Kel-Tec promises delivery of a .22 Magnum semi-auto pistol that works

I've long had a weakness for .22 Magnums or to be more technically specific, .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire.

Many years ago I had the good sense to buy a Winchester Model 94 .22 Magnum lever-action rifle which is now long out of production. Then I had the stupidity to trade it for a shotgun which I needed for hunting. I quit hunting long ago and converted the Ithaca Model 37 12 Ga. pump I got for the Winchester 94 into a home-defense gun by shortening the barrel to 18.25". But like the few other guns I've sold or traded, with few exceptions I wish I had held onto them.

One of those few exceptions was an AMT AutoMag II .22WMR semi-auto pistol, a rare model with 4" barrel. I found out the hard way why the AMTs have a reputation as a "jam-a-matic."

I tried every .22WMR load I could find and none of them would feed at all in that AMT so I took it back to the dealer and traded it in on something else. So far as I know to this point, no manufacturer has built a .22WMR semi-auto pistol that will reliably work, which is to most of us gun nutz sort of a basic requirement for a pistol. If it won't shoot reliably, it ain't worth squat.

But now Kel-Tec, a Florida manufacturer of small semi-auto pistols from .32 ACP to 9mm, has announced they have solved the engineering problems and will soon offer a .22 WMR pistol that will reliably work with a wide variety of different velocity ammo.

I've got a Kel-Tec PF-9 which is quite reliable and I carry it often as a pocket pistol and even occasionally as a backup pistol. If the new Kel-Tec PMR-30 proves to be what they promise, then I shall certainly get one when it becomes available.

It sounds like a great pistol, fiber-optic sights front and rear for these aging eyes, 30 rounds of .22WMR in the magazine, what's not to like? If it works, I'm going to be all over.

The German assault rifle that could have won WWII for the Axis

One of World War II military history's little-known footnotes is how the German military developed the world's first assault rifle for their troops early in the war. It was used with devastating effectiveness by the few troops which had it in Russia, enabling one small unit to fight their way through surrounding Russian troops with overwhelming numerical superiority.

But it came too late to the field to help turn the war because of one man, Adolf Hitler. The all-knowing idiot whose military experience was limited to bolt-action Mauser rifles in World War I vetoed the project early in its development. Only after the developers defied Hitler's order and finished the project did it finally make its way to troops. Too little, too late.

Here's a video from The Military Channel on "Sturmgewehr MP-44 - The story of the MP-43/44, German assault rifle of World War II." The English translation of Sturmgewehr is assault rifle.

Sinister plot by Jesus freaks at Trijicon uncovered by ABC

I don't know how many of my fellow gun nutz are Christians, I suspect many.

But even if you aren't here's a good reason to buy Trijicon products, such as night sights and scopes: Because the company is driving the media leftwingnuts ballistic by including Bible verses in their serial numbers!

ABC News has reported this "scoop" on the military contractor that supplies the ACOG scopes used by our troops on the M4 carbines and other long guns in the field.

ABC calls it "Secret Jesus Messages On U.S. Military Weapons" as if that is somehow alarming.

Meredith Jessup at Townhall.com reports on this sinister plot by the Jesus freaks at Trijicon.

A Michigan-based company that sells rifle scopes to the U.S. military is being investigated by ABC News and recieving of backlash from "religious freedom" activists after admitting it has added small biblical references to its products.

Trijicon of Wixom, Michigan, confirmed to ABCNews.com that it has always added biblical codes to sights and scopes it has sold the U.S. military. The company says the practice began under the company founder, Glyn Bindon, a devout Christian from South Africa who was killed in a 2003 plane crash.

These coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ include examples like 2COR4:6. Though this combination of letters and numbers tends to blend in with regular serial numbers, this code is an apparent references to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the Bible's New Testament, which reads: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

I may just order some Trijicon night sights just because. I need some for some of my pistols anyway.

And I got another "scoop" for ABC News, most if not the overwhelming majority of our troops in the field are either Christians or at the least have a great respect for the Bible. The old saying that there are no atheists in foxholes is quite true. When the hot lead is flying around your head, it sorta comes natural to have a chorus of "Nearer My God To Thee" come to mind.

Been there, done that, heard the music in my head, 1968-69 U.S. Navy WestPac Cruise to lovely Vietnam, lived to come home in one piece.

Ray Stevens has a new hit tune out that Congress needs to hear

Contrary to rumor, Ray Stevens is not dead. He's alive and well and has a new hit tune out.

I must confess I stole this from The Stoned Crab.

A Smith pistol and a Wesson revolver: A pair to draw to any day

I went off in search of a compact 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol today and lo and behold, not only did I find the Smith I wanted, I found a Wesson I wasn't even looking for, a Dan Wesson .22LR revolver that is.

Sometimes a guy falls into the outhouse and come out smelling like a rose.

One of my co-workers at the gun shop told me Carolina Pawn Shop in Charlotte was selling all their used guns to make room for new ones and had some nice Smiths and Colts they had sold at the Hickory gun show.

So I googled the directions, headed off to Charlotte and found the shop. "Guns? We don't sell guns," the pretty little lady at the pawn and jewelry store said. And since there was only one Carolina Pawn Shop in Charlotte, what else could I do but head back home? Shoulda called first. Two hours drive for nada.

I drove up and down the street a couple of miles thinking lightning might strike in the form of a gun shop. No lightning. So I headed home.

Saw a sign for Dick's Sporting Goods in Matthews, so I stopped. Dick don't sell no handguns, the man sez. I bought a couple of boxes of ammo at about the same price as I can get at the shop, but you gotta buy something on the trip.

Then as I'm ready to go home, guy in the parking lot who came out of Dick's when I did asked me if I was looking for handguns? Yep. He pointed me to a small pawn shop just up the road a mile or less.

I found Beltway Pawn Shop right on U.S. 74 and lo and behold, right there in the counter is a nifty blue S&W 469 (first two photos), twin to the S&W 669 stainless (3rd photo) I had and sold to my everlasting regret.

