stocked up on shrimp, squid, cuttlefish, clams, small thin rib eye steaks, pork bellies, shitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, small (and I mean tiny) white potatoes, pearl onions, green onions (scallions).

I browned the pork bellies and rib eye steak, same for the mushrooms in extra virgin olive oil (heck I have never heard of an extra virgin maiden but that could be interesting), added lots of salt, garlic and black pepper while doing so. Then I threw all that into a nice sized dutch oven along with the potatoes, a few ounces of tomato paste, a bottle of Spaten Octoberfest bier, a bottle of Franziskaner Weiss bier, several pearl onions, three bunches of scallions, a pound of cuttlefish, a pound of squid, some really hot Chinese pepper sauce, a lot of garlic powder, more black pepper, more salt, and even more of the Chinese pepper sauce as it progressed. After about an hour or so of simmering I threw some cinnamon and a shot or two of Irish Whiskey. Another 1/2 hour and lots more garlic powder and some more weiss bier, about 1/2 a bier. Then, another 15 minutes and I threw in the shrimp. Brendan and I just tasted it, mmmmmm goooood and just a tad spicy. I have no idea what you would call this, but it taste darned good. I have made it twice before, but used baby octopus the other two times instead of cuttlefish. When I was at the store last night, the octopus looked pretty lousy so I opted for a package of frozen cuttlefish. I tried a few - they are great.

You may have noticed though that the clams have not yet been added to the mix. Since they are alive, I put them into a bowl of water with a good amount of sea salt. As the night passes on they will excrete most of whatever sand they have inside of their shells. Then once they have cleaned themselves I will throw them in the mix tomorrow when we heat it all up again just before we eat it, or maybe I'll just steam them and have them on the side with lemon or melted butter. Decisions, decisions!

As for the Super Bowl, I do not care who wins. I am not a football fan - at least not until Uncle Hans has one of his end of the season parties. Me, I just root for the hottest cheerleaders, and enjoy the party, the food and the company! We had a blast for the conference championships, and I imagine tomorrow will be some of the same. Hopefully both teams have cheerleaders - but I have got to say I miss the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders of yesteryear!

All the best,
Glenn B

Ballseye's Firearms Accessories Tournament 3 - We Have A Winner

Two entrants, Randy Allen and Bryce MacLennen wound up with their guesses being closest to the amount of bullets I fired at the target for this contest. They both said 60, and the correct answer was 57. So I threw their names into the hat, so to speak, and had a random drawing with Randy coming out the winner.

Once Randy complies with the rules, sends me his name and address along with a copy of government issued photo ID showing he is 18 or older, I will send him the holster.

Thanks to all of you for joining in the fun, and my congratulations to Randy

I'll try to post another one of these contests by next weekend.

All the best,
Glenn B

Teaching A Child To Shoot & Getting It Right

A lot of what you read about or hear about in the news when it comes to kids and firearms is that this kid got shot in a drive-by shooting, or that kid accidentally killed a friend with his parent's gun, or some kid shot a person while out hunting in the woods. As usual the MSM (Mud Slinging Media) tells us the bad stuff. There is another story though, one that is not heard about as often as it should be heard about.

That other story is the one wherein the responsible shooter teaches his or her son how to shoot, or maybe even teaches someone else's kids how to shoot (with parental permission of course). Shooting is a great sport. In order to excel in shooting sports you need to be able to develop great eye and hand coordination, along with coordination of many muscles in other parts of the body. Shooting also requires a great deal of concentration. In addition, shooting sports require discipline. Before you can start any of this, safe sport shooting also requires that you learn about firearms safety, firearms nomenclature, and shooting in general in a classroom or sit down type situation before you ever handle a firearm. With all this in mind, shooting sports are a great pastime for children if done properly and at an age appropriate level with proper adult supervision. Starting children, as young as 7 or 8 years old in shooting sports was once common practice. While no longer as common a practice as it once was, children of that age can - under proper supervision of a responsible adult instructor - begin learning how to shoot (you will need to determine if your 7 or 8 year old exhibits enough concentration and discipline to be ready at that age). In my opinion, shooting sports are a great way to spend quality time with them.

