Special Notice.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 Filed in:
Techniques
& Training
You've no doubt seen mention in this blog of Mr. Georges Rahbani, "The Best Rifle Instructor You've Never Heard Of." That title isn't flippant; Georges is truly the best rifle teacher I've encountered (and I've encountered more than a few.) He speaks from the heart - and hard experience - about using the rifle to defend home, family, and community.
He's holding his Urban/Defensive RIfle class in the Salem, Oregon area on July 11 & 12, and he has a number of spots still open. Seems that people are hoarding their rifle ammo rather than getting the training they need to learn how to use it properly! That's short-sided, in my view - better to use that fodder building serious shooting skills, rather than just blowing it in another plinking session at the local rock pit.
This class, held under the auspices of The Jacobe Group, is subtitled "Controlling the Rifle", and is the first in his triad. It is a two day, intermediate level course of 800 rounds designed for the dedicated shooter who wants a good grounding in rifle technique for self-defense. This class concentrates on the finer points of platforms, manipulation, sighting, and trajectory from which all "tactical" shooting is done. This isn't a beginning or introductory class - it is a foundational course focusing on the skills that must be mastered by all serious shooters. Novice or veteran, you will learn some "new tricks"!
Hey, if that's not enough you may just get a chance to meet me - in person! How cool is that?!?
My silly ego aside, you really shouldn't miss this opportunity. If you're interested, contact Jim Jacobe ( jimjacobe@comcast.net ) and tell him you want to sign up. If you'd like more information on the class itself, feel free to drop me a note.
-=[ Grant ]=-
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Wednesday wanderings.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 Filed in:
Ammunition,
General gun
stuff, History, Rifles, Political
Action, Self
defense
I've been collecting conspiracy theories for the ammo shortage, and I recently heard a great one that supposedly came from a local gun store: FEMA has been buying ammunition companies, then shutting them down to eliminate all civilian ammunition sources.
One needs an awful lot of foil for a tin hat that big...
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Uncle and I have something in common: here in Oregon, our legislature also passed a "no texting" law. We went further, though - we added that you couldn't use a handheld cel phone at all. Then we enacted $2 billion of new taxes and spending in the state with the second-highest unemployment in the nation. We're number 49! We're number 49! Go team!
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I'm really excited about the rifles Savage has been introducing lately. I like this concept, though I'm not at all wild about the buttstock:
I'm more intrigued by this one:
If it's as accurate as expected, I may have to own one. (Sure, I could build one myself, but I'm too busy doing guns for other people. Remember the parable about the shoemaker's children?)
Now, if we could just get them to cease doing business with H-S Precision...
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Dr. Helen brings us the story of a woman who fought back against her knife-wielding rapist. Read the comments - some insightful, and some very amusing (in a train wreck sort of way.)
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From the Irish Times comes news that the powers-that-be want to ban "practical" shooting (i.e. IPSC, IDPA.) The Irish Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, had this to say:
“It’s simply not in the public interest to tolerate the development of a subculture predicated on a shooting activity which by the liberal standards of the US is regarded as an extreme shooting activity." He said any cursory research on the internet showed that these activities were marketed as being at the “extreme end” of handgun ownership and were “anathema to the tradition of Irish sporting clubs”.
Hmmm...such preoccupation with America leads me to suspect his national pride is still smarting from the shellacking his team took back in 1874.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Everything has a purpose.
Monday, June 29, 2009 Filed in:
General gun
stuff
Even the .32ACP.
Many of you are familiar with Ed Harris, firearms engineer and ballistic experimenter. One of Ed's passions is the hunting of small game - squirrels, rabbits, etc. - and the guns that facilitate that activity.
(Before we go any further, it seems that a lot of folks today don't have any experience with serious small game hunting. There are an awful lot of people who consider it somehow inferior to the taking of large game, but they are sorely mistaken. In virtually every respect, hunting wily little creatures is just as demanding of one's hunting skills as taking a trophy elk. Fieldcraft and marksmanship are just as difficult, but since you get more than one chance per trip you can hone your skills over a larger number of animals. Because of the increased experience, a good small game hunter is almost invariably a good big game hunter, but the reverse - at least in my experience - is rarely true.)