Once upon a time, I got it in my head to upsize from small, carry pistols to large, tactical pistols. The S&W 669 was sold despite the fact that I shot it better than any of my other pistols.

Anyway, here was its replacement at a great price, even less than I paid for the 669 two or three years ago. Then before I could get out the door, this Dan Wesson .22LR revolver just leaped right out of the counter into my hand. Amazing!

It had a nick of two in its deep blue finish but it locks up tight as a tick. Then I pulled the trigger. That was a big mistake. So smooth my pants almost fell down. Again. (See Smith & Wesson 14-3 and 65-4 revolvers with extra-slick triggers in my earlier musings.)

And then the gun shop guy gives me a great price on it, too. What could I do?

So here I sit with the compact Smith I've been wanting, which just happens to fit perfectly in the small-of-back Galco holster I wear at work for a backup gun.

And I've been needing a good .22 revolver to practice my wheel gun shooting with and this Dan Wesson is way yonder more than double-action revolver than I figured I could afford.

Ain't it amazing how the Good Lord looks out for fools and drunks?

P.S. I didn't realize why I had such a hard time trying to find another S&W 669 or the above 469 until I looked it up in BlueBook:

MODEL 469 "MINI"- 9mm Para. cal., double action, alloy frame, 12 shot finger extension mag., short frame, bobbed hammer, 3 1/2 in. barrel, sandblast blue or satin nickel finish, ambidextrous safety standard (1986), molded Delrin black Grips, 26 oz. Disc. 1988.

MODEL 669 STAINLESS- 9mm Para. cal., smaller version of Model 659 with 12 shot finger extension mag., 3 1/2 in. barrel, fixed sights, molded Delrin grips, ambidextrous safety standard, 26 oz. Mfg. 1986-88 only.

Jeez, they only made this great pistol design for two years? What was Smith thinking when they discontinued it? Perhaps the same thing Colt was thinking when they discontinued all their great double-action revolvers.

Discovering a gun-friendly writer is an unexpected pleasure

I'm way too stubborn to change easily when it comes to my reading-for-pleasure habits. I've got a few authors I stick with, Robert B. Parker, W.E.B. Griffin, Bernard Cornwell, Stuart Woods and a small handful of others.

So I am absolutely delighted to add another to that small list, Stephen Hunter. I just finished his latest novel, I, Sniper, about the adventures of a former Vietnam War Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger. Now I'll go back and read Hunter's earlier novels and nonfiction works with pleasure.

And this morning in an email announcing the latest issue of American Rifleman, lo and behold there's an article about my newly found author with a "pigs fly" note: he's a retired journalist from The Washington Post! Lordy, I didn't think anybody who ever worked there knew which end of the gun the bullets came out of.

Mark Keefe, editor-in-chief of American Rifleman, had the same reaction when he first stumbled across Hunter's writing.

The world didn’t end, and there was no immediate evidence of porcine aviation. But my morning’s coffee spewed on the pages of Jan. 26, 2006, Washington Post was enough to demonstrate that the world was somehow out of balance. Appearing in that liberal, anti-gun journalistic bastion was one of the finest articles on firearms I’d ever read. When the U.S. Repeating Arms Co. factory closed, a film critic for the Washington Post wrote a heartfelt piece, “Out With A Bang,” for the paper about the legacy of Winchester—in particular the Model 94. In my opinion, it was the finest tribute written on that legendary firearm.

It should have come as no surprise, though, as that writer was Stephen Hunter—a veteran journalist and film critic with The Baltimore Sun and then The Washington Post who earned a Distinguished Writing Award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1998 and a Pulitzer Prize For Criticism in 2003. Hunter is also a New York Times bestselling novelist and one of the finest writers in America. Best of all for shooters his novels are well-known for presenting firearms in a technically correct fashion and giving them prominence in his plotlines. He has written 14 novels and introduced the character of Bob Lee Swagger in “Point of Impact” (1993). That novel was adapted by Hollywood into the feature film “Shooter,” starring Mark Wahlberg, in 2007. Hunter is also the author of three non-fiction works, and, in my opinion, “American Gunfight: The Plot To Kill Harry Truman And The Shoot-Out That Stopped It” has one of the finest descriptions of a an actual gunfight ever written.

I've already checked out one of the early Bob Lee Swagger novels and plan to read all I can find.

Clear sign gun-sale frenzy is over: Springfield M1As in stock

The gun-buying frenzy is officially over -- at least until the Obamessiah and his gun-grabbing cohorts do something stupid like trying to ban guns -- again.

I have solid evidence the frenzy is over. One of the hottest if not the hottest guns during the frenzy touched off by Obama's election is the Springfield M1A .308/7.62 NATO semi-auto rifle, in either the standard M1A or the SOCOM shorty configuration.

As soon as we got one in stock at the gun shop where I work, zoom it was gone before you could say Shazzam! And if an M1A survived a few days in the shop, it went to the next gun show where it was almost always the first to sell.

Well no longer. My shop has as of today (ain't saying they'll all be there tomorrow) a plethora of Springfield M1As. How many is a phethora? At least seven. Here's the lineup at this hour:

Springfield AA9628 M1A SOCOM II Urban Camo/4-Rails

Springfield AA9126 M1A Scout Squad Blk Fiberglass

Springfield MA9106 M1A Standard Blk Fiberglass Stk

Springfield MA9222 M1A Loaded NM 22" Bl Walnut Stk

Springfield MA9226 M1A Loaded NM 22" Bl. Black Stk

Springfield MA9229 M1A Loaded NM 22" Bl. Green Stk

Springfield NA9102 M1A National Match Walnut Stock

My personal favorite is the SOCOM II Urban Camo Quad-Rail. Snazzy but outa my budget.

Underwear bomber was singing like a canary until Miranda spoke up

Carol Platt Liebau at Townhall.com points out the idiocy of trying the underwear bomber in criminal courts.

If anyone remains unclear about why it's such a dangerous conceit for the President to allow foreign terrorists to be charged as civilians and tried in US civilian courts, a report from today's London Telegraph spells it out.

