Steyr S9-A1 on order from Steyr Arms, NAA "Earl" in layaway safe

I'm such a gun slut. I put an order in the mail Tuesday from the gun shop where I work to Steyr Arms for a Steyr S9-A1, the subcompact 9mm DAO pistol from Austria that hardly anybody has heard of.

It's Glock-like, but with a better trigger, a better grip angle, a higher grip that translates to a lower bore axis and unique Trapezoidal sights that work quicker and better than any combat sights I've ever used.

My very first concealed-carry pistol, purchased in 2006 when I got my N.C. concealed-carry permit, was a Steyr M357-A1, the compact .357 Sig version of the above pistol, 4" barrel vs. 3.5" on the S9-A1.

I liked it so much I ordered a M40-A1, which was my first and so far only .40S&W pistol. I liked the pistol fine but not the caliber so I traded it away. IMHO, .40S&W recoil is sharp, uncomfortable, twisty and hard to control, compared to 9mm, .357 Sig, .45 ACP and even 10mm which I all enjoy shooting more.

So as Jeff Cooper said, .40S&W is the answer to a question that didn't need to be asked. Shoulda listened to Jeff in the first place, but on paper .40S&W looks good. It just don't shoot good, to me at least.

I also ordered a Steyr M9-A1 which I still have and it is one of my favorite 9mm pistols, of which I currently have three others, two compacts, CZ P07 Duty and S&W 469; and a subcompact Kel-Tec PF-9.

I sold the M357-A1 because of its rarity as it got to be worth more than I paid for it. And as much as I like Steyrs, it was only about 99.5% reliable. After I bought a pair of S&W M&Ps and a pair of Sig Sauer P229s, all in .357 Sig, I've found all four of them to be 100% reliable so far, no jams, no stove-pipes, no errors. It's hard to beat 100 percent.

And I just got through paying off my new S&W 396 Night Guard .44 Special revolver from the layaway safe at the gun store, so I should be through buying handguns for a while, right?

I thought so. And then some customer at the gun shop traded in unfired a North American Arms .22 Magnum single-action 5-shot derringer called "The Earl." It's got a 3" barrel and in theory might be capable of actually hitting what you aim at. Plus it's all stainless steel and has good-looking wood grips, and I'm a sucker for both.

So into the layaway safe it went. I'm gonna stay broke the rest of my life working in a gun store. I'm thinking it will be a good backup, maybe for ankle carry, plus it will just be a fun gun to shoot. We've got a fine little leather holster for it at the shop.

Concealed-carry law loosens up a bit in Noo Yawk City -- really

Good news for the Big Apple, concealed-carry laws are getting a bit more user-friendly up there, where until recently you had to be God or a member of the mayor's bodyguard corps to pack heat in the Big City.

Some of the most prominent residents of an island in the North Atlantic Ocean called Manhattan have recently acquired licenses to carry concealed weapons.
Fox News chief Roger Ailes and one of his best-known political commentators, Sean Hannity, are on a growing list of marquee city dwellers with permits to tote their firearms under wraps.
The roster includes syndicated radio pottymouth Howard Stern, grizzled yakker Don Imus, multi-decade real estate annoyance Donald Trump and his son – yep – Donald Jr.
“There is a clear and present danger to these men,” said William H. Bonney IV, national spokesperson for the Association of Rich Guys with Guns Hidden (ARGGH).
“One of these gentlemen could easily come under attack while walking to the limo from their multi-million dollar townhouse apartments in Manhattan. Of course the weekend getaway places in Connecticut, the Hamptons or the sprawling ranches in the Southwest – it’s practically the Alamo. You have to be sympathetic.”
Trend watchers say concealed weapons permits have joined Rolex watches and leased private jets as status symbols of the post-Wall Street meltdown.
And it’s not just for the rich and famous. In Virginia, so-called “open carry” is all the rage. Bronco-busting car salesman and building contractors apparently in fear for their lives now amble around suburban restaurants packing heat.
In Arizona, where every dog over three months of age must have a license, no permit is required for concealed weapons.
“Of course not,” Bonney said. “Dogs are dangerous.”

 Gotta be true, I saw it on the 'Net in the Treetops Tattler newspaper.

Back in the good ol' days before the U.S. Navy went "dry"

Wish things had been like this when I was in the U.S. Navy. It was dry as a bone.

