Tag Archives: guns

Addiction

Posted on by

So this happened today…….

I know, I know.

And before some well-meaning person posts it in the comments, No, I wouldn’t offer this to the neighbor girl. DA/SA autos arent really a beginners gun. If I were interested in offering her a boomtoy, which Im not, it’d be a Glock, M&P40, or an XD.. basically, a reliable point-n-shoot. The notion that revolvers are the best choice for the I-just-want-a-gun-to-keep-on-the-nightstand crowds (especially chicks) is just silly. Someone who has no interest in becoming a ‘gun person’ isn’t going to do terribly well with a DA revolver (the classic .38) with its long heavy trigger pull. Good, solid, DA revolver shooting takes practice. A good bit of practice.

And to stem the inevitable “My wife/girlfriend/daughter shoots a Beretta 92 and thats a DA/SA and she shoots it quite well!”, yeah, but Im talking generalizations here.

This is Ruger 9mm pistol number..ah.well…its up there in the double digits. But..$200 including shipping. Came without a magazine but thats not a problem these days.

Link – Pistol Grip Only shotguns video

Posted on by

So those new pistol grip 12 ga. firearms (which, technically, are not shotguns) are kind of the rage these days. I first became aware of them when I saw one on Gunbroker. A little later, I saw that Mossberg was going to introduce them. And then finally I got to shoot one. My ardor was cooled a bit after shooting one.

Unless your plans include spending a lot of time in hallways and elevators, it seems that a shoulder stock would be a better option. Really, a ‘wrist brace’ on one of these 14″ wonders would be the way to go. But, surely at the usual 7-yard distance the advantage of a stock versus stockless shotgun isn’t that great right?

Well, Gun Jesus explores that with some really interesting results:


TL;DR is that unless you’re someone who practices a lot with your pistol-grip-only shotgun, you are going to get better (and faster) results with a stocked gun.

Personally, I keep an 18″ 870 laying around for repelling boarders, but thats only because I don’t want the paperwork hassle of a 14″ or 16″ barreled gun. If barrel length legalities weren’t a thing, a 14″ stocked gun would be my first choice for operating in the confines of my humble abode.

This isnt to say that there is not a situation where something like the Shockwave would be exactly what the doctor ordered. But nine times out of ten, you’d probably be better served with the stocked gun.

This mean I won’t get a Shockwave or two? Nope. Because I love ‘rulebeater’ stuff. And, like wrist braces, I suspect there’ll come a time in the not too far future where ATF will get serious and tinker with their regulations and rulings. (“They can’t make laws! They can only enforce them!” is what I can already hear people typing in the comments. Dude, they’ve already proven they can classify/declassify/reclassify whatever they want. No one wants to be the test case.)

So…the 18″ full-stocked gun remains on night duty. But, an interesting video to watch for those who think about the efficacy of new goodies like the Shockwave.

 

Linj – Do you have a magic “keep you safe” talisman?

Posted on by

From TUAK:

Neither do I. The older I get, the more I have to fight the urge to ridicule keyboard kommandos who think “prepping” is all about guns and gear and a case of MREs. I try to suppress the urge because I despise hypocrisy in all its forms and especially when I’m the hypocrite. And the truth is I was a proto-keyboard kommando: I was into “guns and gear” prepping long before keyboards – and preppers – became so ubiquitous. Yes! I was a faithful follower of Father Mel Tappan. I wore out my copy of Survival Guns in a way that would have made a Christian quite proud if it were his Bible. I was … a dumbass. And I kept it up for far longer than was wise.

Outstanding post and I suggest reading the whole thing more than once. My own impressions to follow.

P-series mag stockpile

Posted on by

Fella on GunBroker had an auction for a half-dozen Ruger factory mags for the 9mm P-series. My ‘buy’ threshold is $15 ea. Any more than that and I’ll just wait for a better deal. Turns out I won the auction. As Im emailing the guy to coordinate the purchase he says “Oh, we found another ten mags in the shop. Ten bucks apiece?” Uhm..ok. And then another guy on GB was trying to unload a bunch(!) of ban-era Mil/LE-only marked factory mags. His state had gone to 10-rd mags and he had to sell his 15-rd mags. I told him I’d trade him for the 10-rd mags I have sitting here.