Proper responsible adult supervision is a key element of training anyone to shoot. This goes for adults as well as children. In each instance, whether training adult or child, the responsible instructor should have a hands on approach at first. Yes, you read that correctly the responsible instructor should have a hands on approach. This need not be for an extended period and need not seem intrusive to the shooter but should take place at least for the first few shots fired by the new shooter. Simply put the responsible instructor should though use of verbal commands and helpful guidance with hands instruct the shooter in proper hold, proper direction for the muzzle, and other things like proper stance. As the shooter is taking those very first shots, it is advisable especially with young children to make sure the firearm is fully controlled by making sure the responsible adult instructor and the shooter both have hands on the firearm (or possibly that the instructor has hands on the shooter's hands for a handgun). Once the instructor is satisfied that the shooter has the basics down concerning safety, stance, grip, aim - it is then that the instructor can ease up a bit and allow the shooter to completely control the firearm. Of course this does not mean that the instructor should step back and away from the shooter; rather the instructor should remain within easy reach of the firearm should intervention be necessary in order to prevent the muzzle from pointing in a direction where it should not be pointed. With adult shooters, and even with teenagers, the instructor usually can step back and away from the shooter, out of arms reach, once the instructor is satisfied that the shooter is competent enough to continue on his own with instruction from a distance. However, when instructing younger children the instructor should remain within arms reach of the shooter for at least a few to several lesson after the instructor has been satisfied that the young shooter is competent and safe. Bear in mind that while adults and even some teenagers maybe ready to shoot on their own, young children should never be allowed to shoot without responsible adult supervision close at hand.

Before moving on to such things as the techniques and equipment I prefer to use to teach a child to shoot let me cover one word I used several times above. If you read the last paragraph again, you may notice I used a word in conjunction with the word instructor a few times and that I also used the same word in conjunction with adult a couple of or a few times. That word is RESPONSIBLE. When you teach anyone to shoot you must be responsible not only for your actions and instruction but also for the actions of the shooter (at least to some extent, and with young children you are held much more responsible than are they). The amount of responsibility changes over time as the shooter gains experience and become more competent at shooting safely; however when it comes to young children the adult supervising and instructing the child holds the great majority of the responsibility to make sure it is done both safely and correctly. So before you even think about setting out to teach someone to shoot, especially a child, you must be aware of such things as firearms nomenclature, firearms safety, the actual workings of the firearms you intend to use, how to hold a firearms, how to aim in a firearm, sight alignment and picture, trigger control, follow-trough and so forth. You must also have an idea of how you will present all of this to the potential new shooter before you begin.

Note I said to the potential new shooter in the last line above. Now, since I am mostly talking about firearms instruction for children, why on earth would I call a child a potential new shooter. For example let's say you are a parent who is adept at shooting sports. You are aware of the rules of firearms safety above and beyond the 4 rules that others so foolishly use as the only safety rules for firearms (yes there are many more cardinal rules of firearms safety other than the 4 taught by Jeff Cooper). You have thought ahead and you have prepared a brief lecture about nomenclature and safety so you can start your youngster off in the right direction, and you plan to begin shooting right after the lesson is given. You sit down your child, who is seemingly eager to learn how to shoot, and you start talking about the parts of the gun. After that you get into safety. As you are talking safety you notice that your child's mind has wandered off, and that he or she is daydreaming as children will do. My suggestion - stop the lessons - take a break. After the break of maybe 5 or 10 minutes see if the child is now paying attention or not. If the child still seems distracted, call it quits right then and there - at least for the day. Explain to the child why you are doing so, and further explain that full attention is needed for such important topics as nomenclature and firearms safety because the child having learned them will soon be shooting a real gun, and real guns can hurt or kill people. If the child does not seem able to fully comprehend the gravity of the situation, well then I strongly recommend that you hold off on teaching that child until he or she is ready to grasp those subjects with full attention geared at them. Bear in mind you are the RESPONSIBLE party in all of this; the child while needing to learn firearms nomenclature and safety before actually shooting will only do so if you make sure it is being done right. If you have any question about how to accomplish this you can take a firearms instructor course offered by NRA qualified firearms instructors, or you can take a hunter safety course and have your child take it with you. I am fairly certain that some states even allow children to young to hunt to take the hunter safety course. These course usually cover a lot to do with firearms safety and require passing a test at the end of the course. If your child is too young to take the test, he or she could sit through the class with you. In addition you could learn a lot from such a class yourself, probably enough for you to be able to formulate your own firearms safety course for your child with an age appropriate test at the end of the instruction. Am I harping on this subject, yes maybe I am. Why am I putting so much emphasis on it, well because all it takes is one bullet to ruin a lot of lives, and a stray bullet fired by your child could have devastating effects on the remainder of his or her life as well as on yours, let alone had devastating it would be to anyone who might get shot. Thin about that and make a decision now that if you are going to teach a child to shoot you will do so responsibly.

