THE FIFTH ANNUAL NORTHEAST BLOGSHOOT IN PICTURES

Except for these few words and the captions, this blog post is full of pictures and just about nothing else.

Two nice folks enjoying all the gun nuts!

Hmm, I wonder if the targets we used are too small?

Guns to the left of us.

Guns to the right of us.

Guns in front of us.

Guns behind us.

A Shooter eager to start shooting.

Oh yeah, who says you were on line in front of me!

Man In Skirt Driving Stake Into Evil Doer,
next thing you know men like him will be carrying
and shooting pink and yellow guns!

Women loading for her life because man in skirt walks up
next to her and starts shooting pink and yellow rifle.

Man responsible for bringing the
pink and yellow rifle. At least
he as not wearing a skirt.

Man in skirt admiring real guns.
(Yes, the pink and yellow one was
real too, very-very real.)

Old Man With Guns.

How could he not notice the
guy next to him with THAT gun!

Real Man With Guns.

Happy gal shooting.

He-man shooting an American gun, a 1911.

Some wimp shooting an imported gun.

I had better shut up, he shot that imported gun pretty well!

Scary Black Guns!

Talk about scary, heck man, there were even cannons.

"One more wise crack about me and that colorful gun and I'll
give you one guess where I am going to put this hand cannon!"

What was left of the most shot at target.
(Or how they should have dumped OBL!)

Should have worn a raincoat!

Brendan shooting the 1911.

Speed Shooting the 1911
Man, he learned fast.

Running out of ammo can be fun!

Undercover PETA activist threatens to expose gun owner

who is filming himself torturing a cute cuddly animal.

THE BIG BANG THAT ENDED IT ALL

All the best,

Glenn B

THE FIFTH ANNUAL NORTHEAST BLOGGERSHOOT IN WORDS...

...was the first that Brendan and I would attend. (Note, this is a long post, if you prefer, I will also post one with pretty much just pics.)

To say that I was anxious about going is an understatement, I barely slept on Friday night, waking many timers during the night wondering if it was time to begin the trip. As it turned out, I awoke, for the final time, at about 0500, at least an hour and a half early. I had all of our gear, with the exception of Brendan's guns and gun gear bag, ready to be packed away into the Corolla. At least that is what I thought.

I went through this, that, and some other things and by 0630, the time I had planned as my wake up time, I had things just the way they would go into the trunk. I went up to wake Brendan just before 7 and took my turn in the shower. Surprisingly he was up by 0730 or so, right after I asked my wife to go wake him while I started to load the trunk with guns, ammo and gear. By that time Brendan was pretty much ready to go - thanks for the help! Oh well, he was up until at least 1 or 2 AM with his drinking buddies having a different sort of a blast than we planned to have at the Bloggershoot.

We left the house by about 0815, not bad considering we had planned on leaving by 8. We got to the Holiday Inn in Manchester, NH at about 1330. The ride was pretty much uneventful and that was a good thing. It took us about 5 hours and 15 minutes to get there because we hit some traffic. Once there we ate lunch and dinner at KC's Rib Shack  and did some shopping for target backers (cardboard shipping boxes from Staples).

Come Sunday morning, After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we got the car loaded pretty quickly, all we had taken out for the night were the 3 guns cases and some personal stuff. Then we were off, Brendan driving and me navigating. As my knuckle-headiness would have it, I set us off in the wrong direction for 4 miles before we realized we had headed out wrong. We lost about 10 minutes or so because of that. Once we got it right, the 10 or was it 20 or maybe 50 miles or there about from the hotel to the suPer SeKrit location of the range went pretty quickly despite the downpour. Man, it was raining hard and looked as if we would have a soggy day of shooting. Brendan did not want to shoot in the rain and who could blame him, it was raining that hard.

We got to the suPer SeKrit location, late but not that late. The rain had slowed to a slight drizzle by then. With about 15 minutes, it had stopped altogether. I would say that it took another hour or so and the sun was out, that got some applause. It was just after that when things got going.

Jay, from MArooned, gave a bit of a spiel about range etiquette and the like and thanked Jack and Debbie for having us to there place for the shoot. I do not remember if Jack fired the cannon just before or after that but the cannon going off was the official opening of the Fifth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot. Yep, the firing of a cannon and one that I understand Jack made himself. I did not have my camera ready for the opening shot but as you will see later, I sure had it ready for the closing shot and had it ready for some pics of guns to the left of us, guns to the right of us, guns in front of us and even guns to the rear of us. We were surrounded by guns and I enjoyed walking around before and during the shoot to look at all of them.

Then it was time to shoot. There were 3 to 5 shooters on the line at once, shooting at targets set on a backstop said to be 50 yards from the firing line. I am guessing the range might have been shorter, in my estimation, but who cares. We were there to shoot not to measure the range. 

As for the actual shooting, 3 -5 folks would step up to the line or close to it and start blasting. After seeing a few people a couple to a few feet behind the line while others were right up on it, I recommended that everyone stand with toes on line so all muzzles were definitely over the line and so muzzle blast would not be an issue. It went over well and only a few folks needed a reminder when shooting after Jay made an announcement to do it that way for safety. Each person shooting usually fired a mag or three worth of ammo, then moved out of the way for the next shooter. The rotation worked very well, I think everyone got a lot of range time. Speaking of everyone, I figure that in all there must have been 25 to 30 folks show up for the event. The number of shooters started out slow, built up, then trailed off until the end when about a dozen of us remained.