So…I have more than neatly sewed up the magazine needs for the dozen or so guns I have here that take the P-series mags.

Speaking of P series, Tam over at View From The Porch is doing a 2,000 round shoot-it-till-it-dies test on a P89. She’s mentioned that the sights are a challenge, the grip is bleah, and the trigger belongs on a staplegun. There’s a bit of truth to that. So why do I love the P95 (the next stop on the evolutionary highway of the P-series) so much? Easy. Because unless you come across someone selling a Glock or a Sig for $200, there is no better 9mm handgun that you can buy for two hundred bucks.

If you’re patient, you can land a P95 off gun broker, with shipping, for $200. Now, there are NO new handguns you can buy for $200 that I’d feel comfortable going into Katrina-ville with. And the ‘good” guns like Sig, Glock, Beretta, and Smith seldom show up used for a mere pair of Franklins. Sure, maybe your HiPoint or TokaMakarov has been reliable as a sunrise…but I’ll take the 15-round capacity of the Ruger.

So, while the P95 isn’t a great gun, it is the best 9mm you can buy for $200 unless you know some meth addict selling a G34 in an alleyway somewhere. And for my intended use of the P95, which is as a, basically, disposable handgun for truck/cache/cabin/loaner… well, you cannot do better at that price.

I wish Tam were testing the P95 rather than the P89… the P95 had some refinements that made it a better shooter, IMHO, than the P89. However, I’ll be curious to see how the 2,000-rd shoot turns out.

As I was looking through her blog at all the other 2,000-rd tests one thing becomes clear: virtually any handgun from a reputable large manufacturer, using quality ammo, is darn near 100% reliable. Many of the failures that do occur in the tests that she writes about involve Wolf ammo, or bargain ammo of questionable pedigree. Not all, but enough to let me form an opinion about the ammo. The point being that if you buy a new, modern manufactured handgun in 9mm (that isn’t a Remington R51) and feed it quality (not high grade, just ‘quality’) ammo, you will probably achieve monotonous reliability.

Anyway, unless I pick up another P95 or three…which I really am going to hope I don’t….I think I’ve got the magazine angle covered. So much so, in fact, that it might be time to package a couple of the P95’s for the Deep Sleep with a half dozen mags, some ammo, and the usual accoutrements.

Video – The best HK 91 Clones on the market

Posted on by

Thats a bit of a misleading title. To the best of my knowledge, you can count the makers of HK roller-lock clones on one hand… it’s not exactly a broad field.

However, I’ve played with Century, HK, PTR, SWF, Fed Ord, Springfield Armory, and a few others over the last thirty years and the PTR has been my hands down favorite, mainly because of the recent addition of the original G3 mag release, adding a rail, and changing the thread pitch on the muzzle.

Personally, I rather like the FAL. But the FAL has a couple drawbacks for me…not the least of which was price. All guns are a give-n-take in terms of good/bad features. For me, the only real options for a .308 were G3, FAL, M1A, and AR10. When I started throwing numbers into the calculator, the PTR wound up giving me, literally, the most bang for the buck when spare factory mags were $1 each.

If you decide you want to get a G3-pattern, I highly recommend the PTR and would strongly advise staying away from the drunken monkeys that do Century’s gun plumbing.

TechSights install

Posted on by

The TechSights I ordered arrived today and, naturally, that means I spent some time getting them mounted on one of the recently acquired Mini-14s.

From a functionality standpoint they seem superior to the Ruger factory sights…the adjustments aren’t as coarse. Only drawback seem to be that the aperature is a tad smaller than what was on the factory sight. This would contribute to accuracy (or what passes for accuracy in a Mini-14) but it would slow down your fast target acquisition. Fortunately, other aperatures are available and I’ll be getting a slightly larger one.