Once you are satisfied that the young shooter is ready to handle a firearm it is time to hit the range - that is if you already have selected a firearms of suitable size and caliber for him. If you have not gotten the firearms already then a trip to the local gun shop is in order. My recommendation for a first firearm for a new shooter is a bolt action rifle in .22LR caliber. This is an especially good choice of first firearm for a new shooter who is a child. There are several things about a bolt action rifle that make them inherently safer than a semi-automatic. Of course, along those lines, there are at least a few things that would make some bolt action single shot rifles inherently safer than a repeater and many folks recommend them over repeaters. On the other hand, I recommend purchasing a bolt action repeating rifle fed by a box type magazine for use with new young shooters. The reasons I make this recommendation are as follow:

1. A bolt action rifle requires that the bolt be operated manually in order to fire it, then unload it, and fire it again for each shot. This is much more preferable than a semi-automatic rifle which only requires that the shooter repeatedly squeeze the trigger to fire it so long as it has ammunition. When it comes to safety especially with a young shooter who would probably be more easily distracted than a more mature student shooter the bolt is my choice. If the shooter is distracted with finger on trigger it could be disastrous if he or she turns and lets off a round, and another and another and another. Sure you want to train the youngster to pay attention and to execute proper firearms safety but even adults make mistakes at the range and it is just so much easier for a child to be distracted. A bolt action requires more concentration than does a semi-automatic rifle in that the shooter must remember to actively operate the bolt in order to unload and fire. If you shoot a lot and shoot semi-autos and bolts then almost certainly you can recall a time that you put down a semi, picked up a bolt, fired a shot and forgot to operate the bolt before squeezing the trigger for a second shot. Yep you have to think more when shooting a bolt action rifle, and thinking keeps the child shooter's mind focused on the task at hand. You could argue for a pump action here in that it requires the same amount of operation and thought, however a bolt action is inherently safe than is a pump gun for a few reasons. With the pump it is harder for smaller children to operate the mechanism than it is a bolt action thereby sometimes having the child contort or turn in an unsafe manner with the pump gun. Also, a hand that slips off of the fore stock while operating a pump gun can wind up in front of the muzzle, or the muzzle can wind up tilting in a bad direction. Finally while operating a pump action there is too much of a chance that the finger can be left on the trigger resulting in an unsafe shot being taken while the student shooter activates the pump in its forward motion. With a bolt action rifle that is properly operated, the trigger finger hand operates the bolt and therefore the trigger finger is removed from the trigger in order to do so. I'll take the bolt action any day as a beginner rifle.

2) The box type magazine is my choice of preference over a single shot, and over a tube magazine for beginning shooters because it is more versatile. The reasons for this are fairly simple. First of all if you buy a single shot rifle, you cannot progress from single shot to repeater without buying another rifle. Buying another rifle can have some advantages but also has some disadvantages. First and foremost is cost. Why buy two rifles when one will do the chore nicely. In addition you have to retrain the shooter for any difference in the mechanisms between the single shot and the repeater when you buy the second one. I prefer the repeater as a first rifle because it can be used as a single shot and then, when the shooter is ready, it can be used as a repeater. To use a box magazine fed repeating rifle as a single shot, simply place an unloaded magazine into the magazine well (be absolutely sure it is an unloaded magazine). Then load shots singularly directly into the chamber, have the student shooter shoot the shot, eject the spent shell casing, and reload with a single round again directly into the chamber. Once you as the responsible instructor are sure the child is ready to progress to a repeater you can then load the magazine with any number of rounds up to its full capacity and have the child shoot from a loaded magazine.

3) A box type magazine is safer than a tube magazine in my opinion because it is more easily operated with less risk to the shooter. Why, well because to load and unload a tube magazine you sometimes need to turn the gun in what is not the safest direction, or at least you need to bring the muzzle closer to you even if you pull the gun straight back without changing the direction of the muzzle. While removing it, your hand is very close to the muzzle. Not the nest of situations with a young shooter. A box magazine on a bolt action rifle is much easier to reach and remove from the rifle. Remember that if there is ever a need for the young student shooter to make the firearms safe, that will require clearing all ammunition from the rifle. That includes first taking finger off trigger, placing the safety into safe position, taking out the source of ammunition (the magazine), then clearing the chamber and assuring it is clear. It is much easier, in my opinion, for young hands to accomplish with a box magazine.