Apparently, the 23-year-old Nigerian who tried to blow up a Northwest flight on Christmas day was "singing like a canary" until he was provided with a lawyer, in accordance with Miranda requirements that attach to civilian trials in the United States. He was about to disclose information about other such plots being hatched by Al Qaeda in Yemen, using other young Muslim terrorists like himself.

Then the terrorist was provided with a lawyer. And he stopped talking.

Seems to me that when it comes to the war on terror, there's been plenty of "hope and change" between the Bush and Obama administrations . . . for would-be terrorists, that is. Feel safer yet?

Send him to Gitmo and warm up the waterboard.

Global cooling wave extends too far down South for comfort

Where is Al Gore when you need him?

Jetting off in a trail of hydrocarbon exhaust to the Bahamas for the winter?

We sure could use a good wave of "global warming" here in the so-called Sunny South.

It was cold and snowy in Pittsburgh where the sweet wife and I went for Christmas, but that's to be expected.

But we ain't supposed to be having week after week after week of teen temperatures and even single-digit days here in the Sunny South.

I am so ready for a little global warming.

Anybody seen the Goracle?

Paging Al Gore!

500th Gunbroker listing a personal milestone for my gun shop

I observed my first-year anniversary of doing gunbroker auctions for the gun shop where I work back before Christmas.

I started out part-time during the Christmas holiday 2008 and went full-time in late January 2009 the next day after I got laid off from an industry job as a technical writer/photographer.

Since then, I've added on average about 25 guns per week to the shop's gunbroker auction listings, both new and used. Of course when a used gun is sold, that auction ends. But when a new gun is sold, we relist that auction if we have anymore samples of that same model and make.

So even though 25 time 52 adds up to 1300 auctions, our total on gunbroker at any one time is way less. The shop had about a dozen when I started and finally on Friday, we went above 500. It stands at 501 right now and will probably go below 500 before I can list some more next week.

But until then, I'm celebrating a milestone of more than 500 guns on gunbroker listed for Village Pawn & Gun Shop of Wadesboro, NC.

Number 500 was a Winchester 94 Theodore Roosevelt Commemoriative Rifle in .30-30 Win. from 1969, unfired and as new in the box.

And since it's my blog and I can show off if I wanta, here's another semi-interesting firearm, a Llama Chrome-Plated Engraved Micro-Max .380 ACP Semi-Auto Pistol.

When a WWII combat correspondent mistakenly described Gen. George S. Patton's Colt Single-Action-Army .45 Colt Revolver with ivory grips as a "pearl-handled pistol," ol' Blood & Guts supposedly sniffed "Only a pimp would carry a pearl-handled pistol."

Believe it or else, here's two firearms I really have no interest in owning because both are too pretty to shoot.

Finally, here's a third from the batch I just listed that's pretty, but not too pretty to shoot. It's a genuine buffalo rifle, a modern replica of the famous 1874 Sharps .45/70 Gov. Cal. Rifle, almost identical to the one Tom Selleck made famous in Quigley Down Under.

It is pretty, but it's also very deadly. A big old hunk of .45/70 lead will blow a hole in about anything that's alive on the planet today.

The Band: Best rock 'n' roll group EVAH! lives on in videos

My friend Janet Lynch, who might just be the only other fan of The Band in Richmond County, has a couple of videos of the greatest rock 'n' roll band EVAH! on her facebook page and I had to steal 'em.

The videos are from The Band's final live performance in 1977, recorded for the movie The Last Waltz which I've written about before. The Band never sounded any better, particularly on The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down with a Dixieland horn section from New Orleans, arranged by Allen Toussaint, playing backup. Levon Helm sings the lead vocals on both these songs, but listen for Rick Danko and Richard Manuel to join in the choruses. The Band had three of the best rock vocalists EVAH!.

Robbie Robertson Rick Danko Levon Helm Richard Manuel Garth Hudson The Band The Last Waltz


And then here's Up On Cripple Creek from that same concert.

Rock 'n' roll don't get no better than this, more than 30 years later. Rest in peace Rick Danko and Richard Manuel, the two Band members who have gone on before us.

Finally here's Levon Helm, still rockin' in 2008 with his own band doing Ophelia, my personal favorite of all The Band's songs.

Para Ordnance P14-45 finally comes home to stay from the gun shop

I know this sounds like blasphemy from a gun lover like me, but I may just have enough compact carry pistols and revolvers to do me for a while. So yesterday, I finally paid off the layaway balance on an honest-to-God full-size 1911-A1 .45 ACP pistol at the gun shop where I work.

It's a Para Ordnance P14-45, one of a pair of Para .45s sold to the gun shop by a retired U.S. Navy Chief Corpsman. (Most of the below is a repost from when I first shot the P14-45, but it's my blog and I can repost if I want to.)

I've been carrying and shooting the P12-45 compact .45 ACP the chief sold us for some time and it's a great piece, customized by the famous Cylinder & Slide Custom Shop with ambi safeties, a great trigger job and a host of other features.

But the chief went all out with the P14-45 full-size pistol and had Cylinder & Slide do one of their custom packages, plus a few extras not even listed in the package.

Cylinder & Slide, as the name says, specializes in cylinder guns (revolvers) and slide guns (semi-auto pistols).

The P12-45 has been heavily customized by C&S with their CST-1 package. It says so right on the right side of the slide along with the famous C&S mustache logo.

The C&S website says that package includes the following features:
Cylinder & Slide CST-I Custom Features:
# C&S Tactical Match trigger pull set 5 piece
# C&S Long Aluminum Trigger with Overtravel Stop
# Deburr breech face, radius & polish center rail
# Throat barrel and frame for reliable feeding
# Hand lapped slide to frame
# Round all external corners and edges
# Bullet nose relief on front ejection port
# Trigger Job 4.5 lbs.
# Radius and Tension Extractor
# C&S Tactical High Grip Ambidextrous Thumb Safety
# Brown High Grip Beavertail Grip Safe with Memory Groove
# C&S One Piece Recoil Spring Guide Rod
# Wolff Extra Power Recoil Spring
# C&S front sight
# Matte Reblue Pistol.