Ed has made up a number of dedicated long guns for the task, but has recently been experimenting with purpose-built handguns to go along with them. What he and John Taylor have come up with is a modified Beretta Model 70 in .32ACP, which Ed calls "the Third Level of Bunny Gun Nirvana".
Now I've never thought much of the .32ACP cartridge except for use as a deep concealment backup gun, but Ed had other ideas. He started by fitting his Beretta with 7- and 13-inch barrels, then developed a subsonic heavy bullet loading:
The barrels are supplied with a very interesting scope mount:
Ed talks about the performance of the combination:
It looks to be a formidable little game-getter!Using 94-gr. Meiser LFN .312 cast bullet and 1.7 grs. of Bullseye velocity just shy of 900 f.p.s. Very low noise, from 13 inch barrel slightly louder than H-D military with can (suppressor), no muzzle flash, the 7 inch barrel sounds like .22 match pistol with standard velocity. Indoor range groups were shot at 25 yards. Not the best range light and targets oscillate a bit, so like it's trying to head-shoot the pirate from pitching deck of a destroyer, but shows potential.
-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: By George!
We learned this week that Kodak finally pulled the plug on what was their signature film, Kodachrome. Photographers will fondly recall the fine grain, superb resolution, and vibrant color of Kodak's iconic product, while everyone else will remember Paul Simon's hit song by the same name:
Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Kodachrome wasn't the first time the company had influenced musical history, however. It's true that Kodachrome was invented by a couple of amateur chemists who were also professional musicians, but the influence I'm thinking of goes far deeper.
As it happens George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak, was an aspiring flutist and music fanatic. His love of making and listening to music led him to found the Eastman School of Music, cementing his place in American music history.
Now you're probably thinking "Eastman School of Music? Never heard of it!" Most people, when asked to name a prestigious music school, immediately think "Juilliard." While Juilliard is a fine school and better known to the general public, those with a deep knowledge of musical education will often quietly refer you to Eastman. Since 1921, Eastman graduates have enjoyed a solid reputation for being "musician's musicians", which persists to this day - it is often ranked as the top music school in the country in major media surveys.
George Eastman was a remarkable individual who also gave major grants to engineering and technical schools such as MIT, and involved himself in a range of social and business innovations. It could be argued, though, that giving the world both Kodachrome and Frederick Fennell would have been enough for any one person.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Commentary on comments.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 Filed in:
Blog stuff
Haloscan, the entity that supplies the comment functions for this blog, makes it darn near impossible for me to post replies to questions that get asked. That being the case, pardon the interruption while I take care of this unfinished business. (All comments have been publicly posted and approved, and can be found at the links provided.)
From this week's article on dryfiring:
Jerry asks "How about that plastic ring that came with the gun [Ruger]? Does it work to absorb the impact?" Yes, it does, but I think you'll find that its lifespan is somewhat limited.
Rob says "I'm curious, as I have been told that fired casings should be fine, but others disagree, citing only spring loaded snap caps should be used." Fired casings will work, but after a few cycles the spent primer will be indented sufficiently that it will not longer provide proper cushioning to the firing pin. If you elect to go this route, change them frequently (and make darned sure you don't slip in any live rounds!)
From "More on SFL Grease", Warren asks "Clenzoil is highly recommended by a wide variety of collectors, curators, and manufacturers. Know anything about its chemical properties?" No, Warren, I don't. Ask the company to provide you with a copy of the MSDS for the product, and see what it says. If they won't supply it, that should tell you everything you need to know. (Hmmm...why'd that question sound a bit like advertising copy??)
Finally, an interesting comment on my ammo shortage article comes from one Joe Hill, who says it was "A real dumb assed waste of an article." Would that be because you already know it all, Joe, or because it went over your head?
(Heh...how's that for snark, Tam? Pretty edgy, huh?)
-=[ Grant ]=-
On dry firing.
Monday, June 22, 2009 Filed in:
General gun
stuff, Revolvers
One of the great advantages of the double action revolver is that the mechanism makes dry firing easy. Unlike the majority of autoloaders, you don't have to break your grip to operate the slide or recock the hammer; just maintain your grip and pull the trigger, over and over. As a result, I suspect most revolvers are dry fired with greater frequency than most autos.
