Les Jones

Glock vs. 1911

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 | Guns | Permalink | 4 Comments |

“A Glock is like that son that goes to college, gets a decent paying job, and is just a normal person. That kid that always does the right thing, doesn’t ask for much attention, and you sometimes don’t show enough attention to because it isn’t very exciting. But that’s why you love it, you know it’s fine and you did a good job picking it out.

A 1911 on the other hand… that’s the son that acts out in school, doesn’t make it through college, never holds a good job, and never really acts right. He might even dress different, have his own style, and be more refined in appearance than the other 1911 sons. You still love it, even though it is a pain in your butt most of the time.”

– iiibdsiil

Previously

• “Put down that walnut-gripped 1911 sissy pistol and getcher self a Glock”
• Glock vs. 1911 Shootoff

Tags: 1911, glock

Guns and cameras, together again

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 | Misc | Permalink | No Comments |

Dr. Strangegun has an illustrated post on detail-stripping a 1911. The camera part is his light rig, which is amazingly practical. I think I have that same tripod (it’s a Sunpak, right?) and I have a basically similar clamp-on worklight I used in my pet scorpion’s aquarium. Looks danged handy.

P.S. Once upon a time I started a Guns and Cameras category, but it stalled out after a few posts and I nuked it. Now thanks to tags I can do something similar without committing to a new category. I’ve been having way too much fun playing with tags lately.

Tags: 1911, guns and cameras

Bought a gun at Wal-Mart for the first time

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 | Best Of, Guns | Permalink | 9 Comments |

Next month I’m attending an Appleseed shoot in Manchester, TN. None of my guns is quite right for an Appleseed shoot, and the 10/22 is their recommended gun barring anything else appropriate.

Friday I strolled into the sporting goods section at Wal-Mart to look at .22 rifles. I was glad to see L. manning the counter. (Doesn’t everyone know their Wal-Mart gun counter clerk by name?)

I asked to see the Ruger 10/22 in the rack. L. said he loved his. I mentioned why I wanted it and he had heard of the shoot I was going to, and we swapped stories about travelling that part of Tennessee on Interstate 24 between Nashville and Chattanooga. Another customer came by and endorsed the 10/22. He had replaced the barrel and stock on his with custom parts. (The 10/22 rifle along with the AR-15 rifle and Colt 1911 pistol is one of the most accessorized and customized guns in America. You can replace every single part on those gun with a different part made by someone other than the original manufacturer.)

To buy a gun in the United States you have to provide a photo ID and fill out an ATF form 4473. I’ve done it more than a few times, but Wal-Mart was by far the most exacting about it. As L. told me, “You’ve probably filled out one of these before, but it’s a little different at Wal-Mart.” He cautioned me that Wal-Mart doesn’t accept abbreviations. I’d have to spell out Tennessee and Street, Avenue, etc., and that I’d have to give the year of my birth in four digits.

When I finished the the 4473 I was asked to put N/A in spaces I had left blank, such as my Social Security number, which is optional. The form went to NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) for approval. A little while later NICS came back an approval number. An assistant manager and co-manager came to the gun counter to verify the paperwork and to make sure the serial number on the paperwork matched the serial number on the gun.

After I paid one of the managers escorted me to the exit. He carried the gun, not me. On the way to the exit he told me I’d need my receipt. At the exit he asked the greeter to check my receipt, even though he had watched me pay. Lots of folks are unhappy about Wally World’s rules for buying guns, but I guess they feel the need to protect themselves from potential liability. I knew what to expect and it didn’t bother me.

Ruger makes several dozen variations on the popular 10/22. The one I bought isn’t listed on Ruger’s Web site because it’s a Wal-Mart exclusive. It has a 22″ stainless steel barrel, a little nicer stock than the standard Ruger 10/22 Carbine with checkering and no barrel band, a longer length-of-pull better suited to an adult than a youth, and standard sling swivels. Price was $238 before tax.

The Appleseed folks recommend folding down the 10/22’s standard folding sight and instead using a TechSight brand aperture sight. That works for me - I much prefer aperture sights to open sights. The Tech-Sight extends the sight radius another eight inches and is easier to adjust for windage and elevation than the 10/22’s standard sight. For sixty bucks or so the TechSight is a square deal.

Tags: 1911, ar-15, ruger

“Put down that walnut-gripped 1911 sissy pistol and getcher self a Glock”

Saturday, July 26th, 2008 | Guns | Permalink | No Comments |

PDB - Tupperware Jihad:

In all that faggoty advertisementese is no objective explanation why I would choose this gun over, oh, say, a Glock 17, which happens to cost half as much, hold twice as many rounds, weigh half as much, shoot just as accurately, run more reliably out of the box, and is assembled from armorer friendly parts that do not require skilled fitting. The last point bears repeating: There are no parts on a Glock that cannot be changed in about 30 minutes by a user who has a hammer, screwdriver, and a punch.

Stick, meet hornet’s nest. Hornet’s next, meet stick.

Tags: 1911, glock

Glock vs. 1911 Shootoff

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 | Guns | Permalink | 4 Comments |

Via The High Road. Here were the rules.