LITTLE KNOWN TIDBIT OF NAVAL HISTORY...
The U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides),...as a combat vessel, carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men.This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea.She carried no evaporators (i.e. fresh water distillers). However, let it be noted that according to her ship's log,"On July 27, 1798, the U.S.S. Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men,48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot,11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum." Her mission:"To destroy and harass English shipping."Making Jamaica on 6 October,she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum. Then she headed for the Azores , arriving there 12 November.She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine. On 18 November, she set sail for England .In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchant ships, salvaging only the rum aboard each. By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted.Nevertheless, although unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland .Her landing party captured a whiskey distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn.Then she headed home. The U. S. S. Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February 1799,with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no wine, no whiskey, and 38,600 gallons of water. GO NAVY !!!

 What I want to know is who drank that 10,000 gallons of water with all that rum, wine and Scotch on board? H/T RSKTKR Consulting

A great way to spend a Saturday afternoon in the Deep South

What's better than a Saturday afternoon with a cigar and a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat beer?

That's easy. Two Sam Adams Cherry Wheat beers and a cigar. Next question.

P.S. Sam Adams Blackberry Wheat is pretty spiffy, too. Old Sam has got all his stuff in one sack at his brewery.

Watching my middle grandson play football means going "Nekkid!"

Heading off to a local public school to see my middle grandson play football, which means I have to go totally unarmed, no pocket pistol, not even my pocket knife clipped to the outside edge of my pocket.

School official: "Uh sir, you can't have that knife clipped to your pocket on school property."

Me: "So I guess this pistol in my other pocket is totally out of the question?"

New website launched for my church in Rockingham NC

I just launched a new website for my church and I think it's pretty spiffy if I do say so myself. Only six pages, but I'll likely be adding more as the need arises and content is provided. SweetHavenChurch.com.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

A few gun posters for your viewing pleasure

I cannot tell a lie, I stole these posters from Defensive Shooting Instructors, Inc.

Smith & Wesson Classic DX Model 629 .44 Magnum series revolvers

Wiley Clapp in American Rifleman writes about the Smith & Wesson Classic DX  Model 629 .44 Magnum series revolvers, which are a little-known niche of bygone years. If you can find one, you'll have a one-hole accuracy revolver for hunting or plinking fun.

The company had just introduced a new variant of the stainless steel .44 Mag. called the .44 Classic Stainless. This revolver had a number of updated features, the most visible of which being a heavy, full underlug barrel. As produced in those days, this was a very high-quality piece, particularly in the sense of shooting very tight groups. Every one of them was fired for accuracy and very few if any were rejected. But the factory staff began to notice that a few delivered accuracy bordering on the spectacular. They hit on the idea of culling out the most accurate ones and marking them differently. Eventually, the shooting evaluation was performed before the markings were applied.

If your version of the gun wears the barrel marking of “Classic DX,” you have one of the better revolvers that ever left the plant in modern times. Depending on what kind of wear is on the gun, the accuracy potential may be as good as it ever was. I once did a very detailed evaluation of several samples of these outstanding guns. At 25 yards, they were all capable of delivering tight one-hole groups with at least one good commercial load and at 50, they never seemed to run outside of the 1.5-inch mark. This means a theoretical group of 3 inches at 100 yards and 6 inches at 200. They came with five interchangeable front sights and an extra-strong, smooth action. I was always surprised that the company never made more than they did. Naturally, these guns were never completely appreciated and are no longer available in the regular catalog.

Obama bans import of 100,000 M1 Garands & Carbines from S. Korea

I probably ought to be happy about this because it's sure to create a spike in business for the gun shop where I work, but it still pisses me off to read that Obama is banning the import of 100,000 genuine U.S. M1 Garands and M1 Carbines from South Korea. Read the full story at The Volokh Conspiracy.

According to The Korea Times, the Obama administration has blocked efforts by the South Korean government to sell over a  hundred thousand surplus M1 Garand and Carbine rifles into the United States market. These self-loading were rifles introduced in 1926 and 1941. As rifles, they are especially well-suited to community defense in an emergency, as in the cases of community defense following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Along with AR-15 type rifles, the M1 rifles are the quintessential firearms of responsible citizenship, precisely the type of firearms which civic responsibility organizations such as the Appleseed Project teach people how to use. 

As the Gateway Pundit puts it,  It Begins... Obama Bans Gun Sales

Yet another reason to vote the leftwingnuts out of office in November and to vote for "The End of an Error" in 2012.