As you can see from the photos, the retired chief also had C&S install a huge magwell on the grip, which I've heard called a "flowerpot magwell."

It's certainly big enough to plant daisies in and more than big enough to facilitate fast mag changes with the handful of 15-rd. mags with big slam pads that the former owner supplied along with the pistol.

And how, you might ask, does it shoot? I've "borrowed" it several times from the layaway safe already to test-fire it. I believe as President Reagan said in "trust, but verify." When I buy a used pistol, I want to shoot it first to verify it works good.

And in the case of the P14-45, I had to verify that fact several times.

My only complaint is it shoots up those 15-rd. mags way too fast. Just when you're starting to really get in a rhythm punching .45 holes in a small group, the slide locks back. Was that 15 already? This pistol is gonna blow my ammo-hoarding plans right out the window. It's probably gonna take at least 100 rds. a week just to keep it fed and happy.

Its C&S Custom trigger feels and looks virtually identical to the P12 and with either of these great 1911 .45s the trigger is so good it overcomes my tendency as a lefty to pull my shots down and to the right a bit. With either, I punch holes right where I'm looking, dead on the money.

And the P14 has one other feature not on the CST-1 list, a BoMar adjustable rear sight, so I could adjust the sights to zero it with something other than 230-grain loads if I wanted to. But with the P12 and P14 both shooting dead-on with 230-grain loads, why mess with perfection?

Now I gotta get me a left-handed holster for my new 1911 so I can carry it on "Big Gun Day."

And the one feature the chief didn't have C&S change is the grips. I bought a set of Hogue fancy hardwood checkered grips for it, but I gotta find me a gunsmith who can customize wood grips. With the ambi safeties and the magwell, the Hogue stock P12 grips need trimming on both ends.

What's the cure for AR .223/5.56 weakness? The .458 SOCOM

One firearm I have had no interest in thus far is an AR rifle. I agree with former Green Beret, now combat journalist Michael Yon, and many troops in the field in the war on terror, that our military's puny little .223/5.56mm rounds just ain't got enough ooomph to get the job done.

The M16 mighta been OK for close-quarters jungle warfare in Vietnam when it was first introduced but it has long outlived its usefulness. I read that British troops are saying most of the firefights they get involved in with the Taliban in Afghanistan begin at 300 yards or further and their .223 bullpup rifles just ain't getting the job done at those ranges.

Maybe sanity will prevail with the paper pushers that buy the firearms for our military and they will get a new battle rifle to replace the 5.56mm, but I doubt it.

Anyway, I said all that to say I've found an AR I might just buy, the .458 SOCOM AR upper.

The real cleverness in the design of the .458 SOCOM is that nothing but the upper need be changed — same magazine as the .223, same buffer spring in the buttstock, same everything. Just get a .458 upper available from Rock River Arms, Teppo Justsu, or other custom builders, get loaded ammo from SBR Ammunition, Corbon, or Reeds and go. Now, your .223 AR has morphed from a varmint getter to a full-fledged deer-, bear- and elk-stopper by simply changing the upper — no new FFL transfer required.

In The Field

Much of the research on the capabilities of big-bore AR-15 rounds like the .458 SOCOM concentrate in the area of subsonic (1,050 fps and lower velocities) and suppressed loads. That's the where and why of the super-heavy 450-, 500- and 600-grain bullets. I would imagine folks hiking, fishing or living in big bear country might also opt for the heavy weights. The Coast Guard uses them to put big holes in bad boats, but for hunters, bullets in the 250 to 350-grain range will be the most useful.

A 300-grain, well-constructed bullet moving at about 2,000 fps is 150- to 200-yard bad medicine for just about anything, including bear and moose. It's certainly big enough for elk, and there's not a deer alive that will walk away from a solid hit. The energy of such a combination is 2,400 foot-pounds at the muzzle and, within 100 yards, it doesn't weaken much. That puts it squarely in the territory of the modern .45-70 or .450 Marlin, and it will do anything those rounds will do. The mighty .458 Winchester Magnum only bumps 2,100 fps with the 300-grainers.

Now there's an AR round that will knock a Taliban/Iranian/Syrian/Arab/Terrorist on his butt. Or some idiot stupid enough to think he can rob my house or stick up the gun store where I work.

The job description of a Christian is defined by asking "WWJD?"

It has been said that a newspaper's job is "To comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable." As a former newspaper reporter, photojournalist and editor, I have both heard and used that quote many times. But it never occurred to me that is also an excellent job description for all Christians.

Mike Adams, who does an excellent job of both of the above, reminded me of that Christian duty.

Jesus arouses in the non-believer an unmatched dissonance because He spent his life pushing people’s buttons and questioning the status quo. He did not suffer fools lightly and had nothing resembling tolerance for Pharisaic hypocrisy. Were He walking the Earth today, He would likely reserve his harshest judgment for the hypocritical university liberal.

Jesus did not die on a cross in order to for us to live a life a comfort. His death obligates us to push people’s buttons as He would do were He walking the Earth today. We are not to do so despite the fact that it makes people feel uncomfortable. We are to do so because it makes them feel uncomfortable.

We must never miss an opportunity to cause discomfort among those who wish to ban the Name entirely. What better way to lead them down the road towards Damascus?

Go forth and do likewise, fellow Christian. And when you do so and the comfortable get afflicted and holler "Foul!" also remember one of my daddy's favorite sayings. "The hit dog hollers."

If a dog fight is going on and you fling a rock into the pack to break it up, you can know exactly which dog you hit. It'll be the one who hollers. So go forth and start flinging rocks for Jesus.

'Best Comeback Response of the Year'? Can you top it?

From Brownell's, a "Wish I'd said that" line which they labeled the best of the year.