Various pundits have opined over the years that it is perfectly safe to dry fire any modern gun without regard to mechanical consequences. Some have even gone so far as to claim snap caps to be some sort of conspiracy against dry fire!
In my experience, that point of view is a bit misguided. I recommend the use of snap caps for any extensive dry fire practice, and with good reason: I have to fix the guns that break!
The problems involve broken firing pins, both hammer mounted and the in-frame variety. I do occasionally see broken pins that, upon investigation, would seem to have been caused by dry fire practice. Colt revolvers are probably the worst offenders; their firing pins tend to be harder than those of other makes, and subsequently a tad more brittle. I've seen many broken pins in Pythons and Detective Specials, and more than a few in the other models. If you have a Colt, I consider snap caps an absolute must.
Smith & Wesson revolvers seem to be a bit better in this regard, as I've not seen the number of broken pins that I have with the Colt products. They will occasionally break, however, and as a result I do recommend the use of snap caps if one is planning to do a significant amount of dry firing.
I've never seen a broken Ruger firing pin (though now that I've put this in print I'll no doubt hear about a rash of them!) However, snap caps seem to reduce peening of the back side of the firing pin, which serves to maintain ignition reliability. I don't consider their use as important as for their competition, but I believe them to be a good long-term care strategy.
-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: Cassini, but not Oleg.
In 1997, NASA launched the Cassini spacecraft to study the planet Saturn. It finally reached the ringed planet in 2004, and started sending back some positively amazing images. The craft continues to work perfectly, and as a result the mission has been extended to 2010.
See more of these incredible pictures.
A quick synopsis of the craft and mission.
The Official Cassini website.
-=[ Grant ]=-
A little behind.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 Filed in:
Blog
stuff, Political
Action
Another one of those hectic weeks, with lots of jobs needing to be finished off for shipment. I'll get back to you as soon as I can...in the meantime, I'll just observe that it doesn't surprise me Oregon's AG wasn't one of the 23.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Monday meanderings.
Welcome to all the new readers from the U.S. Concealed Carry Association!
(For those who don't know, I've written an article or two for their various publications. Their editor, Kathy Jackson, is not all that far away from me, and I've discovered it's pretty cool to be able to say "sorry, can't make it - have to meet with my editor this afternoon!")
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Massad Ayoob is in town (well, in the region) this week, and I got a chance to get together with him and his ProArms Podcast partner Gail Pepin. Gail and I recorded a fun little chat; what will happen to it is a decision made at a pay grade higher than mine, but as things progress I'll let you know.
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Corvidae cuisine time: I've opined that the Ruger LCR was so ugly that no one would buy the thing. While I stand by my assertion that it is ugly, apparently people are in fact buying them. I think that's great, actually, as it shows that the marketplace is ready for innovation in even a staid product category such as the revolver.
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Jim Jacobe recently bought a Ponsness-Warren electric drive for his Dillon 1050 press. Now he just sits on his stool watching brass go in and rounds come out, with no more exertion than a silly grin. He likes it so much he became a dealer for the things. If you're flush with cash and tired of pulling that handle, drop him a note and get one on order.
-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: Down periscope, comrade.
Friday, June 12, 2009 Filed in:
Friday
Surprise!, History
In January 1940, the Soviet Union was at war with Finland. Just a few months earlier, the Soviets had signed a non-agression pact with the German government, which besides promising to be Best Friends Forever, divided up the countries of Eastern Europe between the two powers. The two chums lost no time in invading and carving up Poland, and that success prompted Uncle Joe Stalin to go for the first country on his own shopping list: Finland.
While his generals mapped out invasion plans, Finland was issued a set of demands to adjust their borders and "lease" part of their territory to Moscow. They refused, and in late November of 1939 the Soviets attacked.
Though eventually negotiating a truce, Finland managed to inflict severe casualties on the Red forces. Nikita Khrushchev would later state that his country had lost a million soldiers, while the Finnish casualties amounted to 26,662.
Forty-six of that million were killed when their submarine, dubbed S-2, was sunk in the waters between Sweden and Finland on that cold January day.