1. If you pull the trigger and your gun does not go bang, you are out of the match.
2. There is no maintenance on any gun after the match starts. You can’t lube the gun and if your sights fall off, either you quit or you shoot without sights, but you don’t get to put them back on. You don’t get to tighten screws or tap back in pins that have “walked” during the match.
3. A gun may not be hand cycled after chambering the first round of the day. You can sling shot or mag release to send the gun into battery after a reload, but you cannot cycle a gun already in battery in order to feed a new round into battery.

Note that last rule. If the slide fails to lock back after the last round the pistol was out of the running. And here are the results, from lowest to highest round count.:

Pistol Model Factory # of rounds Cause for Failure or Reloads
=================================================
Glock 21 R 2 Slide lock with mag
Glock 17 R 2 Failure to Feed
Kimber Tac II F 6 Double Feed
Wilson 1911 F 7 Failure to Lock Back
Colt 1911 F 8 Failure to feed
Glock 22 F 8 Stove Pipe
Glock 17 R 8 Mag failure to lock in
Glock 35 R 49 Failure to Feed
10-8 NY 1911 F 279 Failure to Feed
Glock 17 F 344 No Slide lock on Empty
Glock 21 F 977 Failure to Lock Back
Glock 17 F 980 Sight off
Colt 1911 F 1008 Finished course of Fire
Glock 17 R 1073 Finished course of Fire
Glock 17L R 1167 Bad Primer

So out of the 17 guns seven conked out in the first magazine. Two other guns not listed above- one Colt Government and a Glock 17 - had no failures.

I don’t know how much to draw from this. Not oiling a gun for 1000 rounds isn’t very realistic, for instance. But it’s interesting to see what the failures were. One person’s Glock failed when the aftermarket stick-on sandpaper grips blocked the slide release, for instance. Conclusions from this and other Glock vs. 1911 shootoffs here.

Tags: 1911, glock

The Wrong End of a Gun

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 | Guns, True Crime | Permalink | 5 Comments |

The killing spree at Virginia Tech has prompted discussion about what the students might have done. Some of it is sensible, but some of it is second-guessing, chest-pounding naïveté. Mark Steyn, a columnist I respect and frequently agree with, wrote an awful piece of agenda-injection decrying the VA Tech massacre as an example of what he calls a “culture of passivity.”

Some bloggers and others are describing what it was really like to find themselves being robbed at gunpoint. It’s probably a good idea to read those accounts before forming an opinion about how a person can be expected to react.

Rich Hailey was robbed when he worked as a convenience store night manager.

He waited until the only other customer in the store left, then he approached the counter and pulled a gun. It was a small revolver, and he pointed it at me and demanded that I give him the money in the register. As I started to pull out the money, he changed his mind and told me to hand over the drawer. I did, and as he went to pull the money out, he set his gun down on the counter between us.

Now the adolescent hero boy that lives in all of us immediately speaks up.

“Wow! If I were there, I would have grabbed the gun and got the drop on him. And if he even twitched wrong, BANG! I’d a dropped that sucker in his tracks. Yessirree bubba, that’s what I’da done.”

No you wouldn’t have.

I thought about it. The guy was high on something and moving slowly. I would have had a good chance of grabbing the gun and being a hero, and only a small chance of missing and winding up dead. Well, let me tell you folks something. When you’re looking at a gun, death is there in the room with you, and it’s close, and real, and you have a completely different perspective. I believed that if I went for his gun and missed, he would kill me. End of story. Whether that belief was accurate or not is irrelevant; it’s what I believed at the time. I figured that my best chance of avoiding that big ugly thing called Death was to cooperate and not give this guy any grief.

Nashville Knucklehead recalls being held up when he was bartending at a Nashville O’Charley’s.

I have read things from people questioning the bravery of the victims at VT. Things like, “If three of them had rushed the gunman, maybe they could have save dozens of lives.”

If you think that, you are a total fucking idiot.

I remember it like it was last week. I was laying on the floor in the dining room while the gunman was in the back. I could have gotten up and run out the door and gone next door and called the cops. But I didn’t. Why? Because the motherfucker HAD A GUN. He could have come out as I was leaving and shot me in the back. Or come out after I left and said, “Where’s the dude with all the hair?!?” and started shooting all my friends. What if I had saved my ass at the expense of my co-workers? Would that make me a hero? When someone has a gun, you don’t act like a hero, you do what he says. I’m a big motherfucker. I’m a brave motherfucker. You know what? Little dude HAD A FUCKING GUN!

Rich and Jim didn’t have guns, but Flatiron on the 1911 forums did. He was armed and mentally ready to use a gun, but got caught by surprise at a storage center.

I carry in a load and when I come out a young punk is standing there with a ski mask on, black baggy pants, black baggy coat and it actually takes me a few seconds to realize he has a 9mm black Glock pointed right at my chest.

I put my hands up and say “be cool bro” and at that he says “give it up” and I say “be cool” again at this point he starts getting all excited and cursing and saying stuff like “you think I’m playing %$#@&”

I pull out my wallet and say this is all I have. He snatches it with the gun pointing at my face now.

Now I would like to point out that I am never unarmed and because I was working in my backyard I had sweat pants on and sweatshirt and hooded zip up jacket and I had my Kel-Tec .380 in a pocket holster in my right front pocket.