There was quite the selection of firearms at the shoot. Everything from a Röhm (RG) rimfireBloggershoot. It was a pretty impressive collection. Had the zombie apocalypse broken out, we would have been ready for it. While it was great see that wide a variety of guns and great to see others shooting them, what was truly the best thing was that the owners allowed others among us to shoot them. There were some operational full auto guns such as a full auto AR that Brendan got to fire. That one was brought by Wally of YorkArms up in Maine. I got Brendan on video but for some reason my camera recorded it at super fast speed (this ruined most of the videos I took while there, early on and later on the camera recorded normally). A few shooters, Brad, Alan and Mark, shot my Remington R1-1911 and Brad also shot the Beretta 92FS. Both Brendan and Jay got to shoot my Beretta 92SB, the gun that got me the moniker Ballseye. Brendan also shot my 92SF, Remington R1-1911, and my Beretta 70S. He turned down a chance with the Ruger MKII preferring to shoot more with the Beretta 92FS and the 1911.

One of the things about shooting at the Bloggershoot was that you also shared targets. The back stop was less than 20 feet wide probably less than 15 feet wide at that. So, there were not too many targets set up to shoot at and with people rotating turns at taking shots, the targets got a lot of hits (or misses). I guess no one, except Brendan, realized I had set up 4 small exploding targets, little stick on jobs, on the backstop. I say so because when he got the first one to go off with a loud bang and a big puff of smoke, those shooting or watching were pretty surprised. Brad, asked, "WHAT WAS THAT" and I joked that we were shooting exploding bullets. I explained what they really were and others tried shooting them. I got the next one, making it go off with a loud bang, shooting with he Marlin 25MN. When I looked at it later, there were 7 bullet holes in that particular target. It only got hit in the right spot to make it go off on the seventh shot. Since the Marlin mags hold 7 round, I had to wonder if I had hit that little 2 inches square all 7 times. Probably not, I guess someone else shooting a 22 had put some rounds into it, but it is nice to imagine I had hit it all 7 times. In all, we set up 8 exploding targets, I think only 2 of them exploded. The remainder had hits on them but not in the center, where they need to be hit to go off. Then again, maybe one or two others had been hit, I did not count how many I found unexploded. 

Some other memorable things for me at the shoot were:

Jay's hand cannon or more properly his handgonne. It pretty much looked like an old time billy club, or better still the butt end of a boat pole for salt water fishing, with a metal piece on one end. That metal piece, maybe 2 inches long, was the barrel. Add black powder, I suppose some wadding, and a ball, then insert fuse, point in safe direction, light fuse and BANG with lots of smoke and sparks.

The full auto AR, which a lot of folks got to shoot was pretty impressive. I did not bother asking to shoot it and Brendan asked me why I had not. As I told him, I was too busy enjoying watching him shoot and instructing him how to shoot the pistol and then seeing him do pretty well with it. That was enough fun for me but of course I did shoot my guns too.

A full auto 9mm which Debbie had some fun shooting, the recoil really surprising her.

Several Mosin Nagants making loud thunder and lightning flashes in broad daylight.

A Schmidt Rubin, which I truly regret not asking to shoot. I think that one was brought by Bubblehead Les.

Mark's (aka: Libertyman, a very nice fellow) .50 caliber handgun. Brendan shot that one, I declined because, by the time I was asked, my right shoulder was acting up.

Our Marlin 336 (It probably is only memorable to me because I could not hit a target of about 12"x12" with it. Well, I could not tell if I hit it, so many people were shooting the same target that I had put up that it was impossible to tell! That only means I have to hit the range soon, here in NY, with the 336.)

My Romanian AK-47 WASR which did not double-tap or triple-tap even once (must be fixed?).

Jay's .22 caliber Colt revolver circa the 1920s.

Jay's handgonne.
 
And, of course, that homemade cannon.

Then there were the memorable folks who attended, many of them bloggers, I wish I could name everyone but such is my memory (I even had to steal some of these from Jay's blog):

Jay over at MArooned, Jack (aka: Doubletrouble) and Debbie our hosts, Mark, aka: Liberty Man, Les aka: Bubblehead Les, Thot from Bending Spoons (the owner of the Röhm (RG) in 22 rimfire), Brian from upstate NY (I think aka: Zercool), Cherr of Stuff By Cherr (who took lots of pictures), Brad_in_MA, Alan, Pedium from Random Geeking, Old Windways, the redheaded girl smiling while shooting, that gals mom(?) who was teaching her to shoot, the young lad shooting the small 22 rifle (maybe a Cricket), that young boy's dad(?) who was showing his and to shoot and doing well, the lady shooting the old side x side shotgun, and plenty of others. Jay's blog post about it list many more names: http://www.ma-rooned.com/2012/08/fifth-annual-northeast-bloggershoot-aar_13.html. I got introduced to so many folks my head was spinning and there is no way my muddled middle aged memory will remember of those names.

The most memorable things for me though were Brendan shooting and me there with him to help him along with pistol shooting and him firing the cannon. He did pretty darned good for an almost first time pistol shooter. He shot my Beretta 92SB once, a single or maybe two shots when he was quite young. Then he shot my Glock 26 and a .40 S&W Sig while we were out in AZ in, what was, 2009 or so. Before the Bloggershoot, that is about all the pistol shooting I know of him doing. As you can see from his target, set up at about 5 yards, he did pretty good at it. I have known some shooters who do not do as well and they have been shooting for 15-20 years. I think there is a marksman waiting to be developed. Now if only he would apply for his pistol permit so I could teach him here in NY.

I can only guess at the most memorable things for Brendan. He had fun though that I know for sure. And to think, he almost did not come because of a bad tendon problem (apparently because a doc prescribed him Levaquin) but decided he could stay at home in pain having little fun or enjoy the day immensely regardless of the pain. He is a trooper, he chose the latter. On the ride home, he thanked me a few times for bringing him along, and he told me he really enjoyed himself but I am getting just a bit ahead of myself.