4) There are a large number of available bolt action box magazine fed rifles on the market. At least a few of them are made in youth models to fit younger shooters. Get one of these for smaller shooters because a smaller shooter will have more confidence using a rifle that he or she can properly operate, aim and shoot well.

Okay, enough on the rifle, let's get to the range. Try to select a rifle range that is actually a rifle range as opposed to learning how to shoot out in a field with a hill for a backstop. I am not saying a field with a good sized backstop is a bad thing mind you, just that I prefer a professional range. Choosing a professional range actually can do a few things to help the new shooter. First of all your child shooter will see this is serious business because there are range officers at the range. Secondly the child will probably be somewhat impressed by the range set up, and will learn somethings about the: firing line, downrange, line commands such as cease fire, and so forth. In addition the child will be able to watch some other shooters and how they get good or bad shooting done. Pointing out good and safe shooters, as opposed to bad and unsafe shooters, to the student child shooter can make a big and lasting impression and give the child someone to emulate. of course you probably want your child to emulate you but the child being able to see that other safe shooters do just what you told him or her to do will fix in in their mind that you were right all along.

While using a professional range where others are firing you should allow the child shooter, or any new shooter, to become accustomed to what is going on fort at least several minutes before you beginning teaching him or her to shoot. This is especially important if anyone nearby is going to be shooting large caliber firearms. The percussion caused by such firearms can be quite distracting and even frightening to a new shooter. Once they watch for a while and realize they are not going to be hurt, then the fun of learning to actually fire a gun can begin. If possible you may want to ask if there is a section of the range where it is less likely for you to encounter someone shooting larger calibers.

Bear in mind that while you are doing all of this at the range you have to be mindful of range safety. This means that both you and the child student shooter, and any bystanders are all wearing protective eye and ear covering. Note I did not say protective ear inserts. I much prefer protective ear covering as shooters ear muffs as opposed to ear plugs, but you can use ear plugs under the muff for additional hearing protection. As for eye protection I recommend only shooters' safety glasses or shooters' safety goggles. Regular eyeglasses are often not enough and anyone requiring prescription glasses should wear additional protection over them.
Once there is a break in the action, and the range is having a cease fire for target repair or replacement, you can set up your targets. Such a cease fire is not necessary at all ranges such as those with retrievable target holders (those for which you operate a crank or electronic mechanism to bring the target to you instead of you needing to go downrange). If at all possible, set up the targets at 50 feet or less, but not less than 15 feet (these distances are usually easiest to achieve at an indoor range with target holders on a pulley system that you can set at any distance as allowed by range policy at to the maximum for that range). Use the blank side of a 50 foot small bore target to face the shooter (this is easier than shooting at a bulls eye and once the child is hitting near center you switch to the other side and then shoot at the bulls eyes). Once your targets have been safely set up, and the commence fire com and is given, or when otherwise safe to fire, you can start in with shooting lessons for real. Ease the child into the first few shots by helpfully explaining what to do, and by giving hands on direction. if the child is not comfortable with this type of instruction explain that it is absolutely necessary because a firearm can be deadly. If the child resists this, then stop the lesson and take a break during which you can explain this is how it must be for at least the first several shots after which you will allow the child to shoot by himself with you watching nearby. Remember that is is extremely important that you as the responsible adult instructor are in control of the student and that it is not the student in control of you no matter how mature the child student shooter seems to be.

As the child is shooting talk him or her through the first shot by going over the basics. Make sure the child has a good hold on the rifle and a decent stance whether standing, seated or prone, supported or unsupported (I recommend support of some sort such as a bench). Then softly talk the child student through aiming, breath control, and squeezing the trigger to get off the first shot, and then make sure the child follows though without turning toward you for your approval. You want to make sure all the concentration is on the gun and shooting it safely. Then tell the child to take another shot in the same manner and again talk him through it. Do it one more time for an third shot. Then bring back the target for a look at it, or wait until the next cease fire if necessary to retrieve it for a look. Why only three shots? Well this is because it will give you a good idea of whether or not the rifle is sighted in for the shooter, or if the shooter is making some mistakes that need correction. Three shots are enough to read the target and through triangulation you can then formulate any corrective action. More shots will only muddy up the water so to speak. Fewer shots will not be enough to grasp whether or not the child was accurate or inaccurate with any reliability.