The actual location of the wreck, and the precise cause of the sinking, remained a mystery until just a few months ago. After a decade of searching, a team of Swedish and Finnish divers located the S-2 and found out just what had happened.
Short CNN article on the find.
Absolutely terrific pictures at www.aftonbladet.se
-=[ Grant ]=-
I'm a little late.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 Filed in:
Blog stuff
Packing your training trunk.
Monday, June 08, 2009 Filed in:
Techniques
& Training,
Self
defense
There is a concept that, in order to properly teach the use of a firearm for self-defense, one must have been in a shootout. The term most often used to describe that state is "seeing the elephant." (I'm not sure how the phrase got corrupted to mean shooting at someone, but I am sure that I find it quite annoying.)
The assertion, of course, is that only those who have drawn blood with their weapon are in a position to talk about it, and anyone else isn't worthy of attention. This harkens back to the days of the warrior caste, when knights were the privileged class and could own mere peasants who weren't supposed to voice their opinions. The same dynamic is in play today, especially amongst a certain cadre of defensive shooting instructors.
I'll admit that I've gone through an evolution with regards to this. There was a time when I thought that only experience counted, but over the years I've come to realize that experience is just another data point, and one point may or may not be adequate to promote a conclusion.
Rory Miller, whose book "Meditations On Violence" I've already gushed over, deals with this up front. As he correctly observes, all fights are idiosyncratic - one will not necessarily be like another. While there are some characteristics that are true of a large number of incidents, there are many more that vary from encounter to encounter. As he puts it, no one person can have been in enough fights to generate enough data to make generalizations. Experience is important, he believes, but not to the exclusion of everything else.
This was brought home to me in a recent ABC News story out of Tampa. A woman was carjacked, and successfully ended the encounter with her own gun - but not in the way you might think. She punched the assailant in the forehead with the muzzle, which caused him to jump out of her car.
She did everything wrong (starting with her beliefs about the use of deadly force), and yet she came out on top. Would you want to emulate her in any way? I would hope that you answer "no"! Imagine this, though: she could start teaching other people how to defend themselves with a gun, claiming authority based on experience. How silly would that be?
If you didn't know the nature of her experience, and/or had no other reference with which to evaluate it, it wouldn't seem silly at all. It's only when you can put her performance up against the experiences of a large number of others can you gain the perspective necessary to draw conclusions. It's what we call 'research', and is just as important as optical observation of the genus Loxodonta.
-=[ Grant ]=-
More on SFL grease
Friday, June 05, 2009 Filed in:
General gun
stuff
A few weeks ago I told you about an email I got from reader Troy, who is now selling Lubriplate SFL-0 grease. He packages the SFL grease in a metal 16 ounce can that has a brush in the lid. The brush makes for easier, cleaner application, always a plus when dealing with lubricants.
I ordered a can, and it arrived promptly. He ships Priority Mail, and charges actual shipping cost only. Can't ask for more than that!
Price is just $19.95 plus shipping, and he takes PayPal or Postal Money Order. You can reach Troy at capntroy@aol.com
-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: A colorful conundrum.
Friday, June 05, 2009 Filed in:
Friday
Surprise!, Completely
irrelevant
Quick question: what color doesn't exist in the visible spectrum? And, if it doesn't exist, why do we see it?
Null Hypothesis has the answer.
-=[ Grant ]=-
A short note about a shortened cartridge.
Busier than a one-armed paperhanger today, so I'm just going to give you a link and some commentary.
On Monday I mentioned my attraction to wildcat cartridges. There is one that still intrigues me, because a) it's an easy wildcat to make, and b) it's a cartridge that SHOULD have been factory made from the start: the .41 Special.
I've always wanted to play with it, but have never owned the necessary .41 Magnum gun in which to shoot it. Since I'm not all that much a fan of the .41 Magnum to begin with I doubt I ever will, which automatically leaves me out of the .41 Special fraternity. Unless, of course, I decide to do a conversion on an existing gun! Here we go again...
(Oh, BTW - check out Ed Harris' comments on Monday's post, particularly the video. I've been jealous of his rook rifle since he told me about it some time back; someday I'll one-up him by building a double rifle in .32 Colt New Police, aka .32 S&W Long.)
-=[ Grant ]=-