Much like the show not being over until the fat lady sings, the Northeast Bloggershoot was not over until the big gun fired. Just as it had opened the day for shooting, the cannon was to be fired once again, this time to bring the bloggershoot to its end for this year. I wanted to be there for it but I also wanted Brendan, who was antsy to leave, to want to stay until the end. I am usually not so bold to ask for a favor like the one I am about to relay to you. It was near the end of the shoot, well after 5, our car packed full and Brendan just wanted to go. He probably wanted to get the drive over with and see his girlfriend. He kept saying we should leave and asking if I was ready. I told him I did not want to go until they fired the cannon. I just wanted us to be there from start to finish and only then say our goodbyes. Brendan took a seat but did not seem happy. I was wondering what to do to keep him in a good mood for the next 15 minutes or so that it would take before we left when I suddenly had a brainstorm. I walked over to Jack and asked, in a whisper because Brendan was close by, if there was any way he could let Brendan fire the cannon for the closing. Much to my surprise, Jack said sure he could fire it. 

Then I went over and Brendan was really wanting to leave. I told him we had to wait because there was something he would want to do before leaving. When he asked about it I told him he would be firing the cannon. His response was basically a very shocked: WHAT and a why and how can I do that.

In a short while it was time to end the day. Jack loaded the cannon and told Brendan to find a lighter. Jay supplied the lighter, a BBQ lighter, he had been using on his handgonne. Brendan took it, lit the flame, touched the flame to the fuse in the hole, stepped back and BANG. The Bloggershoot had come to an end and I got it on video! Luckily, my camera recorded that video at normal speed which it had not done with most of the videos I recorded of the Bloggershoot, they came out in super fast mode. Those videos that should have lasted a few to several seconds were over in a second or two. I have been unable to get them at just the right speed to play back. Oh well, that is disappointing but at least I have a couple to a few, that came out okay, and are worth putting up on my YouTube channel.

Then we said our goodbyes to everyone still there and headed home. We made it home in 4 hours and 20 to 25 minutes. Not bad because we missed a turnoff and wound up on 395 south through CT which, I think and so did Brendan, was a blessing in disguise because the road was great with virtually no traffic. Had we not hit traffic on I-95 later in CT, my guess is we would have been home in less than 4 hours.

In closing, let me say all I said above in just four words:

It was a blast.

Remember, there more pics in a pretty much purely pic blog post about the shoot.

All the best,
Glenn B

KC's Rib Shack...

...in Manchester was the lunch spot of choice for me and Brendan earlier today. We picked it because we would be meeting with some of the other shooters, for the Northeast Bloggershoot, there for dinner this evening and I figured we ought to at least do a drive by to be able to easily find it for dinner. We not only drove by, we stopped there for lunch. Brendan had a half a rack of ribs and I had a combo lunch plate of BBQ'd pulled pork and beef brisket. Brendan wolfed it down as if it was the last meal the planet. me, well I ate the pulled pork pretty ravenously but only took one bite of the brisket. It was dry as a bone that spent the last ten years in the Mojave sunshine. All the waitress wanted was to get paid, she did not ask how was our meal nor about the pile of brisket left untouched except for one small piece. Oh well..,.

Then back to the hotel for an attempt at a nap. Brendan slept a couple of hours, me ZI tossed and turned much like last night, sleep pretty much eluded me. Tonight, we headed back to KC's Rib Shack. We got there 25 minutes early and sat at the bar for awhile. We each had a Pigs Ear Ale. I thought it was passable, Brendan liked it a lot. About ten to seven, a couple showed up at the bar and mentioned to the barmaid that they were waiting on a group for dinner. I asked if they were waiting on Jay and - yes they were just like us. We only got to introduce ourselves and a waitress came back to let us know our tables were ready upstairs. I paid our bar bill and we headed on up.

While downstairs looked dark and maybe a slight bit dingy, upstairs was much airier and a lot nicer or so I thought and Brendan agreed. Jay was standing at the table when we got upstairs. I recognized him immediately, seen his pictures pretty often on his bog, but I did not recognize any of the other 6 or so folks who were there with him. He made the intros and we grabbed some seats and got to talking. Brendan sat next to Liberty Man (sorry, I am bad at names but remember his nickname) and I sat next to Bryan and next to the couple, on my right, who own the place where we will shoot tomorrow (sorry, I should have the names down by tomorrow). A few more folks showed up and before I knew it there were about 14 of us in all. Dinner, which for me was a Cardiac Sam, was delicious. When the waitress asked, I made sure to let her know that both the meal and the service were better than earlier in the day. She was quite pleased with the compliments. In all, we had a great waitress, really good food and excellent company. I should add there was also some very good brew. When we got upstairs, I changed to an IPA (again, cannot remember the name). It was delicious - much better than the Pigs Ear Ale. Brendan had another Pigs Ear Ale, but this time he had it "bubba sized". It was pretty friggin big but he was not driving so that was okay.

At some point, I guess shortly before we were served, someone pulled a knife out of his or her pocket and tossed it on the table. Somebody else said "Are we playing this game again" and the next thing I knew there were a lot of knives laying in front of me on the table, including the two I had on me - a Victorinox Huntsman (Boy Scout edition without corkscrew - shucks) and a Buck Folding Hunter (the classic one with brass bolsters, wood handles and a 3 3/4" blade). Then some whipped out a camera and took pictures of them all. I mentioned something about throwing a pistol onto the table and someone, I think it was Brian, to my left, immediately said "No, you don't want to that in here" but I was only kidding - really.

Dinner arrived and as I said above, it was an excellent experience, among excellent company. Brendan and I left just after about half the group had taken off. We were both pooped, him regardless of the nap he got at the hotel this afternoon, all because of him spending last night hanging out with his beer drinking buddies. me, I was and am still pooped because I hardly slept last night, either due to me anticipating a cool trip or just due to me not being able to stay asleep for no particular reason I can think of. I am hoping to sleep much better tonight. I have no doubt Brendan will be out like a light pretty soon.