If you are at a range that requires you to await a cease fire before being able to retrieve your target the time waiting can be utilized to shoot another target (hopefully you have two points next to each other from which to shoot), or you can observe other shooters. Better yet you can ask the student shooter how he thought he did, and what it felt like doing it. Of course if you have a good spotting scope, you can check the target from the firing line and do not need to wait to retrieve it before making any adjustments in how the shooter is shooting or to the sights on the rifle. One of these days I'll buy a spotting scope; but if anyone out there is feeling generous after reading this, well I would not turn down an offer of a free one. If you do use a spotting scope, I recommend taking pen and paper and making a representative drawing of the target, then marking off where each shot has hit the actual target. This way there is no doubt as to where later shots hit the target. Even with a spotting scope, I recommend retrieving your target and putting up a frwsh one after about every 10 to 15 shots at most. Make the shooter take his or her time with those 15 shots and if you are on a range where you need to await a cease fire the time will fly by before you know it. Another way to take time while shooting, and I think is important not to rush a new shooter, is to take a short break after every three to 5 shots. The reason for the break is that holding a rifle is new to the student's muscles, and all the concentration required to shoot is or can be pretty stressful. So take some short breaks in between sets of shots. At frst three shots is enough. After the shooter has fired off three rounds, have him or her make the gun safe. Talk them through how to do so, then have them place the gun down on the bench pointing downrange, or back into a rack as appropriate at the range on which you are shooting. Follow the range rules in whatever you do, it only helps to solidify the concept of firearms safety for the child student shooter. Talk to the shooter, give him or her some pointers, and when ready go at it again.

If the student shooter has been right on target, that is great. Keep him or her shooting and if the accuracy proves reliable that is a good thing. If on the other hand the shots have not accurately and reliabley hit their mark, then you may neeed to either critique the shooter (as during one of the breaks I mentiuoned) or you may need to sight in the gun. Before changing anything with the sights talk to the shooter and ask what his or her sight picture and sight alignment look like. You need to know if they are seemingly getting that right before you even think of sight adjustment. Of course you also want to be sure they are properly holding the rifle and squeezing the trigger, but you need to watch their techniques on those rather than just aksing about them. If you think it may be that the sights need adjustment, then you try the rifle first. Even I can fire my son's Armscor 14-Y youth model bolt action rifle accurately. Yes it is a youth sized rifle, but that does not mean I cannot fire it. If it is shooting the same way for me as it does for the child, such as all shots low to the left, then I would need to make adjustments so that the rifle will fire higher and more to the right. If the rifle was shooting all over the paper for the child and is also shooting like that for me, then the rifle may need repair or the ammunition may need changing, or maybe I had just better improve my shooting. Shooting all over the paper like that is usually indicative of shooter error. Of course it could also be that there is a dominant eye problem too. If the child is a right handed shooter and is left eye dominant, you may have to take steps to adjust for shooting with the right eye such as blurring out the left lens of the shooting glasses - but do this only after making absolutely sure that it is a off side eye dominance problem, and only after consulting with and having the child examined by an eye doctor.

Shoot over the course of an hour or two but not more on the frst trip to the range. If there has been an laxness in safety it is something you must address as soon as you see it. Don't wait until later. Have the child take finger off of the trigger, make it safe, and then explain what was done that was unsafe with suggestons as to how to remain safe. Don't only find fault, make sure to praise things done right. If the young shooter showed some improvement over the course of that time from first shots to last then congratulate him or her on it. Congratulate the shooter likewise if he or she even hit the paper and did not improve, some people rally cannot hit the broadside of a barn, and I am not kidding. Even if the child shot poorly throughout the time at the range, congratulate him or her if she or he handled the firearm safely. Make sure to remain patient. I cannot recall how many times I have lost my patience while out with my son or daughter and ruined what would have otherewise been a good day, but I do know it has happened too many times. Patience is key to having fun while learning to shoot, i goes a long way toward helping the shooter keep at their goals, and keeps thing safer at the range. If you ever do lose your cool, make sure to recompose yourself before any more shooting, or even gun handling, is done.

Next time you go to the range continue with the basics. Don't ever assume that a child has retained everything you told him or showed her for the next time. Such an assumption could lead to a tragic accident. As the second range session progresses you may want to swirch targets to make things a little more interesting. Instead of using a bullseye target, why not try one with several bullseyes, or a small game target. Sooner or later you may decide to try shooting at places other than a professional rang. if you can find someplace where it would be practical you can set up a wide variety of targets from paper bullseye and small game targets to plastic bottles full of water (add food dye to make it more interesting), to ballons tethered on a short string (this way they will move in the breeze but keep the srting very short, only an inch or two of free string otherwise the balloon may blow off to one side or the other enough to make an unsafe shot very tempting). You may even wind up shooting at exploding targets (available commercially where legal). A good idea for a true beginner are splatter targets. These are essentially bullseye stickers that you place over a target and when a bullet hits them the black covering spaltters leaving a bright een or yellow under layer visible. If your eyes are good, you can tell from a good distance as to whether or not you hit your mark without a spotting scope.