BEST COMEBACK RESPONSE OF THE YEAR
An e-mail from John Hornby

If you ever testify in court, you might wish you could have been as sharp as this policeman. He was being cross examined by a defense attorney during a felony trial. The lawyer was trying to undermine the police officer's credibility... Q: "Officer - did you see my client fleeing the scene?" A: "No sir. But I subsequently observed a person matching the description of the offender, running several blocks away." Q: "Officer - who provided this description?" A: "The officer who responded to the scene." Q: "A fellow officer provided the description of this so-called offender. Do you trust your fellow officers?" A: "Yes, sir. With my life." Q: "With your life? Let me ask you this then officer. Do you have a room where you change your clothes in preparation for your daily duties?" A: "Yes sir, we do!" Q: "And do you have a locker in the room?" A: "Yes sir, I do." Q: "And do you have a lock on your locker?" A: "Yes sir." Q: "Now why is it, officer, if you trust your fellow officers with your life, you find it necessary to lock your locker in a room you share with these same officers?" A: "You see, sir -- we share the building with the court complex, and sometimes lawyers have been known to walk through that room."

Kinks T-Shirt

The courtroom EXPLODED with laughter, and a prompt recess was called. The officer on the stand has been nominated for this year's "Best Comeback" line -- and we think he'll win.

Can you top that?

Mako Reactive Target works fine, but don't use .38 Wadcutters!

Santa brought me a Mako Reactive Target for Christmas and I finally got a chance to try it out at the indoor range after I concluded teaching a concealed-carry class on Saturday.

The target itself is a man silhouette which comes in several different colors, blue being the one my sweet wife (er, I mean Santa) got for me, which she didn't intentionally choose, that color was the one that came with the target system.

I say ironically because I've been using blue-man silhouette paper targets for the past couple of years that come from Anthony Arms Range in Pittsburgh.

But unlike paper, the Mako target is some type of plastic that is supposed to be "self-healing." Judge for yourself from the photo, which I just took two+ days after shooting holes in it. All but two of the holes put in it with .32 Long, .38 Special and .45 ACP have healed up. The two exceptions, those gaping holes at the top, were from .38 Wadcutters a friend of mine shot it with.

Note to self: Do not use .38 Wadcutters on the Mako target!

For whatever reason, the wadcutters cut two huge holes that are most definitely not healing up.

The blue-man target is mounted on a plastic pole, which mounts into a swivel on an iron base. It's supposed to be adjustable so it falls down either with just one shot or requiring multiple shots. I was shooting at 10 yards and it never failed to fall with the first shot. More testing is needed but I hope if I put it out further, I'll be able to get it to take multiple shots before falling.

Maybe next weekend I'll get a chance to do some further testing. Below is a video that shows what the Mako Reactive Target is supposed to do.

Passing the buck ain't working for our rookie President

As Scooby Doo would say, "Ruh Roh!"

Our rookie President is learning he's playing a game with the big boys now when he unwisely decided to point the finger of blame at the CIA for letting the underwear bomber onto a jet bound for the heartland of the U.S. of A.

Lo and behold, somehow Newsweek reports some actual news for a change instead of another verse of their usual "Obama Is So Great and Wonderful!" chorus. Wonder who leaked the news to Newsweek that Obama was briefed about a planned terrorist attack on America three days BEFORE Christmas?

President Barack Obama received a high-level briefing only three days before Christmas about possible holiday-period terrorist threats against the US, Newsweek has learned. The briefing was centered on a written report, produced by US intelligence agencies, entitled "Key Homeland Threats", a senior US official said.

As usual, Sir Charles Krauthammer sums up this absurd drama far better than I can.

WASHINGTON -- Janet Napolitano -- former Arizona governor, now overmatched secretary of homeland security -- will forever be remembered for having said of the attempt to bring down an airliner over Detroit: "The system worked." The attacker's concerned father had warned U.S. authorities about his son's jihadist tendencies. The would-be bomber paid cash and checked no luggage on a transoceanic flight. He was nonetheless allowed to fly, and would have killed 288 people in the air alone, save for a faulty detonator and quick actions by a few passengers.

Heck of a job, Brownie.

The reason the country is uneasy about the Obama administration's response to this attack is a distinct sense of not just incompetence but incomprehension. From the very beginning, President Obama has relentlessly tried to downplay and deny the nature of the terrorist threat we continue to face. Napolitano renames terrorism "man-caused disasters." Obama goes abroad and pledges to cleanse America of its post-9/11 counterterrorist sins. Hence, Guantanamo will close, CIA interrogators will face a special prosecutor, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed will bask in a civilian trial in New York -- a trifecta of political correctness and image management.

As Hannibal Smith used to say, I love it when a plan comes together. Or to paraphrase that, give a fool enough rope and eventually he will hang himself. The buck no longer stops at the White House because there's a rookie sitting in the hot seat who has not a clue what to do next.

The least qualified President in history ain't Sarah Palin

True confession time. I read Doonesbury daily. Or at least I did. Probably won't tomorrow.

Gary Trudeau is an excellent case of why Canadians should be kept north of the border. I've been reading him off and on for years but he ticked me off so bad during the 2008 election with his blatantly pro-Obama/anti-McCain-Palin propaganda that I swore off for most of that year.

But when the dust settled in '09, I started reading him again. Now he's gone and done it again. Sarah Palin is so much more qualified to be the leader of our nation than Obama that any sane person wouldn't argue the point. Governor of Alaska, negotiated a treaty with Russia, took on the major oil companies and negotiated an oil deal that got Alaskans a major share of their oil wealth, and that's the short list. Her list of real accomplishments is praise-worthy for any politician, not to mention being a good looking woman who just happens to be pro-life, pro-gun and pro-freedom, four of my personal favorite "pros" as a Christian conservative gun instructor who appreciates any fine-looking woman unless she's dumber than a bag of rocks or swings from the left side. Sarah is all of the former and none of the latter. The lefties can go right on thinking she's stupid but just wait until 2012 and we'll see who gets the last laugh.

On the other hand we have Obama who's never run nothing but his mouth, to quote his jealous "friend" Jesse Jackson and even his own Secretary of State, Hillary "Bruno" Clinton. He is without any doubt the least qualified man ever to run for President, much less to serve as one. He's like the rube who shows up in the operating room with stolen scrubs on and a knife in his hand ready to start surgery and says, "Well, I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night."