The bloggershoot commences at about 1000 tomorrow morning at a location about 35 miles from our hotel. I am sworn to secrecy, well not rally, but it is obvious that they do not want the location blabbed about. You won't get it out of me!

Will fill you in on how the shoot went sometime soon.

All the best,
Glenn B

My Guns of Choice

I will be taking off tomorrow for the Fifth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot at a sooper seckRit location in New Hampshear. I'm hopeful that Brendan will be coming with me but he is still suffering severe tendinitis after taking Levaquin. His doctor prescribed him Prednisone to alleviate the tendinitis but guess what the warnings for Levaquin say - that the risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture increase when taking corticosteroids, and Prednisone is one of them. So he has not taken the Prednisone and has been suffering. He is awaiting a call back from his doc and has an appointment to see a rheumatologist on Monday. It is going to suck if he cannot make it to the bloggershoot.

Well, I went ahead and packed today anyway, for both of us as far as guns and ammo and accessories go. That means I actually decided on which guns to bring along, well almost decided anyway. If Brendan does not go, I will probably shorten the list a bit. Since he is eager to shoot pistols, I packed the following handguns:

Beretta 92FS (9mm)

Beretta 92SB (9mm and the gun responsible for my Ballseyes moniker)

Beretta 70S (.22LR)

Remington R1-1911 (.45 Auto)

Ruger MKII (.22LR)

Glock 26 (9mm)

I also have 500 rounds of 9mm ammo ready to go and have about the same of .22LR.

As for the long guns, I decided to be practical. I am not bringing the Remington 870 or my Yugo 24/47 Mauser, nor any of my Mosin Nagants. The rifles I am bringing will be:

Marlin 25 MN (.22 WMR)

Marlin 336 (.35 Remington)

Romanian AK 47 WASR (7.62x39mm)

As you can see, I will bring along only one rifle that has a good amount of kick to it, that to protect my recuperating right shoulder.  The only reason that I am even bringing that one is because it is one of our primary deer season guns and we need to practice with it this year - so it is being brought along out of practicality. The AK is going along for shooting lots of bullets, I have about 500 to 600 rounds for that, and the Marlin 25MN for if and when my shoulder starts to ache. 

If Brendan comes along, I am sure he will bring one of his ARs and possibly will bring his Mossberg 500 shotgun. He mostly wants to shoot my pistols and in the FREE state of New Hampshire, he can do so legally without a permit. Speaking of permits, I called MA officials and found out there should be no problem transporting the long arms, or hi-cap mags (all pre-ban), I plan to bring on the trip so long as the rifles are locked in gun cases in the trunk. Also no problems with my pistols under LEOSA.

Even though I have pretty much made up my mind on what to bring, there may yet be changes due to trunk and gun case size. I am not too sure that all of the gun cases, ammo cans and gear bags will fit in the trunk of my car. I hope so though because I would like to shoot everything I mentioned.

I almost cannot wait for this shoot. It promises to be loads of fun. I sure hope Brendan can come along, that is what makes shooting the most fun for me.

All the best,
Glenn B

Tonight's Squirrel Report

I listened to The Squirrel Report tonight, most of it anyhow, as I was back and forth to do some things during the time it was on. For example, I got up to grab the Remington R1-1911 and some gun cleaning equipment about half way through the report. I gave the pistol a good cleaning as I listened. What got me to cleaning it was not that the show was boring, in fact it was quite enjoyable, but that someone on the show had mentioned the Northeast Bloggershoot this coming weekend and I realized that I still have a few guns to clean in preparation for it. Then again, I am in the middle of my regularly scheduled gun cleaning binge and I only have about 4 more pistols and 4 or 5 rifles to go before my whole collection has been cleaned. Earlier this evening, I cleaned my Yugo SKS. That took me about 2 1/2 hours (or more) bit it was a pretty complete cleaning. I did not disassemble the trigger group or bolt although, I tried to disassemble the bolt but could not get the pin out (I need to invest in some good brass and steel punches).

The show is just a few bloggers who get together for a couple of hours on Thursday nights to talk about current events, gun stuff, blogging or whatever suits their fancy at the moment. They also accept calls from listeners. (No, I did not call in, I started to but got distracted. Maybe next time.) Tonight they talked some politics, about guns, about the upcoming Bloggershoot, about Pennsic (where Breda just spent some time) and some other assorted topics. The hosts are Alan of Snarky Bytes, Breda of self evidence, Jay G of MArooned, and Weerd of Weer'd World. They sure sounded like they were having fun. As I said, the show was rather enjoyable for me too. I am not a regular listener, mostly because I don't think of it when it comes on as I am usually glued to the tube at the show's starting time of 9PM Eastern time, on Thursday nights, but I do hope to get in the habit of listening more often and I hope to listen again next week.

This weekend, if all goes as planned, I will meet at least one of the four hosts at the Northeast Bloggershoot. That would be Jay G. I am not sure if any of the others are attending but it would be nice if they all could make it. I am sure to have clean guns when I get there, more gun cleaning tomorrow!

All the best,
Glenn B

Product Review - GUNZILLA

Whenever I hear or see the word Gunzilla, I imagine a Japanese man, shouting "GODZILLA, GODZILLA" while looking and pointing up, above the nearby shoreline, at a huge vicious beast headed toward Tokyo. If ever there was an apt choice of names for a gun cleaning product, GUNZILLA has got to be just that. While the people of Japan have nothing to be afraid of regarding this modern day scourge - lead buildup, rust, powder residue, corrosive primer residue, and copper fouling should be trembling with fear because when it comes to barrel fouling - it seems that Gunzilla destroys all in its path.