He is about about 3 feet from me with the gun now pointed at my chest. For one second I contemplated knocking his arm away and rushing him but you know what… when the gun is aimed at you it’s a whole different story.

We can always learn lessons from people’s experiences. Once we know what could happen we can come up with new plans. After 9/11 passengers know better than to assume that a hijacking will end with a safe landing, and can adjust their mental posture. Likewise, we can admire the passengers of Flight 93 who learned what happened to theo ther planes and overpowered their attackers, or professor Liviu Librescu, the 76 year old Holocaust survivor who sacrifice his own his life at VA Tech to give his students time to escape.

At the same time, I think a wise person should be reluctant to second-guess the split-second decisions ordinary people make in life or death situations. That’s particularly true when those ordinary people are facing the long odds of being empty-handed on the wrong end of a gun.

Tags: 1911, glock

The Smith &Glockfield Excuse-O-Matic 9000

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 | Guns | Permalink | No Comments |

Why do some people refuse to call a jam a jam? From a thread on The High Road:

I’ve got a 4-inch Service model . . . .it’s had about 2852 rounds through it. (Give or take 2 rounds). It is 100% absolutely positively boring in that it never jams, fails to fire and rarely misses the target.

Sounds good, but here’s his next paragraph:

I shoot tons of 200 Gr. LSWC ammo in my 1911’s and when I tried to use it in the XD45 it would digest maybe 100 rounds and then start jamming on every 5th-8th round. I tried about everything I could think of reloading wise and was never able to get it to run more than 100 rounds without a jam of some sort. My best was 99 rounds.

Hey, lots of autos don’t like semi-wadcutters. That’s fine. And if the gun shoots without jams using the ammunition you use, that’s fine, too. Just say so in the first place.

Tags: 1911, glock

Link Party USA

Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 | Misc | Permalink | No Comments |

Akamai study - E-commerce Pages Should Load in Under 4 Seconds.

Megan McArdle - “What would nationalised health care look like here?”. That first item shouldn’t be underestimated.

Hell in a Handbasket - Guns of “The Outlaw Josey Wales”. I’m working on a massive post for “Guns of Unforgiven” I need to finish one day.

McSweeney’s - Submission Guidelines for our Refrigerator Door. “We are open to all types of media as long as the work is light enough to be affixed to our refrigerator door by no more than six alphabet magnets.”

Seasonshot.com - Shotgun ammo. With flavor! I’m assuming this is a joke.

Xavier Breath - Cut-away pictures of the 1911 thumb and grip safeties in action.

Tags: 1911

“Only One Gun”

Sunday, October 29th, 2006 | Guns | Permalink | 2 Comments |

Anarchangel has an interesting variation on the “only one gun” theme: which gun would you choose for each of these categories?

1. Rimfire Handgun - I don’t have much passion on this one. My Browning Buckmark would be fine, but so would a Ruger Mark II/III with a good trigger job or replacement trigger. (Countertop has a Mark II with an amazing trigger.) I’m tempted by a K-frame S&W .22 revolver.

2. Rimfire rifle - My Winchester 170. It’s not necessarily the best, and I wouldn’t expect anyone else to choose it, but it was my first gun and I don’t ever plan on selling it.

3. Centerfire hunting rifle - No strong feelings here, either. I’d probably sneak in the Lee-Enfield No. 5 Jungle Carbine.

4. Centerfire carbine (either hunting or defensive) - Probably an AR-15, if I could think of a reason I’d use one. I tend to think the cheaper Kel-Tec SU-16 has more practical uses, and it uses the same ammo and magazines.

5. Shotgun - My Mossberg 500 pump in 12 gauge suits me fine, and I’ve got both a slug barrel and trap/field barrel for it. The only reason I’d want anything else is if I took up skeet and wanted to be competitive with the guys running $10,000 over/unders.

6. Battle rifle - M1 Garand. As with the AR-15, I don’t have much practical use for a gun like this, but the Garand has historical value, and many clubs sponsor Garand matches that are beginner-friendly. This is on my near-term buy list.

7. Milsurp rifle or handgun - Probably a 1911 (I’m sort of cheating it in here), but my SKS is an awfully handy and inexpensive trunk gun. A trunk gun would a good 10th category.

8. Pocket gun/Concealed carry handgun - My S&W 642, a small, snub-nosed, 15 oz .38 revolver.

9. Open carry handgun/service pistol/general duty sidearm - Probably my S&W 686 .357 revolver, though I’m tempted to go with something shorter than its 6″ barrel.

UPDATE: I forgot that I was supposed to pick one gun if I could only have one. I’d go with a .357 Magnum revolver with a 3″ barrel. Powerful, versatile, and it’ll fit in a pants pocket if it has to. My 3″ 64 .38 Special is almost there, but I’d probably swap it for a 3″ 66 in .357 Magnum with adjustable sights.

Tags: 1911, ar-15, buckmark, ruger

The Intangible Part of Shooting

Wednesday, October 11th, 2006 | Guns | Permalink | 3 Comments |

Uncle, back from the Gunblogger Rendezvous in Reno, writes:

I had an epiphany of sorts in Reno. No matter what I do, how hard I try, or what I know: I just don’t like AKs. Period. Can’t help it.