And Trudeau also takes a swipe at George W. Bush, another good President who served as governor of the great state of Texas and even ran a major league baseball club, either of which blows away Obama's claim to fame as a "community organizer" fresh out of college, the only real job the man ever held. Being a lawyer for scam artists like ACORN is such a scam itself that you notice Obama doesn't even claim that on his almost nonexistent resume of working experience.

And quite frankly the more I see of the man, I'm not even impressed with his so-called brilliance. He ain't showed me nothing yet and here we are a full year in office, still waiting for his first original thought to surface. It's beginning to show that there ain't no there there with Obama.

Aussie rocker Steve Lee sings "I Like Guns!" and I do too

I have no clue who Steve Lee is, presumably an Aussie musician, but he's got a serious case of gun-nut fever. I do too, of course, so sit back and enjoy the music and the boom, boom, boom...

Wish I could get me a few of his serious goodies, like those RPGs, grenade launchers, machine guns, and he's even got a 105mm recoil-less cannon. (H/T to my gun-nut buddy Steve Sheffield)

Amazing but true discoverery: I'm a .45 and .44 kinda guy

A funny/strange not funny ha-ha thing happened while I was in Pittsburgh for Christmas.

I went to an indoor range with some shooting buddies up there and the range rules forbid shooting at targets any closer than 25 yards, which meant running the targets all the way to the backstop.

I normally vary my distances, but mostly shoot from 7 to about 15 yards, only occasionally shooting longer distances with handguns.

So anyway, I took the Para Ord P12-45 along to show off to my Pittsburgh buddies and after they tried it out, I shot a magazine of 12 at a full-size-man silhouette target at 25 yards. All were in the black, but a few strayed out of center mass. Even though I was trying to slow down and shoot a good group to show off to my buddies, I still hurried a few shots.

That P12 trigger is so sweet it's hard to shoot slow.

Then I loaded up my Charter Bulldog Pug with 5 .44 Special Cowboy loads and shot them double-action at the same target.

You couldn't tell the .45 holes from the .44 holes, but lo and behold, there were no new holes out of center mass. Obviously, I shot all five in the "kill zone" even shooting double-action.

It certainly increased my confidence in carrying the Bulldog .44, which I did in a shoulder harness for the trip up and back, as well as my usual Kel-Tec PF-9 in my pants pocket.

And though I still love my other carry handguns, 9mm, .357 Sig and 10mm pistols and .327 Magnum, .357 Magnum/.38 Special and .44 Magnum revolvers, I got a sneaking suspicion I'm gonna be carrying the P12-45 and the Bulldog .44 as the two leaders of the pack.

I guess I knew all along I'm a .45 and .44 kinda guy, but to find I shoot those two favorite calibers as well and perhaps even better than the others certainly supports my preferences.

Gun Trivia Question: World's first polymer DAO striker pistol?

Working at home today listing guns on gunbroker so the sweet wife and I can leave as planned next week on our Christmas trip to Pittsburgh.

Gun Trivia Question of the Day: What is the world's first 9mm production pistol that is striker-fired, double-action-only with a plastic frame?

Glock 17? Steyr GB? Nope to both.

It's the HK VP 70Z, also IMHO the world's ugliest pistol.

I have also heard it has the world's worst DAO trigger. I haven't tried every DAO trigger on the planet, but I tried this one and it's pretty bad. Matter of fact, it's pretty awful. It might be that "first" also.

Combat Handguns accepts my article about armed robbery attempt

It's my blog, so I can repost an earlier post if I want to. And I do. I just found out my submission to Combat Handguns magazine's first-person feature series It Happened To Me has been accepted and will appear in the March 2010 issue.

After 30-some years of having my news and feature stories and photos being published in newspapers during my journalism career, you'd think I wouldn't get excited about getting published any more. But I still do. Here's the article I submitted to Combat Handguns.

The incident didn't really happen to me, but it did happen to Billy and Dorothy, second and third from left in the photo above, along with the rest of the gun shop crew. At left is Wes, Jennifer and Jonathan are in the center and that's me at the far right (both politically and geographically).

Sticking up a cop bar or a gun store has got to be two of the worst armed-robbery selection choices any hoodlums could make because it's certain both places will have armed people who will not be willing victims. But believe it or else, there are at least two hoodlums dumb enough to try to rob a gun store.

It happened recently at the gun store where I work when the senior two of the family of shop owners, Billy and Dorothy, were there alone one Saturday night about 9 p.m.

Billy learned the hard way several years ago the important lesson about always being aware of what's going on around you. An armed robber got the drop on him and held him and Dorothy at gunpoint, at one point forcing them into the trunk of a car. Billy and Dorothy survived that event and Billy has said since that no one will ever "get the drop" on him with a gun again. He said he used to think a .38 in his back pocket was sufficient but has since upgraded to a Glock .40S&W.

The gun store had been closed this recent Saturday as the crew was working at a gun show. Billy and Dorothy returned to the shop after the gun show closed to load up some extra guns to take back to the gun show for the next day. Billy was unlocking and locking the door as he loaded boxes of guns in the back of his truck. The store was obviously closed at 9 p.m., but two hoodlums tried to barge in anyway.

As he went in and out of the door, locking it each time, Billy said he had noticed two males sitting on the hood of a car in a parking lot on the other side of the highway from the shop, watching him. Then as he put some more guns in the truck, he spotted them sprinting across the highway, circling behind his truck where they thought he wouldn't see them, heading for the door. He quickly went back inside but decided he didn't want to be caught fumbling with the keys as they arrived, so he left the door unlocked and retreated inside while drawing his Glock and turning to face the door. The two hoodlums opened the door and came in with the one in front not showing a gun, his hands raised in the air as he saw Billy with his Glock.

Our video surveillance system, which we played back the next day, showed the hoodlum behind the one in front started pulling his shirt front up and starting to draw a pistol from his waistband while hidden behind the one who came in first with empty hands raised. But the second hoodlum suddenly froze in mid-draw when Billy greeted the two with his Glock .40 and a few choice words. They suddenly decided they had urgent business elsewhere. They turned around quickly and left even faster than they arrived.