Since I can remember, I have been a died in the wool Hoppe's 9 user. I literally have used Hoppe's products since I first cleaned a gun back in summer camp in the 1960's. Thankfully we did more shooting than gun cleaning back then but Hoppe's 9  was the gun cleaning solvent of choice. When I got older and got my first gun - a RG .25 auto, I cleaned it with Hoppe's 9. I kept using it throughout my 32 year law enforcement career and during my 14 year stint with collateral duties as a firearms instructor. I have used it on both work issued guns and personally owned guns. I also started to use their copper solvent, Bench Rest 9 Copper Solvent, probably 15 years or so ago. I got, what I thought were, great results with each. The thing was though, several years back, I was advised to start wearing rubber gloves when using Hoppe's products. This advice came along with the posting of a product safety sheet for Hoppe's. Yikes, I was surprised I was not glowing yet. Yet, I figured, heck, I had been using it for years with no problems, so why not continue despite the warnings and anyway, I liked the aroma of Hoppes 9. As for the Hoppe's Bench Rest product, I think the odor was horrendous. Like I said though, they got the job done and did it well as far as I could tell.

Then, this past year, I decided to change what I use for gun cleaning. There were a couple of few reasons. One of the driving reasons was that I had acquired a few com bloc military rifles that qualified as curios and relics. All of them utilized corrosive ammo throughout their military lifetimes and that particular ammunition is still widely available for them today. Furthermore, that ammo is cheap. Yes, I bought it and fired it, then soon learned it is a pain in the ass to clean the gun through which you fired it. A lot like black powder, ammo with corrosive primers used to require a chemical not often found in many modern day gun cleaning solvents. That chemical was/is ammonia. I did not know this when I bought my first C&R com bloc rifle, a M44 Mosin Nagant. I learned that getting the rust out of the barrel, once it started to corrode, was an almost never ending struggle, if using a product like Hoppe's, because once cleaned out it just rusted all over again. I finally learned that cleaning the bore with soapy water would help but that required cleaning, rinsing thoroughly and drying, then cleaning with Hoppe's and oiling. There had to be a better way and it seems there was one. Someone let me in on the fact that Windex, sprayed onto a cleaning cloth, and some directly sprayed down the bore, would clean the corrosive chemicals out the of barrel before it got a chance to rust (if you cleaned it right after shooting it). So I started using Windex, followed by Hoppe's 9 and or Bench Rest Solvent and then by oiling with another of my favorite gun care products - Breakfree CLP. I thought little of using the combination of cleaners and lubricants and always got the job done with good to excellent results.

Then, last year, I got cancer. I beat it or so they tell me, at least temporarily. Having had it gets one to thinking about things one may not have considered before. One of those things was my choice of gun cleaning solvents. While still at work, I noted that they had a product called Gunzilla in the firearms cleaning area. it sat right next to a bottle of Hoppe's 9 and Hoppe's bench rest that also were on the cleaning table. I picked it up and gave it a try. It had much less odor than Hoppe's Bench Rest and certainly none of the pleasing aroma of Hoppe's 9. One run of a cleaning cloth, with some Gunzilla on it, did pretty much what I expected to the frame of my Glock 26. It wiped off a lot of fouling. In the same time it took me to clean my Glock with Hoppe's, I got the job done with Gunzilla. The results looked pretty much the same to me but there was one difference, the Gunzilla seemed to have left behind a light protective sheen that Hoppe's did not.

According to the label on the Gunzilla bottle though, Gunzilla had done something that Hoppe's 9 could not do. It had removed copper fouling from the barrel of my Glock. I figured that had to have been a plus in that I would not need to use Hoppe's Bench Rest, to clean out any copper fouling, as I detested using it because of the smell (as opposed to the aromatic properties of Hoppe's 9). I read the label further. TopDuck, the company that manufactures Gunzilla, claims that Gunzilla:

"Removes rust, lead, copper, carbon, plastic and cleans corrosive ammo" (I am sure they mean corrosive ammo fouling).

They further claim, and it is right on the label, that:

Gunzilla cleans blackpowder firearms. Hoppe's 9 and Hoppe's Bench Rest, as far as I know, were not formulated to clean black powder from muzzleloaders. Gunzilla also claims the product: is low odor, non-flammable, does not contain ammonia, is non-corrosive, has no hazardous chemicals, has no petroleum products, contains no water, can be cleaned up with soap and water, and is natural based (from plants). It is also supposedly airline safe and it meets USDA bio-preferred requirements (a veritable green gun cleaner from the look of it).

In the small print, there is a warning to saying that if ingested, you should drink two (2) glasses of water and call a physician. And there are the usual warnings like to use it in a well ventilated area, that proper skin and eye protection is recommended, that if it contacts skin it should be washed off with warm water and soap, if skin irritation occurs then contact a physician, and to keep it away from children. This is in marked contrast to the warning on the label of a bottle of Hoppe's 9 (which I decided o look at after reading the Gunzilla label). The first line of which says, in bold face: "DANGER: HARMFUL OR FATAL IF SWALLOWED". The Hoppe's label then goes on to say that Hoppe's 9 contains: kerosene, is flammable, that you should avoid prolonged contact with skin or contact with eyes, if ingested you should contact a physician immediately, do not induce vomiting, keep out of reach of children and keep away from fire or flame (is there a difference between a fire and a flame). I don't even want to read the label on the Hoppe's Bench Rest solvent for fear it would make my head spin and knees knock but I suppose I would do that for my readers if I still had any of it. I threw it out not long after I got my first bottle of Gunzilla.

Now, on the plus side, Hoppe's 9 claims to prevent rust, remove leading and metal fouling (does not say copper fouling) thus the need for Hoppe's Bench Rest I suppose), and that it removes corrosive primer fouling and residue. The list, on the label of Hoppe's 9 as to its gun protective properties, is not as long as what TopDuck claims their product, Gunzilla, can clean but it sure is a lot scarier as to the contents and the dangers of Hoppe's over Gunzilla.