I have a nice AK (see pics here) and I should like it. … But I don’t. I don’t like how they feel. I don’t enjoy shooting them. It has nothing to do with them not being fine weapons. I guess, my dislike of it is more aesthetic/ergonomic in nature. I’ll probably unload it at the next gun show.

In comments, I told Uncle how he feels about AKs is how I feel about Glocks. I’ll concede intellectually that Glocks are incredibly reliable and durable. They’re also remarkably corrosion resistant, not unfairly priced, lightweight, available in a huge assortment of frame sizes and calibers, and have an embarrassment of aftermarket parts, accessories, and qualified gunsmiths who know how to work on them. Despite all that, and despite having shot eight or 10 different Glock models, I’ve never bought one because they just don’t move me. The only one I feel like I shoot well with is the model 30.

The handguns I like - S&W revolvers, 1911s, CZs, SIGs - are guns with great triggers, sights, and ergonomics that keep me hitting the X ring. If a gun can’t do that - and make me enjoy it - I won’t buy it. Townsend Whelen captured it, in part, when he said, “Only accurate rifles are interesting.” Only enjoyable guns are interesting, maybe. There’s a reason the almost-century old Colt 1911 is still going strong - a gun with great pointability, great balance, and a great trigger is still a great gun, in any century.

This will be anathema to people who aren’t part of the gun culture, but part of the appeal of shooting for some of us is pleasure. Shooting a well-designed, well-crafted gun and shooting it well is pleasurable. Some people will find that idea shocking. Others will nod knowingly.

Tags: 1911, glock

New Springfield Armory EMP (Enhanced Micro Pistol) 1911

Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 | Guns | Permalink | 13 Comments |

This is interesting. It’s a 1911 made specifically for short cartridges (9 mm, .40 S&W, .45 GAP) and sized to match. The picture above shows the EMP compared to a comparable short-barreled 1911. From The High Road.

Bonus! - This Kimber is a wicked CCW gun, with no hammer or sights to snag on.

Tags: 1911

Weekly Gun Nuttery

Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 | Guns, Star Wars | Permalink | No Comments |

Gullyborg has the Carnival of Cordite 55, with lots of links to Anarchangel’s recent spate of high output, excellent stuff.

Cowboy Blog rounds up the gun bloggers Buy a Gun Day purchases. Late addition: Tam’s 1883 S&W top break. Some other interesting old guns: Denise’s WWII Japanese Nambu pistol, Mostly Cajun’s 1910 Canadian Ross straight-pull, and Heartless Libertarian’s WWII Remington-Rand 1911. If you missed it, here’s my 1944 British Lee-Enfield No. 5 Jungle Carbine.

Gunner notes that Wal-Mart is discontinuing gun sales at some of their stores.

Jeff has the weekly check on the bias, his roundup of gun coverage in the media.

SayUncle fisks an article about Columbine and refutes some gun control myths that have grown up around it.

GeekWithA45 reviews the new CrimsonTrace LaserGrips model 405 for J-framed Smith &Wessons. I have the same 305-equipped S&W 642 as the Geek and R2 there, and I think I’d like the new mid-sized 405 as much as the Geek does.

Tags: 1911, remington, smith and wesson

Guns of “The Shield”

Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 | Guns | Permalink | 3 Comments |

James Rummel and Brian Lane are trying to ID guns used in the FX show “The Shield.” Brian has a collection of screen captures.

Det. Wyms has a short-barreled, full-sized revolver. Judging from that one, distant picture it might be a Smith &Wesson Model 19 with a 2.5″ barrel.

I don’t have an episode handy to check, but I recall Vick Mackey’s backup revolver being a Smith &Wesson 640 Centennial, though it could be the Model 60 Chief’s Special. The only difference is the exposed hammer on the 60 versus the fully concealed hammer on the 640. I can’t tell from the picture.

It isn’t clear from this picture, but Lem’s shotgun is a Mossberg. I just watched the Wesley Snipes vampire flick Blade again and realized that the actor who plays Lem, Kenneth Johnson, plays club kid Heatseeking Dennis, who is lured into a nightclub by a female vampire.

Tags: 1911, smith and wesson

Don’t Look, Tamara

Thursday, January 19th, 2006 | Guns | Permalink | No Comments |

From Smith &Wesson investor relations via The High Road. S&W is going to begin making AR-15s. That’s actually good news. S&W entered the 1911 market a few years ago and already has a great reputation for quality and value.

The bad news for Tam? They’re re-using their storied Military and Police brand again by calling the rifles M&P15.

Smith &Wesson Enters Long-Gun Market with M&P15 Rifles
Company Expands Military &Police Series With Rifles Designed for Law Enforcement, Military, and Sporting Shooters
SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Jan 18, 2006 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — Smith &Wesson Holding Corporation (Amex: SWB), parent company of Smith &Wesson Corp., the legendary, 154-year old, global provider of products and services for safety, security, protection and sport, announced its initial entry into the market for tactical rifles and will begin shipments in early February of the Smith &Wesson M&P15 Rifle and the Smith &Wesson M&P15T Rifle. These tactical rifles are additions to the Company’s Military &Police (M&P) series of firearms specifically engineered to meet the needs of global military and police personnel, as well as sporting shooters.

LATER: Xavier isn’t happy about the M&P moniker, either.