We told law enforcement about the incident the next day and provided them with a video recording of the attempted robbery. Law enforcement identified the pair as two local hoodlums, 18 and 19, who were out on bail after being charged with a home-invasion robbery in a nearby community. When we got a copy of the local newspaper with the pair's mug shots, Billy identified the two also. As I write this, the two have yet to come to trial for the home-invasion robbery and are still free.

Since that incident, Billy has upgraded his Glock .40 with a Crimson Trace Lasergrip and all of us who work at the gun store never work without being armed, some of us wearing a backup handgun as well as a main carry. Even Dorothy, who hasn't been armed before, has been practicing with a Crimson Trace .38. And we're all a lot more vigilant than we were before.

.44 Special Hollow-Point Testing: Speer Gold Dots the clear winner

There's a big problem with carry handguns with fixed sights. If you can't adjust the sights, you have to find an ammo combination that fits the sights.

It helps if you know what the manufacturer had in mind when the fixed sights were set up at the factory and in the case of common cartridge/pistol combinations, it's easy. For instance, Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolvers, particularly the older ones like the Model 10, are set up at the factory for 158-grain lead roundnose bullets.

I had that point illustrated quite well at a recent N.C. Concealed Handgun Permit class. One of my students was using a S&W 10 .38 Special, the original Military & Police model, and when he started firing the first set at 3 yards, I told the students to aim for a head shot, right between the bad-guy-target's hairy eyeballs.

I figure if they can't make a head shot at 3 yards, there's not much point in asking them to do it at the increasing distances for the qualification firing, 5, 7 and 10 yards.

So this guy starts firing away at the target and I hear this loud clanging noise and sparks start flying. We stop the shooting and take a look and his rounds are hitting the target clamp a few inches above the BG's head.

Thank God the clamp was heavy duty at the local National Guard Armory range because no damage was done.

But I dug into my range bag and came up with a box of .38 Special 158-grain LRNs to give the guy and immediately he started drilling holes right between the BG's hairy eyeballs.

In the first outing with my new-to-me Charter 2000 Bulldog Pug .44 Special snubby, (top photo and at top in 2nd photo) I discovered the good folks at Charter set up the iron sights for full-house-load 240-grain bullets.

I had a box of Cowboy Load 240-gr. ammo which is certainly no wimp at 760 FPS, classic numbers for .45 ACP .230-gr. FMJs.

But the Charter's iron sights placed the Cowboy Loads about 2-3" low on the target. Then I tried some full-house-load 240 gr. SWCs and they were exactly what the iron sights liked, right on the bull.

So the next step in using the Bulldog for a carry pistol is to find a jacketed hollowpoint load that will line up with the iron sights.

I never did find a JHP load that lined up with the iron sights of my Charter Patriot .327 Magnum (bottom pistol in 2nd photo), so I had to get a set of Crimson Trace Laser Grips to enable it to hit where I'm aiming.

I suspected that might be the case with JHPs for the Bulldog Pug. I had four JHP loads to test. Top left on the target board, standing two-handed at 25 feet, are some 200-grain Georgia Arms Gold-Dot JHPs. Printing low and with a lot of muzzle blast and recoil. Not pleasant. The three clustered at 6 o'clock about 3" low are mine, the other holes are by the sergeant at the Armory, whose rounds drifted even lower and to the left. All the rest of the holes in the other targets are mine. Three of the GA Gold Dots were all the sergeant wanted to try. Can't imagine why.

Top right target are some CCI steel-case JHPs, probably 200-grain but they were some loose rounds we had at the gun shop with no box, so that's just a guess. Even hotter and more unpleasant to shoot than the GA Gold Dots and though still low, closer to the bull by a bit.

Then bottom left are five holes with Winchester Silvertip 200-gr. JHPs, much more pleasant to shoot and getting pretty close to the bull.

Finally, bottom right is the clear winner, five rounds with Speer Gold Dot 200-gr. JHPs, right on the money and also fairly pleasant to shoot. I am delighted to find a carry load so easily and not to have to add CT Lasergrips for the Bulldog. I may still add some grips later, but not right now when I've got other pistols to buy hopefully in my near future.

Sarah Palin also 'Going Rogue' as comic-book Superhero

The so-called mainstream media is so scared of Sarah Palin they've all got wet panties, and with good cause. She's gonna be the best man for the job of leading this nation back to sanity in 2012.

How do I know this? Because Sarah's new biography is selling like hot cakes, continuing as Numero Uno on the Noo Yawk Times book list for the past two weeks, and now she's even being featured in a comic book.

SARAH PALIN is sparkling big-time sales of not only her memoir, "Going Rogue." The former Alaska guv has also meant serious business for the comic-book company Bluewater Productions.

Bluewater says its releasing its fourth printing of its Palin bio comic this month. The new "Female Force: Sarah Palin, Going Rogue Edition" updates adds artwork and features a new cover, by Vinnie Tartamella.

"People just can't get enough of Sarah Palin," says Bluewater's prez, Darren Davis, who notes that his company has never issued four printings for a single bio.

I bet if Sarah would pull her blouse open a bit, you'd see her Superwoman suit underneath.

America's Christian heritage, a vision lost that must be retold

America: The Untold Story. Take a 2-minute break and relearn some forgotten history.

Winner of the coveted Angel Award, America: The Untold Story is now available as a DVD presentation. The talented video team at American Vision has transformed this best-selling audio drama into a visually-stunning video for the whole family. Based on documented historical facts, this fully-dramatized video is designed to open the eyes of American citizens so that they can see the miraculous and providential hand of God in our nation's history.

.38 Special vs. .44 Special vs. .327 Magnum: Look at the numbers

Decided to see what .44 Special , .38 Special, .45 ACP, .327 Magnum and .357 Magnum numbers compare in terms of ballistics. From the Federal and Speer ammo pages, here's a comparison.