For me, pre-cancer, and even when first diagnosed with it, I did not care all that much about the dangers of one over the other. I had been exposed to dangerous chemicals, fumes, pollutants in water and air, kerosene fumes (jet fuel), narcotics residue, diseases, physical attacks and the like throughout my law enforcement career. What I did and do care about most was and is which one gets the job done better. The bottom line between these two product would have to be, at least for me, which cleans and protects my guns the best. Well, a few months back, I bought a bottle of Gunzilla, the 16 fluid ounce size. It looked pretty puny next to the 32 ounce bottle of Hoppe's 9 that I have on hand. Yet, when it came to doing the job, it was not the size of the bottle that mattered, at least not for the Gunzilla.

Here are my observations:

General Gun Cleaning Properties:

Both Gunzilla and Hoppe's 9 seem to do a good to excellent job as far as routine firearms cleaning goes on guns that shoot modern smokeless powder from cartridges with non-corrosive primers.

Copper Cleaning Properties:

I really did not notice a difference between gun cleaning using Hoppe's 9 and Gunzilla until I also ran some Hoppe's Bench Rest solvent down a barrel just cleaned with Hoppe's 9 and then down one just cleaned with Gunzilla. Copper jacketed ammo, in the amount of about 500 rounds, had been fired through two pistols (same make and model of pistol Beretta 92FS). The one that had been cleaned with Gunzilla came out clean, the one that had been cleaned with Hoppe's 9 came out fouled and a tiny bit greenish. I figure I had cleaned each of them equally well, the only difference being the solvent used, one cleaned with Hoppe's 9 and the other with Gunzilla. Only a one time test mind you but good enough for me to make me think of changing brands. Note, TopDuck also makes Copperzilla, a stronger copper solvent for tough to remove copper fouling. I have not tried the product yet but probably will do so in the future, especially to compare it to see how well regular Gunzilla does against it.

Corrosive Ammo Cleaning Properties:

I found that when cleaned with Hoppe's 9, bores that had corrosive ammo shot through them often tended to rust within days to weeks of cleaning. This has not happened yet after a cleaning with Gunzilla except with one gun that already had a rusted bore when I purchased it and that had been left unmaintained for several months in a closet up through and including a couple of humid summer months; that one rifle may have even been shot after the last prior cleaning and then left in the closet uncleaned (shame on me). All the others cleaned with Gunzilla remained rust free. The Hoppe's cleaned bores would sometimes rust up even when kept in the ammo locker along with a desiccant, that did not happen to my guns that had been cleaned with Gunzilla. There was no need to use Windex or another ammonia based product to clean the corrosive chemical out of bores that had been cleaned with Gunzilla, it seemed up to the job while the Hoppe's seems to have failed in that aspect regardless of what it says of the label about removing corrosive primer fouling and residue.

Rust Protection and  Lubrication:

I have never known Hoppe's 9 to be a rust preventative although the Hoppe's label claims the product does just that. I have always used a high quality oil to lubricate the firearm and to prevent rust after using Hoppe's based on, the recommendation on the Hoppe's label, and on several experiences when I did not use oil and the gun rusted seemingly in much shorter time than if oil would have been used after cleaning with Hoppe's 9. The Gunzilla label states that Gunzilla will remove old coatings of oil and that it removes rust. Gunzilla also claims to lubricate firearms and protect them against rust. Gunzilla, does seem to me to provide some level of rust prevention and lubrication. They do not recommend using it on naturally rusted/brown finish barrels as it will remove that finish.

Head To Head Test:

I cleaned several rifles and handguns multiple times with Hoppe's 9, then after they appeared to be clean, I ran a patch soaked in Gunzilla down the bore and over other parts that appeared clean. Just about each time I did so, the Gunzilla patches came up dirty. I also cleaned several rifles and handguns with Gunzilla, then after they looked clean to me, I ran a patch soaked with Hoppe's 9 down the bore and over other parts. The patches had a bit of fouling on them but nowhere near as much as the patches from guns that were first cleaned with Hoppe's and then followed up with Gunzilla. That seemed to me as if Hoppe's was leaving more fouling behind.

My Conclusion:

I arrived at the conclusion that it was time to change gun cleaning solvents and that I would stick with Gunzilla for almost all of my gun cleaning needs. The whole thing I mentioned about warning labels above also came into play with this - not so much for me but for Brendan. From what I saw on the labels of Hoppe's 9 and Gunzilla, Gunzilla just looks like the safer product and I would like to keep him safe. Guess what, he already had been using it before me. He bought a bottle of it at a gun show a month or two before I ordered mine from TopDuck - smart young man. 

Now, this was not a scientific product comparison. It is a telling of my experience with both products and my opinion of them both. Gunzilla seems to do more with less bother and with less product (only needing the one product to clean, lubricate and protect), seems to be less hazardous and thus safer, and seems to do a better job than did my old stalwart - Hoppe's 9. As much as I often stick with what has worked for me in the past, I just cannot see ignoring the what I think are the better cleaning properties of Gunzilla and that is what I intend to use for most of my gun cleaning from now on. As for harsher conditions or longer short term storage (like months unshot in the gun locker) I will continue to use Breakfree CLP to lubricate and protect my firearms from rust. I have found nothing to beat Breakfree CLP when it comes to firearms lubrication and rust prevention, but the Gunzilla sure beats Hoppe's 9 and with some testing I may find it beats Breakfree (but who wants to see if their firearms rust to prove a point). From now on, Gunzilla will be my main gun cleaning, lubricating and protective product of choice.