Tags: 1911, ar-15, smith and wesson

Govt. Seeks up to 645,000 .45 Caliber “Joint Combat Pistols”

Monday, November 28th, 2005 | Guns | Permalink | 16 Comments |

SOCOM, the U.S. military’s joint operations counter-terrorism command, is seeking submissions for a new “joint combat pistol.” It’s an ID/IQ (Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity) contract, but total quantities could be up to 645,000 units. Government proposal documents here. Via The High Road. A summary of the specs:

• .45 ACP [9 mm (.355) is the NATO standard, but it's always been criticized for being ineffective in military hardball configuration]
• SOCOM is examining models with and without an external manual safety
• Mean Rounds Between Stoppage (MRBS) of 2000 rounds (T) and 5000 rounds
• Mean Rounds Between Failure (MRBF) of 5000 rounds (T) and 10,000 rounds
• 8 round or more magazine capacity
• 10 to 15 round magazine capacity in high-capacity configuration
• Lanyard attachment
• MIL-STD-1913 accessory rail for lights and laser sights
• Length less than 9.65 inches
• Width less than 1.53 inches [that's mighty exact - they're clearly speccing this to allow a certain manufacturer to make the specs]
• “The JCP shall function in double action/single action (DA/SA) or double-action only (DAO) including Striker-Fired Action (SFA) (T)” [Translation: DA/SAs, DAOs and striker-fired guns like the Glock, Springfield XD, and SIG DAK are fine, but single-actions like the 1911 are out]
• DA/SA guns must have a decocker
• Magazines must be drop free, i.e., you shouldn’t have to drag them out of the gun
• “The JCP shall be operable for a range of operators from the 5th to 95th percentile per section 3.6.3. To aid in this, the JCP should incorporate a modular grip adjustment system to provide enhanced ergonomics (O).” [Can Glock meet that standard? They have fairly thick grips in double-stack .45. On the other hand the modular grip adjustment sounds just like the Walther/S&W P99 and the new S&W Military and Police.]
• Drop safe [won't accidentally fire if dropped onto a hard surface]
• Suppressor attachment available

There’s one eye-opener in the spec:

3.7.6. Weapon Shot Counter. The JCP should have a weapon shot counter to record shots fired (O). The shot counter, if provided, shall have a data collection device that connects the shot counter to a computer. The shot counter, if provided, shall have a Microsoft compatible software program that works in conjunction with the shot counter and the data collection device to allow the weapon data to be downloaded and stored on a computer. The shot counter, if provided, shall not interfere with any operations of the JCP.

The shot counter - which is a “should” rather than a “shall” - is vaguely specced: does it simply count the number of shots fired (like an odomoter) or does it also record the date and time the shots were fired (which is what Tasers do - that’s why you see news stories that mention how many times the Taser was used on a specific occasion). Is anyone aware of any field-tested guns that would meet this specification? I’m not.

Full specs from the original Microsoft Word documents below.

Continue reading the rest of this post right here ›››

Tags: 1911, glock

Philadelphia’s Citywide Wi-Fi Plan

Saturday, October 22nd, 2005 | Municipal Wi-Fi | Permalink | No Comments |

Fortune looks at the phenomenon of cities offering wireless Internet. There’s a twist to Philadelphia’s plan that I didn’t realize. Access will be free in places like public parks, but residential access will cost $10-20 per month, not free as in San Francisco.

Internet providers who serve the city are predictably not thrilled with the city’s plan to use taxpayer dollars to compete with private companies. I can’t blame them. Why is Philadelphia entering the residential Internet access market? Philadelphia has some of the worst public schools in the country. Why is the local government worrying about wi-fi when they have problems in their schools. And why should anyone trust them to run an Internet service any better than they ran their schools.

Disclaimer and reverse disclaimer: Philadelphia is partnering with EarthLink, a company in which I own stock. Even if this is good for EarthLink, I’m not sure if it’s good for Philadelphia or the ISP industry.

Tags: 1911

10 Gun Questions for Sean Penn

Tuesday, September 13th, 2005 | Guns | Permalink | 5 Comments |

It turns out that brown water navy stud Sean Penn is a gun guy. Maybe a hard-core he-butch man like Penn can get large and in charge and settle some long-standing debates for us clueless gunnies.

• Pump or auto shotgun? Oh, right. Pump.

• 9mm or .45? Oh, right. 9mm.
• Glock or 1911? Oh, right. Glock.
• Revolver or automatic? Oh, right. Both.
• Ruger or Smith &Wesson revolvers? Oh, right. Smith &Wesson.
• Imagine a paparazzi tries to take your picture. Shoot to wound or shoot to kill? Oh, right. Punch and/or bludgeon with rocks.

And while we’re at it:

• AR or AK assault rifle?

• Shoot for center of mass or the golden triangle?
• IDPA or USPSA competition?
• Weaver or isosceles stance?

UPDATE: Submitted to the Beltway Traffic Jam. Also, SayUncle has more questions for Penn:

2 - So, you

Tags: 1911, glock, ruger, smith and wesson

Tamara Has a Blog

Friday, September 2nd, 2005 | Guns | Permalink | 10 Comments |

I went to Coal Creek Armory tonight after work to shoot. When I was swapping guns at the rental counter Tamara asked for my name. I don’t know Tamara on a first name basis, but I knew of her from gun boards like Smith &Wesson Forum and The High Road where she’s a frequent and thoughtful poster. (If Tamara and I have different opinions on guns, there’s an excellent chance she’s right and I’m wrong.)