Each time you are finished shooting, either at a range, out in a field, in your backyard (should you be so lucky to have a place to shoot on your property) you should teach the young shooter that cleanup is part of a range day; and that you do not leave the area until it has been cleaned. Once you get home you can have the youngster help clean the guns. This is a good way to help assure that young shooters will develop good habits leading to them maintaining their own firearms in good condition when they are old enough to own some for themselves. Of course with children you want to be especially careful when it comes to contact with such things as powder and lead solvents, fouling from firearms, oils, and lead. Make sure that the child wears proper protective clothing while helping to clean any firearms. Rubber gloves, eye protection, and a vinyl or other spill and splash proof apron would all be good things they should wear while doing the chore. A good wash up when done is highly recommended. In additio, once home from the range you will want to change out of your range clothing and throw them right into the wash. This helps cut down on any contamination of lead dust that may have ben picked up at the range. One other note about lead and lead dust exposure. You willr ecall I kept talking about a professional range above. I like to go to an indoor range when I teach youngsters to shoot if only because a properly operating indoor range will have a good ventilation system that sucks out the air containing powder and lead residues, and pumps in fresh and filtered air. You may think an outdoor range would be better than an indoor range for giving you fresh air, but that could possibly depend on which way the wind is blowing. I am not sure it is correct but I have heard that in this regard it is much better to shoot at an indoor range with a proper and fully functioning ventilation system.

By now you maybe thinking that I left out some things about teaching a child to shoot. For example I made no mention of how a child should be taught to hold a gun, nor did I describe in any detail sight alignment, sight picture, breathing control, trigger control and follow through. The reason I did not give specifics on those and other techniques that will lead to a child becoming a good shot is because that is their instructor's job and not mine. In other words, if you are planning on teaching your child how to shoot, you had better be ready to do so. Being ready means that you have all the basics down, and also have an idea of how you will go about teaching the basics to the new shooter. If you don't know the nomenclature of a gun you will be suing, or as related to guns in general, learn it before you think of teaching someone to shoot, and make sure you have it right. Same goes for all of the techniques of the actual handling and shooting of firearsm. Of course, the same also goes for firearms safety rules. More than anything else you want it to have been a safe and enjoyable experience when the day is done.

Speaking of safety, here are a couple of safety tips that you may or may not think of when going shooting. Have a first aid kit available for minor to serious injuries and know how to apply first aid. You do not need to be an EMT to stop or control bleeding if, heavens forbid, someone is shot or otherwise seriously wounded at the range. Take a first aid course if you don't have a clue, the life you save could be your child's, heck it could be your own. Teach your child what you have learned or have them go to the class with you. In addition to a good first aid kit, always, and I mean alway take along a charged cell phone. You could be out in the middle of nowhere and be with someone who gets seriously injured, and while the phone may not help there, as you get closer to a hospital the phone may wind up back in service. It just makes all the sooner that you can contact someone for help. As it is nowadays though, you are in cell phone range in much of the USA, and the phone will get throiugh on a call to 911 when you need it. Either way it is an important item to include on any range trip. Finally you should have an idea of where you can get medical aid if needed and you have to drive the injured person there. A little planning and preparation goes a long way to avoiding a fatal catastrophe should a bad accident occur.

Now you do not have to follow everything I recommended, and you may even think of something I left out that you deem important, bear in mind the very basics of teaching a child to shoot and it should turn out well. Those basics mean that if you strictly follow proper firearms safety, if you closely supervise the young student shooter, if you know what you are doing beforehand, if you do so at a professional range where the shooters are monitored by range officers in addition to you monitoring the new shooter, if you go at it with patience and a good attitude, then things are likely to turn out to be quite enjoyable for you and the young shooter. In closing let me say one thing about you - the person who is ready, willing and able to teach safe shooting to a youngster and then actually does so even if you only teach your own kids how to shoot - Bravo For You! You. You are among a minority in today's world, and you are preserving a piece of our American heritage that should never be forgotten - our right to keep and bear arms and our liberty to do so. Without folks like you, shooting sports will become a thing of the past.

All the best,
Glenn B