Having used the Tech Sights on the 10/22 rifle, I’m pretty confident these will work out just as well. Obviously I still need to head out to the range and re-sight things, but so far I like what I see.

If you get a set of these, a couple caveats:

  • There are some really small parts. Work over a flat, smooth surface or some other environment that will make finding dropped parts easier
  • It looks intimidating, but following the instructions shows that it isn’t nearly as complex as it looks. Probably took me fifteen minutes and about half of that was looking for a punch and a few other niceties.
  • Trickiest part was putting on a tiny e-clip onto the end of a screw. That’s the part that, if it goes flying, you’re never going to find…so keep a handle on it.

Personal touches

Posted on by

Text message:

Him: GLock 21 w/ 4 magazines
Me: Price?
Him: [price]
Me: I’ll take it
Me: Curse you

And that’s when I realized I got so caught up in New Gun Fever I failed to ask some basic questions.. like what Gen Glock? Factory mags? Box-n-docs? Condition?

Now, since I already said I’d take it, I couldn’t then start asking those questions and expecting him to be okay with me changing my price. So..I hoped for the best.

Didn’t do too bad.

First disappointment was that it was a Gen 2… no lightrail. But…hmm..someone put aftermarket fiber optic night sights on there (yes, self luminous). Ok, thats kinda nice. Take it apart and…hmm..a Nowlin replacement recoil assembly. And the magazines all have +2 extensions on them. Hmmm. So what we have here are the signs of someone who took good care of their guns. Let’s see how good…:::peel back the foam from the inside of the gun case::: sure enough, under the foam is the original factory recoil assembly, the receipts from Brownells, and some other useful info. Not too shabby.

I’m not a .45 guy. I have a very nice, very tweaked 1911 and have never felt the need for more than that. And these big frame Glocks never fit my hand. But…this is a nice gun. I’m tempted to keep it, especially since it’ll go nicely with the little G30 I still have sitting here.

But..I’ve no interest in retooling my logistics table. First nice Gen 3 17,17L,19, or 34 that someone wants to trade will wind up taking this thing home.

 

Mini-14 sights

Posted on by

Sp I picked up a couple Min-14’s here recently, and while they are so low on the ‘just in case’ totem pole that they don’t even come out as a quinary-level of backup, there are still one or two things I need to do in regards to their care and feeding before I put them away.

The Mini’s have never had decent sights. Ever. Thats why they made the ‘Ranch’ versions. So, when you Google ‘aftermarket mini-14 sights’ what do you think  Google spits out? Yup. These guys.

I put a set of Tech Sights on my 10/22 a few years back and they are a very worthy improvement. They are, unfortunately, made in Taiwan but the market for good aftermarket Mini sights isn’t exactly known for breadth and depth.

Since I originally only planned on having the one lonely Mini-14 sitting in Deep Sleep, I’m going to have to order up another of the excellent Tapco Mini-14 mags. And then I should be done. Unless another stupid Mini-14 makes itself known to me at a too-good-to-pass-up-price.

 

I should just buy controlling stock in Ruger and be done with it

Posted on by

Yeah. Uhm….so that happened:I’ll be phasing out a couple of P95’s in favor of these p95DC’s. I’ve never really seen the need for a manual safety on a double-action auto. The pistols were a case of heading to Gunbroker and thinking “Ahhh….this low bid will never win. Someone will bid it up.” Idiot.

The Mini-14? Uhm…well…see, it’s like this…it was one of those deals that you would have had to have been an idiot to pass up. Seriously. It was a good deal. Note that the Mini has one of the extremely hard-to-find Eagle 35-round polymags. This was, IMHO, hands-down the best aftermarket mag for the Mini and as best I can tell they havent been made since the early 90’s. I have some of the AR versions, but the Mini versions are tough to find. People hold onto those things with both hands.

Today was a stainless kinda day.

The fella I got the Mini from brought that mag along to show me and let me hold onto for a few days so I could blog about it. It’s a little esoteric (well, a lot esoteric, actually) to write a post about a magazine that hasn’t been available for twenty years, but….