I told her my name and she said, “Oh, so you’re Les Jones.” Since I knew her from those boards I just automatically assumed she knew me from the same. Then she mentioned she had a blog, View from the Porch, at booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com. I told her I had a blog, but she already knew that. She had searched for “coal creek armory,” found my blog, and decided that since so many people had blogs she’d start one, too.

From Tamara’s blog I found out that Markos Kloos - another Knoxville gun nut, S&W nut, and gun board poster - has a blog. I’ve added them both to the blogroll.

Oh, and Tamara points to a Coal Creek Armory Internet Shoot Day on Saturday, September 3.

So tonight I shot a Para-Ordnance P14 LDA (a 14 round .45 1911 with a Glock-like trigger) similar to this and a Beretta 92F 9 mm. Tamara asked me what I thought of the Para. I told her the grip was a little too beefy, so I’ll stick with single-stack 1911s. Turns out she agrees. The Beretta is a pretty nice gun. Sights and (SA) trigger are excellent, though I don’t like DA/SA autos so I’d never buy one. It’s probably been eclipsed by the Glock and SIG, but it wasn’t a bad gun in its day.

LATER: I went to Coal Creek Armory today and bought the H&R shotgun she mentioned here.

Tags: 1911, beretta, glock, smith and wesson

Gunblast Reviews S&W 619 and 620 Revolvers

Thursday, September 1st, 2005 | Guns | Permalink | 1 Comment |

The 619 and 620 are the seven-shot, L frame replacements for the six-shot, K frame 65 and 66. Here’s what I found amazing:

The trigger pulls on these two new Smiths are excellent. The single action pulls on both the Models 619 and 620 were very crisp and clean, measuring three pounds and six ounces and three pounds and nine ounces, respectively. The double action pulls were butter-smooth, with the Model 619 measuring nine and one-quarter pounds, and the 620 measuring just over ten pounds, but with both feeling lighter due to their smoothness.

Those are fantastic double action trigger pulls to be from the factory. My 686 has been worked over by a gunsmith and the DA pull is just a few ounces lighter than that 619. The new guns are also drilled and tapped for scope mounts. Sweet. Too, I like the semi-lug barrel profile of the 620 over the full-lug 686.

S&W is on fire lately. Their 1911s already have a great reputation after just a few years of production.

Tags: 1911, smith and wesson

Gun Advice for Writers and Reporters

Thursday, May 26th, 2005 | Guns | Permalink | No Comments |

If you know much about computers, you probably grimaced during Independence Day. Will Smith’s character uploads a virus from his PowerBook to the alien computers, shutting them down and saving Earth. Computer viruses are platform-specific, and there’s no way a human computer virus would be able to infect alien computers. Kind of took you out of the story, didn’t it?

The same thing happens to gun enthusiasts all the time when we read the newspaper, turn in for the night with a crime novel, or watch the latest action movie. And we do notice. Like computers, guns are a technical subject with lots of arcane details, and it’s easy to get things wrong.

The classic mistake is the crime writer who has a character switching off the safety on his revolver. Only four revolvers in history had manual safeties, and those models are extremely uncommon outside of movies and crime novels. One of those guns, the Webley-Fosbery, was made famous in The Maltese Falcon when Bogey dryly says of the gun that killed his partner, “Webley-Fosbery automatic-revolver. Thirty-eight, eight shot. They don’t make them anymore.” A number of semi-automatic pistols, notably Glocks, don’t have manual safeties, either.

News stories that mention the SKS often refer to it as an assault rifle. That sounds scarier - it’s got the word “assault” in it, after all - but the SKS isn’t an assault rifle, either by standard military terminology (it lacks fully-automatic fire and has insufficient magazine capacity) or the brain dead standards of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban (it doesn’t have a removable magazine or a pistol grip). It’s simply a semi-automatic carbine. Also, contrary to common legend, the SKS isn’t a cheap knock-off of the AK-47, having been first produced two years earlier, and being of a completely different design.

Other mistakes are more subtle. For instance, you’ve seen movies where the gun is shot empty, and the doomed character holding it desperately pulls the trigger over and over - “click! click! click!”. If you’re going to use that dramatic device in your script you have to be careful. That scene will work for double action trigger mechanisms which cock and then drop the hammer when the trigger is pulled, but many guns have trigger actions that can’t cock the hammer on their own. That includes the Colt .45 auto, the Browning Hi-Power, the ubiquitous Glock, and practically any rifle or shotgun. Once those guns are empty pulling the trigger will produce one “click” and no more.

If your action thriller script gets optioned, ask the director to film an actual silenced gun being fired with no audio effects. Instead of making a high-pitched “tooweet” sound, a silencer will silence a pistol caliber shot completely. A silenced pistol makes no sound at all except for the mechanical noise of the hammer falling and the action cycling. There’s a silencer scene in The Bourne Identity that films this exactly right, and most of the audience probably thinks it’s a mistake because they’re so used to the phony Hollywood “tooweet” sound.