Would it be PC to shoot Zapata with this Ruger Vaquero .45 Colt?

Ruger Emiliano Zapata Vaquero .45LC, 1 of 500 Mfg. What ever happened to the good ol' days when Mexican bandits weren't heroes?

Send in the Rangers and throw out the bums in Washington, DC

Meanwhile, down south of the Border, they're all voting for Obama

"Don't Tread On My Gun Rights" yard signs available from NRA-ILA

I gotta get me one of these from the NRA-ILA for my yard. I'm hopeful this fall's elections will open up a huge can of whoop ass on the leftwingnuts in power, leading up to the "End of an Error" in November 2012.

Praise the Lord and pass the Gun Rights signs.

I'd rather have one of these from Sig Sauer, but I guess I'll have to settle for the signs since I can't buy all the guns I want: Sig P226R 9mm Gadsden "Don't Tread On Me" w/N.S.

S&W 396 Nightguard .44 Special tries out six different loads for POA

I finally redeemed the S&W 396 Night Guard .44 Special from the layaway safe at the gun store on Friday. Today after the N.C. Concealed Carry Handgun Class I taught at the shop I got a chance to shoot her.

We do the qualification firing part of the course at the N.C. National Guard Armory indoor range in Wadesboro, which is really great here in the summer. Today it was only 92 but with a heat index of 100. In the AC of the indoor range, it was great.

And the shooting was pretty good, too. Targets at right were all fired single-action at 5 yards standing two-handed.

I tried six different .44 Special loads. From top left, Hornady JHPs of unknown weight, an unmarked lot I got at the gun shop. Top right was PMC 180-grain JHPs, middle row left was Georgia Arms 200-grain Gold-Dot JHPs, right was Winchester Silvertips 200-grain. Bottom left is Speer Gold Dot 200-grain JHPs and bottom right is Magtech 240-grain Cowboy Loads.

And the winner is ... Speer Gold Dots, the same load that shot closest to point of aim for my Charter Bulldog .44 Special. I just grabbed two more boxes of Speer Gold Dots that came in to the gun shop, so I'm ready for carry next week at the shop.

The second-best group I shot was with Georgia Arms, but they were a lot hotter than the Speer Gold Dots, which is typical. GA calls their new ammo "Canned Heat" and it is hot. They use Speer Gold Dots for projectiles, but load them hotter than Speer factory ammo. And while manageable, it was definitely a lot louder and hotter than any load I shot with the possible exception of the unknown-weight Hornady JHPs. It wouldn't take much shooting with either of those loads to put me into flinching territory.

Speer Gold Dot 200-grain JHPs are rated at 875 fps with 340 ft./lbs. of energy, which is quite hot enough for me. It's hotter and delivers more energy than most .45 ACP loads.

Gold Dot Personal Protection - 44 Special
Part Number Cartridge Bullet Wt. Bullet Type Box Count Bullet Coefficient 23980 44 Special 200 GDHP 20 0.145 Velocity(in feet per second) Energy (in foot pounds) Muzzle 50 yards 100 yards Muzzle 50 yards 100 yards 875 832 794 340 308 280 Trajectory if sighted at 25 yards Test Barrel Length in inches Usage 25 yards 50 yards 75 yards 100 yards 0.0 -2.1 -7.3 -15.8 6 1

I'm not 100% set on carry, but it likely will be my Sig P220 Compact SAO .45 ACP on my left hip and the S&W 396NG in my Galco right-hand small-of-back holster. A .45 with a .44 for a New York Reload suits me just fine. I can deploy either one with either hand, whichever comes to hand most readily if and when the brown stuff hits the fan.

Red Friday at the gun shop is Carry Three Day, comfortable carry

Friday at the gun shop where I work is always Red Friday for me. I always wear red on Fridays to honor the troops at war, but most Fridays the rest of the crew is gone setting up for a weekend gun show.

And that means that yours truly and one other worker are providing all the security for the shop as well as selling guns, making it Red Friday in the alert category for us.

We've been robbed once by gang-bangers who sledge-hammered through the back wall at midnight, grabbed a handful of guns and ran before the police responded to the alarm.

And in another incident two armed thugs tried a stickup one evening when the shop was closed but two of the owners were working inside. When faced with a Glock .40, they left faster than they arrived.