All the best,
Glenn B

Rod And Gun Auction Blues

A few months back, I attended an auction held by Hessney Auction Company in Geneva, NY. It was one heck of a drive getting there and I had a difficult time finding accommodations. I settled on an almost flea bag motel in which I swore I would never again stay. As for the auction, it was great. They auctioned off an old Triumph motorcycle, militaria, hunting and fishing items and hundreds of guns. I went primarily for the guns and while I came home with a few guns, on which I had the high bids, I also came home with an apparent antique dagger and a mounted deer head. The deer head now hangs in my son's room, as for the dagger, I think it is up there too. The guns, I still have them all, but am in the process of selling one, the Browning Citori Lightning I have written about here before. It is one heck of a nice shotgun, in excellent plus condition, evidently unfired except maybe for test firing. Once I sell it, I will have more than enough cash to attend another auction.

I really want to attend another of their auctions and that is kind of where the blues comes into play. The same auction house, staffed by some really great folks, is having another auction on the August 18th. Once at the link, scroll down just a short way to see the partial listing of guns that will be up for bids. They are also auctioning off a really nice looking 1961 Corvette; go to the photos link to take a look. I would be tempted to bid on that one along with some guns.

Here is where the blues hit hard. I was supposed to have worked this coming Saturday (part time post-retirement job) but asked if I could be switched to the 18th because I plan to attend the 5th Annual Northeast Bloggershoot this coming weekend. Since my boss was nice enough to change my scheduled Saturday from this weekend to the 18th, there is no ethical way I can take off to attend the auction. It looks like they will have some nice guns up for auction, along with that Corvette too, and I am feeling blue, blue, blue!

I made out very well last time with the Browning Citori Lightning shotgun I bought, also with a High Standard .22 pistol that I got for a really good price. I did fair with a NEF Pardner 12 gauge, also fair to good on a Stevens 66-B bolt action rifle in .22LR, and poorly on an Iver Johnson Hercules grade SxS 16 gauge shotgun. (It is basically only good as a wall hanger or a parts gun and I am guessing only for about 1/2 of its parts at best. I thought I was bidding on another of the same type of gun; shame on me for not being attentive enough.) The deer head came at a good price too and the piece of junk dagger was bought on a lark for cheap. In all, I had a great time and got some decent to excellent prices on the guns and the deer mount - which was well worth it considering that my son really likes it.

I would do it again regardless of the long drive there and back, and of the need to spend at least one night in a motel, and a good sum of money on guns. There is no doubt in my mind that I would do better this time around because I basically busted my cherry the last time around and am no longer a live gun auction rookie. I made a couple of mistakes, made even more good decisions and buys than I made mistakes, and am ready to go at it again - this time without the mistakes. Too bad I cannot make it this time round, I figure it would wind up being profitable in the long run one way or another. I wonder if they accept phone bids on the guns. As I recall, I am pretty sure that they did so last time. I'll have to check on that but even if they do, it is no guarantee I would bid by phone. I kind of doubt I would have the opportunity to see pictures of the items, in which I would be interested, from all angles and do not know if I want my bids to depend on an assessment, of an item, made by someone else. Oh well, maybe the time after this one.

All the best,
Glenn B

Our Guns For The 5th Annual Northeast Bloggershoot

Being I am now getting my full pension payments, as of August 1st, I decided to splurge and I ordered some ammo from Cheaperthandirt just a few days ago. It arrived today, just three days after ordering it. It is merely a little bit, 100 rounds of .45 ACP and 40 rounds of 8mm Mauser , to supplement what I already had in the ammo locker. The reason I say I splurged is that, about 2 weeks ago, in anticipation of my first full pension check, I also bought 500 rounds of 5.56x45 and 500 rounds of 7.62x39, that order from the Sportsmandguide. I'll really have to watch my future spending because after all, while it is my full pension check that I am getting now, and while a good one, it it certainly does not amount to my full paycheck of my pre-retirement days. The added bit of ammo, that I received today, made the bite out of my available cash a bit larger than I should have allowed. I guess, I will need to be more frugal in the future and only spend money on ammo that I have saved up after all the bills have been paid and after some money has been put away into savings. For now though, I had a reason to buy the ammo and it was not just to spend some of my first full pension check on ammo. It was to have enough of certain calibers of ammo for the Northeast Bloggershoot this weekend.

I have pretty much whittled down the possibles list to about 4 pistols and about 6 long arms to bring along now that I have enough ammo for them all and now that I have checked with the authorities in MA about transport through the state. Transporting my pistols under the LEOSA act should not be a problem, nor should transporting my AK47 (Romanian WASR) in locked gun cases in the locked trunk of my car. Out shotguns were never an issue as far as a possible problem was concerned nor were my Yugo Mauser or my Nagants. So, here is what I figure to bring along (list still subject to change as I do not want to drag along too many):

Pistols:
Glock 26
Beretta 92FS
Beretta 70S (or Ruger MKII)
Remington R1-1911

Rifles:
Romanian AK (7.62x39) (almost definite)
Yugo Mauser M24/47 (8mm Mauser)
Marlin 336 (.35 Remington)
Marlin 25MN (.22 WMR) (almost definite)
Mosin Nagant 91/30 (7.62x39)

Shotguns:
Remington 870 (maybe and maybe not)
Mossberg 500 (probably)

There is a good chance that the list will get a bit smaller mostly because of limited trunk space and because I have a limited number of gun cases and only one full sized one for rifles. The shotguns can go into a shorter case, so too can the AK. That means only bringing 2 out of 4 of the other long guns listed, the: Marlin 336, the Marlin 25MN, the Mauser and the Nagant. Since I also am pretty certain that the Marlin 25MN will be brought along, as an easy on my shoulder gun, I still have to pick 1 out of the other 3 remaining rifles. I'll see what Brendan thinks about it and probably go with whatever he chooses from his. I am guessing the Mauser or 336. I am also going to ask what he thinks about the shotguns. If he does not want to shoot it, I may not bring the 870 since my right shoulder is on the mend after a long bout of creaking, cracking and pain. I am sure the rifles will be more than enough to chance me having the pain return and I do not need to tempt fate even more by shooting the 870 (except maybe with reduced recoil rounds, but I may not have too many of them).