If any reporters want to go shooting let me know. I’ll provide the firearms and ammunition. My treat. Here are some additional resources for writers who want to know more about guns.

• Common Mistakes Writers Make About Guns - thriller writers Emory Hackman and Linda Adams
• Don’t Shoot Holes in Your Credibility - Writing World
• Gun Terminology Cheat Sheet - cribbed from a writing course, it has a few niggling mistakes, but it’s not bad
• Real Revolvers Don’t Have Safeties: Firearms Information For Writers - And Readers - William Sanders

Tags: 1911, glock

Carnival of Cordite #14

Friday, May 20th, 2005 | Guns | Permalink | 24 Comments |

Welcome to the 14th edition of the Carnival of Cordite.

Peter White at the Revolutionary War Veterans Association blog has the schedule for the Memorial Day Extravaganza in Ramseur, North Carolina.

Yosemite Sam at The Ten Ring looks at anti-gun bias in the media, and in particular the anti-NRA stance at the Houston Chronicle.

SayUncle speculates on what the military might use for a semi-auto sniper rifle. He also expands on what he’s dubbed Ravenwood’s Law: “As a discussion about guns grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Dodge City or the Wild West approaches one.”

Analog Kid tried to upgrade his SKS to 20 round magazines and had a bad time. That’s consistent with what I’ve heard about after-market SKS mags. The best advice I ever got about the SKS was to appreciate it for what it is rather than spending a lot of time and money trying to turn it into something else.

The Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog tracks the under-reported stories of the defensive use of guns. Cabinboy sends in this story of an Oklahoma City woman who shot a home intruder who asked to use the phone and then tried to force his way in. The intruder is a two-time ex-convict.

Gunner notes that if Carolyn McCarthy’s bill - allowing the right to keep and bear arms to be taken away for foreign convictions exceeding one year in prison - had gone through, you could lose your right to own a gun if you gossiped in Colombia, which carries a maximum sentence of four years.

Like the .45? Like the 1911? So does Anarchangel. This week he offers his thoughts on which of the competitors is the second best .45 auto. He also talks about his ideal 1911.

Jeff Soyer’s Weekly Check on the Bias focuses on Condi Rice’s recent statements of support for gun rights.

Kim du Toit has his report from Boomershoot 2005.

John Ross’s sage thoughts on concealed carry. “My definition of the difference between preparation and paranoia is the degree of disruption of your life in comparison to the likelihood of the threat.”

Head, always the go-to guy for information about Communist bloc firearms, wrote a feature-length post on the Romanian PSL.

James Rummel keeps his eyes open for guns when he’s in front of the tube. Check his posts on Guns of Battlestar Galactica (the new series on the Sci-Fi channel) and TV Guns.

Barry at Model 29 is bloging about efforts to repeal the Wahsington, DC gun ban.

My gun blogging has been pretty minimal these past few weeks what with the trip to BlogNashville and this week’s Star Wars blogging. Browse the Guns category for past articles and Gun Links.

LATE ADDITIONS:

Anthroblology is blogging .50 machine guns on bombers.

Mr. Completely is sponsoring a different kind of postal match.

Discussion of the Week

Here’s a tradition I’d like to start with the Carnival of Cordite. I’d like to ask the host to start a discussion about guns or gun rights in comments.

Here’s this week’s topic. You’ve probably heard the expression “the only thing better than a boat is a friend with a boat.” Which gun would you like to be able to shoot that you probably wouldn’t buy for yourself? It might be a gun that’s very expensive, or it might be a gun that you just don’t have any practical use for. To go back to the boat analogy, if your best friend asked you to go shoot his new gun, what would you most hope that gun would be?

To make things a little more interesting, leave off Class III weapons like fully automatic firearms and silencers. My pick is in comments.

Gun Pic of the Week

From Head’s Romanian PSL post. According to Head, even though it looks a lot like a Dragunov, it’s actually a different design and is internally closer to the PRK version of the AK.

Tags: 1911

Gunsmith Hilton Yam’s Custom 1911 Pistols

Thursday, May 5th, 2005 | E-commerce, Guns | Permalink | 4 Comments |

(I’m cross-posting this to the guns and e-commerce categories because this is such a good example of an effective Web site for selling services.)

So somewhere down on my wish list of guns is a 1911 (a Colt .45 autoloading pistol or clone thereof). Gunsmith Hilton Yam customizes 1911s, and he’ll even build one from scratch if that’s what you want.

Marketing services via the Web is much, much harder than marketing products. In most cases you’re selling something that’s not entirely tangible, that isn’t commoditized, and that can’t be compared on a one to one basis with someone else’s offering. Without being a pushy salesman type, Yam is incredibly effective at promoting his services by demonstrating his own expertise and craftsmanship.

What I really like is the way he demonstrates his knowledge of the 1911 platform by sharing that knowledge. After reading his articles I knew more about 1911s, but I also know more about the work that goes in to customizing them, and what his likes and dislikes are. For instance, Yam is a traditionalist. He only builds all-steel, full-sized guns, and he doesn’t do competition gun features like compensators. To secure the grips he prefers flathead screws to torx and other fancy fasteners, because a Leatherman has a flathead screwdriver but not a torx tool.