But those two incidents put an extra edge on our awareness at the shop and I always wear two guns, a main and a backup, as do some of the other workers.

But today I tried something entirely different, as Monty Python says. I wore three. My main battery in a Bianchi shoulder holster rig was a S&W 65 3"-barrel .357 Magnum 6-shooter with a pair of speedloaders on the weak side. I'm a lefty so the S&W 65 is on my right.

In a DeSantis Mini Belt Slide on my left side was a Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm subcompact.

And in a Galco small-of-back holster was a Ruger LCR stuffed with .38 Special +P loads.

And not only did we hold the tigers at bay for another day, it was a comfortable rig to wear all day. And with 18 rounds of .357 Magnum, 8 rds. of 9mm and 5 rds. of .38 Special +P, I was ready for any foolish thugs.

The Infallible pistol that's isn't; and other adventures on Gunbroker

Forgive the lack of posting. I plead vacation and too much work to catch up after I got home. So here's what I been doing on gunbroker since I got back to work.

How insane would it be to name a pistol "Infallible"? Pretty dumb and guess what, the company went out of business back in ought-something of the early 1900s because their pistol was not infallible. This particular one is broke but we're selling it on gunbroker as a curiosity or for a serious collector of oddities. It can be yours a mere $375. Infallible Type II .32 ACP Pistol-Nonfunctional

Now here's a real serious pistol, a Walther OSP International Target 22Short Semi-Auto Pistol.
You're not supposed to dry-fire any rimfire pistol as it can break the firing pin, but I fired this one quite accidentally. I touched the trigger very lightly with a magnet to determine if it is steel - it is - and with that extra-light touch she went "Snap!" That trigger is definitely in the low ounces, much less than a pound. And it can be yours for a mere $1400. (I'm praying the firing pin didn't break when I snapped it accidentally.)

And I need another .22 rifle like I need two more holes in my head. I've got three already, two Winchesters and a Marlin. But this J.C. Higgins 30 .22LR Semi-Auto Rifle w/Weaver C4 Scope caught my eye and tempted me. It was made for Sears by High Standard, same as their Model 30, and features a take-down stock of nicely grained and checkered wood with a wide beavertail forearm. And it has a feature that caught my eye, a left-hand bolt handle. The bolt ejection is right-hand but that usually doesn't bother this lefty with .22 semi-autos as I've seen very few that will spit powder in my face. It can be yours for only $300.

And last but certainly not least is this Magnum Research Desert Eagle Mk.XIX Gold .44Magnum, sporting chrome-plated steel construction throughout with 24K gold-plated accents on the controls and everywhere.  Totally impractical as Magnum Research includes a warning in the box that use, such as in firing this monster, is very likely to wear off the gold-plating. Or more likely just blast it off. It can be yours for a mere $1500.

Red Stripe Light Jamacian Lager, a low-carb beer with actual taste!

Life is good!

I've been a long-time victim of Dunlap's Disease, that widespread plague wherein my belly has done lapped over my belt. And the only diet I've tried that actually works to shrink my obese gut, amongst a slew, is Atkins low carbs.

One thing I really miss when I'm on Atkins is good beer. There are several low-carb beers, but most if not all also have no taste.

But my quest for a low-carb beer that actually tastes good has at last come to a successful conclusion.

Red Stripe Light Jamacian Lager has only 3.25 grams of carbs and an astonishingly low 35 calories for a 12-oz. bottle.

But the best part is it's almost as good as the regular Red Stripe Lager, which IMHO is one of the best beers in the world.

It's far better than Bud Select 55, which bills itself as the Lightest Beer in the World at 55 calories and 1.9 grams per 12 oz. bottle. If I can't find Red Stripe Light, I'll settle for Select 55. It is better than any of the other low-carb beers I've tried to date, including Amstel Light, supposedly the best of the low-carb beers.

But a bottle of Amstel is 5 grams of carbs, so if I'm trying to stay under 10 carbs a day for beer, say on a weekend or a day I'm working from home and can take a break at the pool, like today, that's one beer.

Or I can have two Red Stripe Lights or even three Bud 55s. I ain't that good at math but I can add that up.

TYRRELL: Modified left-wing hangout - Washington Times

TYRRELL: Modified left-wing hangout - Washington Times
One of my favorite journalists is R. Emmett Tyrrell, head honcho of The American Spectator, quite simply the best journalism magazine currently extant. As usual, Tyrrell gives us an insightful tour of how the mainstream media became the lamestream media, under total domination by leftwingnuts for the "news."