Caliber	Grains	Type	Mfg.	FPS Muzzle	Ft.Lbs. Muzzle
.44 Special	200	SWCHP	Federal Champion	870	336
.38 Special	110	JHP	Federal Hydra-Shok	980	235
.38 Special +P	129	JHP	Federal Hydra-Shok	950	258
.327 Magnum	100	JSP	American Eagle	1500	500
.327 Magnum	85	JHP	Federal Hydra-Shok	1400	370
.327 Magnum	115	JHP	Speer Gold Dot	1380	486
.357 Magnum	125	JHP	Speer Gold Dot	1450	584
.45 ACP	230	JHP	Federal Hydra-Shok	900	414

Any questions? After testing all three of the available .327 Magnum loads I settled on Speer Gold Dot for my carry load in the Charter Patriot revolver, which is very close to Speer .357 Magnum in both fps and ft./lbs. of energy delivered on target.

And comparing Federal Hydra-Shok .45 ACP to Federal Champion .44 Special Semi-Wadcutter Hollow Points also shows speed and energy delivered in the same ballpark ballistically.

And of course, neither .38 Special or +P is anywhere near any of the others in energy on target.

When it comes to carrying a revolver, for backup or sole carry, I feel a lot more comfortable with my .327 Magnum or .44 Special Charter pair than with any .38 Special or +P. With the Bulldog .44, it's like having a .45 and with the Patriot .327 Magnum, it's like having a .357 Magnum.

I've always been a strong believer in more is better. And .44 is definitely more better than .38.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, here's a couple of graphs on ballistics of pistol ammo.

The first is a comparison by Winchester of their Ranger JHP ammo, which is IMHO the class of the industry. I carry Winchester Ranger or their new PDX Bonded, the replacement for Ranger, in 9mm, .45 ACP and .357 Sig with total confidence that it's quite simply the best.

But the interesting thing about their graph is how similar all the loads are, with the exception of .380 ACP, which just ain't got enough zip to get the job done. That's why I don't carry .380.

And last is a handgun gel penetration and expansion chart, which shows that as long as you pick a serious caliber, you'll get serious results, assuming you can hit what you shoot at. And that's a very big assumption. In pistol shooting, the most important three things are the same three things that any realtor will tell you is the key to success in real estate: Location, location, location.

Charter Bulldog .44 blows away Colt Cobra .38 at the range

Does a Bulldog beat a Cobra? A funny thing happened to my plans to buy a new-to-me Colt Cobra .38 Special snubby at the gun shop.

I almost had the Cobra paid off when what should come from the last gun show? A stainless Charter Bulldog Pug 2.5" barrel .44 Special snubby.

The first snubby I ever bought is a Charter Patriot .327 Magnum, shown at right at bottom with Crimson Trace Laser Grips, so adding a Bulldog, at right top, is pretty much a no-brainer.

They're built on the same stainless-steel frame, the only difference being caliber and round count, six .327 Magnums vs. five .44 Specials in the cylinder.

I can even swap the CT grips to either of the two Charters should I want to.

But after shooting the Bulldog on Saturday at the range, I doubt it will ever wear CT grips, unless I buy a second set for it.

I started out shooting 240-gr. Cowboy Loads, rated at 761 feet per second at the muzzle. You can call that a Cowboy Load, but it sure ain't light ballistically speaking.

Those numbers are classic 230-gr. .45 ACP ballistics, which is generally about the same speed and nobody ever calls .45 ACP a "Cowboy Load."
Anything hit with a 240-grain chunk of .44 lead moving at 761 FPS is going to be in a serious load of hurt.

The Cowboy Loads were mild recoil and easy to shoot, but patterned about 3" low of the bullseye. After putting three in the same hole, I pretty well established the point-of-impact for that load.

Then I switched to some 240-gr. Semi Wad Cutter full-house loads, not marked for velocity but I'll assume about 100 fps faster, say 861. And those patterned right on the bull for the iron sights.

So that's what this Bulldog likes best, 240-gr. full-house loads. I've got both SWCs and Plated Flat-Nose 240-gr. loads so either should work just fine for carry.

I've also got some 200-gr. Gold Dot Jacketed Hollow Points but I haven't tried those yet to see where they hit. We've also got some Winchester Silvertip JHPs at the shop, so I'll probably pick up a box of those to see what the Bulldog does with them too.

But it's definitely a keeper, so I'll keep the Bulldog and let the shop have the Colt Cobra back to sell.

When it comes to whether I want a .38 or a .44 for a backup, my math skills ain't too good but not only is .44 bigger than .38, 240 grains is also heavier than 158 grains.

And I don't have to go look up the ballistic tables to know that comparing the two in foot-pounds of energy delivered is no comparison whatsoever. And IMHO, ft./lbs. is the real payoff when it comes to ballistic matchups, the closest statistic we have to the fabled "knockdown power."

If you've got speed but low grain weight, you gotta have a lotta speed to make up for that handicap to build up ft./lbs. That's how .327 Magnum is such an impressive revolver round, not much weight, 100 grains for the American Eagle load we shot Saturday, but a smoking hot speed of 1500 fps. That delivers ft./lbs. just shy of classic .357 Magnum stats.

And if you've got good weight but low speed, you come up short again. With classic .38 Special ballistics, you've got 158 grains but slow speed, so you don't get much in the way of ft./lbs. or penetration either.

But like 230-gr. .45 ACP loads, a big ol' hunk of 240-gr. .44 lead at slow speed, 761 fps, adds up to impressive ft./lbs. of energy and penetration.

So it don't take a rocket surgeon to figure out a Bulldog .44 beats a Cobra .38 every time.

I spent the rest of the day at the range playing with my Para Ordnance P12-45 with my friend Jerry and his son Austin. Nothing's more fun that shooting with friends.

I'm the old guy who needs a haircut. Jerry's the younger guy who don't need a haircut. And Austin is the kid who had enough sense to wear a knit cap on a cold, rainy day.

The rain stopped long enough to let us shoot in relative comfort, but with a high in the low 40s, it was a bit brisk, as least for this thin-blooded ol' Southern redneck.
Austin also has a cool phone with a multi-exposure photo function and he took a series of photos of me working on my shoulder-holster draw and double-tap shooting. Thanks Austin.