Finishes? Like Henry Ford, he’ll give you any color you want as long as it’s black (specifically, Parkerized matte black). Even with those limitations he has a waiting list, and he’s too busy to do basic gunsmithing tasks - he does full customization projects only.

For Yam’s line of work, that kind of clear communication is a much better sales technique than overly-slick Web pages and pushy! sales! lingo! He already has more work than he can handle. One of the goals he accomplishes with his site is to fend off people who want the kind of gun he isn’t interested in building.

High points of his site are recommended first 1911s, recommended base guns for customization, best components and customizations, and finishes.

His picture gallery has some outstanding photos of his work.

Tags: 1911

Glocks

Friday, March 4th, 2005 | Guns, Quotes | Permalink | 2 Comments |

By the power of John Browning and metal guns, I pronounce thee UNCLEAN, for thy hands paid money for a plastic gun. Get thee out of my sight, sinner!
- Little Loudmouth on THR

“Glock is a cheap hooker. 1911 is a professional escort. Both will get the job done, but one just makes the process so much more enjoyable. ”
- p01ic3m4n on GlockTalk

Tags: 1911, glock

Gun Links #33

Thursday, February 10th, 2005 | Guns | Permalink | 11 Comments |

Late addition: I’m selling a new in box S&W 332 TiSc snubnose .32 revolver on GunBroker. Check it out.

• The High Road - Pictures of side by side and over/under shotguns, and one homemade gun that’s both. (That’s it to the right.) There’s also a commercial four barrel shotgun, the Famars Rombo.

• No Quarters - Gun sweepstakes for February.
• Publicola - A detailed and lavishly-illustrated look at re-stocking an M1 Garand.
• Jeff Soyer - Weekly check on the bias, with a profile of gun rights advocate Reginald Jones.
• SayUncle - Review of the Seegars case challenging the D.C. gun ban.
• Sandcastles and Cubicles - Ronald McDonald machine gun charity shoot in Memphis.
• InstaPundit - Good and bad news on the progress in arming airline pilots.

New for 2005

• Marlin - New O/U and SxS shotguns and .17 caliber rifles, and the 1894 in .32-20.

• Mossberg - Mossberg is now in the bolt action rifle business.
• Remington - A little bit of everything, from rifles and shotguns to ammo and accessories.
• Smith &Wesson - New 1911s, DA pistols, X frame revolvers, a Jerry Miculek special, and more guns factory-equipped with Crimson Trace Laser Grips. GunBlast reviews the new S&W Model 60 5″ barrel kit gun. S&W is doing great these days!
• Beretta - New Storm pistol and more. Not listed but apparently shipping: the .45 ACP version of the Storm carbine. There’s one for sale at Gunbroker tonight.

Gun Pic of the Week: Zeleska 600 Nitro Express Revolver - True or Not?

Via Freedome Sight, Airborne Combat Engineer has the specs on this bruiser. I’d like to get confirmation that this thing really exists. As ACE points out, there was a picture of a .50 BMG revolver picture floating around that turned out to be bogus. This seems more legitimate, but after I got burned on the German prostitution story, I’m more skeptical than usual.

Tags: 1911, beretta, remington, smith and wesson

Which Four Guns in New York?

Friday, January 28th, 2005 | Guns | Permalink | 4 Comments |

From a threadon The High Road, Which four guns?

Ok, here’s the situation. I’ve relinquished my New Jersey residency to claim residency in NYC. For now my guns stay in NJ at my father’s. I also get to keep the firearm’s permit in NJ so I can still shoot there but I can’t buy anymore guns without that state’s driver license

Here’s where the fun begins: I’m applying for the gun permit in NYC (which costs an outrageous amount of money and 6 months time) which allows me only 4, FOUR, guns total, unless I wish to fork over even more money and lots of time and try to convince the chief why I need more than four guns.

So which four guns???

• They need to be multi use
• No magnums at the NYC range and upto 44mag in the NJ range
• nothing over 10 rounds
• conversions are fine (.22lr kit for 1911, etc.)
• I’m thinking of hunting or not: need the possibility, if I change my mind
• NY State, I believe allows semi-auto rifle hunting
• do believe in the right to protect myself

Additional info:

• he’s applying for a Florida CCW, so he will be able to carry in a number of states, but not in NYC unless he gets extraordinarily lucky
• he really likes his Browning Hi-Power and his 1911s
• he also owns a Glock 17, S&W 340pd, and Ruger gp100

My picks would be:

• S&W 340PD - snubnose revolvers are amazingly handy for CCW. Because magnums aren’t allowed at his range, he’d have to practice with .38s, but that’s what most people do with these ultralight guns anyway.
• A 1911. Under NY law, he can add a .22 conversion kit for it and he’ll get a .22 without counting against his four gun limit.
• A gun for hunting. I’m leaving this open since he’s not sure if or what he wants to hunt, and where he hunts in NY will affect what kind of gun he can use (see below).
• Finally, it’s a tossup between a shotgun and a .22 rifle. The shotgun could work into his hunting plans, and he might have a chance to shoot skeet. The .22 is just a lot of fun, and he could shoot it at the indoor range.

More info about NY laws below, posted by members at The High Road.

Continue reading the rest of this post right here ›››

Tags: 1911, glock, ruger