Of course, Brendan may have different plans on what to bring along as far as the long arms go. I have to track him down and discuss it, maybe over a cold one (no gun handling, just gun discussion, if we are imbibing). Decisions, decisions, decisions but at least now we will have enough ammo for all of them because of the recent ammo orders. By the way, if all of that made sense to you, I guess I am not quite as confused as I have been feeling over deciding on our choices for the Bloggershoot.

All the best,
Glenn B

To Busy To Continue With The Gun Cleaning...

...that I started a couple of days ago. One the first day I think it was eight rifles, one shotgun and four pistols that I cleaned. Then on the second day, I spent a few to several hours cleaning just two Mosin Nagant 91/30 rifles. Remember in my blog about day one of cleaning, I said that rust had not reared its ugly head. Well the two 91/30 Mosin Nagants were in a closet up in our bedroom (my wife's room considering I usually sleep on a couch in the basement). I guess the closet gets pretty humid and maybe I had not cleaned the bores as well as I had thought when I last cleaned them. Yes there was filth and rust in them. The one I have with the bent bolt wound up coming out with a shiny bore; man those Tornado brushes sure do work wonders. The other one still seems to have a bit of frosting, or maybe it is pitting but as I recall, it was pitted when I bought it. At the time, because of cosmoline, I did not realize it. I sure found out after I cleaned it up the first time. It is not bad though and the gun shoots pretty good with heavier weight ammo (kind of all over the place with lighter ammo). But I digress...


As I said, I was too busy today to continue with the cleanings and there are several to go. What kept me busy yesterday was getting a camera put up for auction on Ebay and going through files on hard drives, from my brother's computers, to save only family photos and such that my sister-in-aw might want to keep as remembrances. Then today, I took a drive with my wife, daughter and her fiance into the Toxic Waste Dump State (commonly referred to as New Jersey) so my daughter's fiance could pick up a Chihuahua puppy he was buying. He actually bought two and gave one to my wife. He is lucky I did not make him walk back to NY and that I let him into my house again. Hell, we already had 4 dogs and watched his first most of each week. Now we have five dogs, plus his first to watch and his new puppy to watch when he and my daughter are both at work! Damn my yard is going to be one smelly minefield! Puppy pron at a later date.


I got to pick the name. I did an Internet search for female dog names. Number 15 on the list I looked at was Abby. I started to laugh out loud because, as soon as I saw it, all I could think of was Igor in the movie Young Frankenstein as he tried to tell Dr. Frankenstein the name of the person whose brain he had stolen. He told Dr. Frankenstein it was "Abby someone..."




This puppy will have to be, or wind up being, pretty Abby Normal to live at our house, thus the new moniker! I only agreed to let it live let it come home with us if I could name it.


Well, I am going to be busy tomorrow and Tuesday, so maybe by Wednesday I can clean the rest of the rifles and pistols. I hope so because I want to be absolutely sure that whatever I decide to bring to the Northeast Bloggershoot, this coming weekend, is going to be sparkling clean so we can really foul them up again without any glitches while doing so!


All the best,
Glenn B

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Camera

My brother, who passed a few weeks ago, considered himself quite the photographer. I will admit, he sometimes took some truly excellent photographs; yet, whether or not he was as good as he thought he was did not matter. He had fun with photography and had a passion for it. I imagine that is what mattered.

In 2010, he upgraded his equipment and bought a professional model camera, a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. It is one heck of a big and heavy digital camera and is heavy in the mega pixel department as well. It shoots 21.1 mp. I do not know much about it other than that, except that my sister-in-law wants to sell it because she needs the cash. I would have thought of buying it for myself, to putz around with now and then, that is until I saw the going prices on Ebay. Just the body can go for well over $1,000 and that is for used ones. My brother had more than just the camera body, including a Canon 24-105mm EF lens, a Canon Speedlite flash, a battery charger and 2 batteries as well as other accessories.

Now, my sister-in-law is not all that computer savvy, so I told her I would put it up for sale on my Ebay account for her. I posted it on Ebay today, it took me three hours to get it right. That was somewhat due to the laptop I was using losing its wireless Internet connection a few times but also was due to me getting the Ebay add just right. It did not seem worth the effort especially since I was uncertain it would sell both because of the starting bid price and because I am selling it "as is, no returns". It apparently is in excellent condition as far as I can tell and I took some shots with it and they came out fine. I figured I could change that "no returns" thing, to returns accepted, for a second try if it did not sell on the first attempt.

I need not have worried if it would sell. Just hours after I posted it, it had a bid at the starting bid of $1,800, and that with less than two dozen views. I think it can probably get, and will likely get, a good deal more than that, maybe at least $2,400. If not, then at least it is going to bring in at least $1,800 for my sister-in-law.

If you are interested in viewing the auction, it can be seen at this link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Canon-EOS-5D-Mark-II-21-1mp-Digital-SLR-Camera-24-105mm-Lens-Accessories-/320958118878?pt=Digital_Cameras&hash=item4aba983bde 

I think it absolutely amazing, and a testament to how good a camera it is, that it is going to bring in quite as much as it will, just with the first bid, considering it is a used camera. From what I have seen with other auctions for the same camera on Ebay, they are in very high demand!

Now you may remember I just mentioned I had thought of buying it until I saw the price. I need a camera since my old Canon Powershot whatever went belly up. Well, my brother also has a Canon Powershot G9. I offered to buy that one but my sister-in-law is kind hearted and she gave it to me. While I am not the high caliber that was my brother, I shoot a good shot now and again. Stand by for some upcoming gun pron soon.

All the best,
Glenn B