I doubt that journalism was preordained to be dominated by liberalism. There was a day, before the New Deal, when there were plenty of journalists who were not guided by left-wing ideas or any motive at all. The clever journalist, usually, just wanted to get a good story. Yet the New Deal came along, and then World War II and finally, television. At first, it was humanitarian to be in sympathy with the New Deal. Then it was patriotic to be in sympathy with what was a growing homogenization of views amongst news gatherers. Finally, it was good sense to be a liberal newsman. By the time television came into its own, liberalism was the corporate mentality of the news-gathering business. Hence, you can take a television news gatherer or a print news gatherer and plug them in interchangeably.

By the 1990s, this corporate mentality had begun to change. Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes saw a market. They dissented from the media's corporate mentality and presented the news from a conservative perspective. Talk radio came along and presented a conservative talk venue. Now Fox News alone brings in more revenue than the combined revenue of CNN, MSNBC and the network news shows on ABC, NBC and CBS. The corporate mentality suddenly was in trouble.

Instead of breaking up along reasonable lines, it has tried to remain coherent and viable against the odds. While Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Ailes at the Wall Street Journal and Fox have employed ideologues and entertainers, the media's stalwarts are all "true" journalists who have continued gathering the news, pronouncing on it and covering their gluteus maximus when some poor wretch such as Dan Rather proves to be an embarrassment.

And from liberal domination of the media, it's only a very short step to the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy that brought Barack Hussein Obama into the White House. Read the whole thing, it's worth your time.

PRUDEN: The salesman doesn't know the territory - Washington Times

PRUDEN: The salesman doesn't know the territory - Washington Times

Barack Obama is taking his teleprompter on the road again, this time with Detroit as the first stop on a magical mystery tour to prove that he is, too, still the messiah. He's trying to persuade everybody that he really isn't who he really is.
He's beset by polling numbers that continue to fall. Everything he does makes it worse. He's fleeing Washington's chattering class, and he'll run into the crying class on the road. The president has yet to get his mind around the fact that most Americans have decided that he betrayed their trust, that their only hope for change begins in November...

Mr. Obama has the intellectual's habit, formed by the intellectualoids at elite universities, of trying to parse sentiment by mathematic formula. Americans respond to love of country like they respond to love of home and hearth, with an instinct of heart and gut. Mr. Obama famously told a group of wealthy donors in San Francisco that when Americans "get bitter, they cling to guns or religion," and didn't understand why he enraged the masses. When he apologizes to the nation's enemies, he wins the applause of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, but jeers in Peoria. When he argues that "if we occasionally confess to having strayed from our values and our ideals, [we] strengthen our hand," he wins applause in the faculty lounges of Harvard and Yale, but confirms the verdict of Middle America that "he's not one of us."

Or as we say down here in the Deep South, in Redneck Country, "He ain't from 'round here." Just where Obama is from is definitely open to question. As unkind as it is to say it, he may not even be an American.

But until November 2012, he'll be our President and I shall continue to pray for him. And then come November 2012, I plan to join a holy host of other Americans who will vote him the hell out of office!

I guess not a single one of my blog readers, all dozen or so, ain't got no curiosity. I mentioned my favorite Dale Earnhardt joke when I posted the photo of this Remington 11-87 Premier 20 Ga. Commemorative.

And not a one of you asked for the joke. But here it is anyway, just because it's Sunday afternoon and I'm killing time on the blog after my usual Sunday afternoon nap.

This NASCAR fan died and went to heaven. Shortly after St. Peter invited him in through the Pearly Gates, he heard a sound of car engines revving in the distance. Naturally he walked toward the sound and lo and behold, there was a huge racetrack full of millions of screaming NASCAR fans. He went inside, climbed up in the stands to join the crowd and looked down on the track.

There went Davey Allison, Neil Bonnett  Alan Kulwicki, Tiny Lund, Benny Parsons, Tim Richmond, Fireball Roberts, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly and LeeRoy Yarbrough.

Wow, he thought, all the NASCAR greats made it to heaven! Then here came a big black Chevy with number 3 on it, passing and lapping everybody else on the track. "Wow! There goes Dale Earnhardt!" he hollered out.

Another fan standing beside him shook his head and said, "No that ain't Dale. That's just God. He thinks He's Dale."