Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.
And in other hysteria-related news, KelTec just announced a $300 increase in the price of their KSG shotgun. Their rationale is that since it is specifically named in Feinsteins ban bill, they need to recover the development costs before theyre forbidden from making any more of them.
It’s an interesting gun, but its no Remington 1740 (thats 870 x 2).
ETA: So much for only semi-automatics being targetted, eh?
Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.
While this is, of course, no laughing matter I cannot help but giggle at the thought of two criminals stumbling all over themselves to GTFO when Junior opens up with dad’s AR. I would love to hear about how many hits were scored and where they were located. And dad should take Junior over to Bass Pro and buy him his own AR tout suite. Junior has already proven he’s plenty responsible.
Instant justice, man…sometimes it sounds really, really loud.
Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.
I learned a new word today – gunfaced. It’s a verb to descrive the action of shoving a gun in someones face to get them to stop what they’re doing. A fella was talking to me today and telling me about a almost home-invasion that occurred at his house. He says when he opened the door there was a guy standing there who looked like some sort of ‘Alabama meth head’ and that the guy started yelling and screaming at him. As this happened, the fella noticed this guys buddy creeping up along the side of the house. The storyteller then said “so I gunfaced him and told him to get off my porch…he fell all over himself getting out of there.”
“Gunfaced”. I like it.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
There’s been some discussion in comments a few posts back about ATFE Form 4473 and how it will lead to dastardly things happening.
I’ve been selling guns for a number of years, let me tell you how it works here in Montana. You buy a gun from me and fill out the ‘yellow sheet’. If you have a carry permit, I dont have to call for the NCIC background check…you fill out the form, collect your thundertoy and go. If I call the NCIC background weasels, they do get your personal info but they dont get to know what you purchased…(oh, they know “handgun, long gun or other” but thats it…they’ll know the call is about you trying to buy a pistol…they won’t know its make, model, serial, caliber, etc.)
So, you fill out the yellow sheet, collect your gun and head home. What happens to that yellow sheet? Well, here in Montana there is no state requirement to do anything like fax it to the state police or something, like in other states. So, all I do is what the feds require. Here’s what that is – the yellow sheet goes into a filing cabinet and after twenty years it goes into the shredder. (They may have changed that last part.)
So how does .gov track you, then? Well, they’d have to send someone to the shop and have them demand to go through all the sheets looking for the one with your name. Other than that, they dont get that info…the notion that a week after you buy a gun from an FFL (in Montana, anyway) your name is in a federal database somewhere with a serial number and all is kinda silly. Unless the feds are psychic and have mastered ‘remote viewing’ a’la Art Bell, there’s no way for them to know until they come and pick up those sheets.
So how do guns get traced? Well, let’s say little Leroy blows away a 7-11 clerk in Los Angeles and for some reason ATF decides it’s worth following up on. They call Remington and ask who they shipped that 870 to. Remington says it went to Jovino’s in 2005. They call Jovino’s and ask who they sold it to. Jovino’s calls them a few days later and says that after checking their books, they find they sold it so Joe Blow in ’06. They contact Joe Blow and Joe says he sold that shotgun probably around ’08 at a moving sale when he moved to Iowa. Some guy came up and offered $150..he had a receipt but he lost it in another move recently. At that point, the trail ends. Unless….in ’09 the guy who bought the 870 pawns it and never redeems it. The pawn shop logs it in and know its back ‘in the system’ in the sense that the next person to buy it has to fill out a yellow sheet. But tracing the gun from Remington will dead-end at the point where the new owner didn’t do any paperwork…that on-the-lawn moving sale.
Or…….They call Remington and ask who they shipped that 870 to. Remington says it went to Jovino’s in 1978. They call Jovino’s and ask who they sold it to. Jovino’s calls them a few days later and says that after checking their books, they find they sold it so Joe Blow in ’79 but tossed all the yellow sheets in ’99 when they hit the 20-year-mark. They have a name, “Joe Blow”, copied from their in/out log, but no yellow sheet..no address, no DOB, no POB, no nothin’. Sorry.
Or…ATFE checks their records from gun shops that were closed and finds the last known person who bought it, and he says he sold that shotgun probably around ’08 at a moving sale when he moved to Iowa. Some guy came up and offered $150..he had a receipt but he lost it in another move recent.y. At that point, the trail ends.
So let’s review….the only way your purchase, on a 4473, gets into the ATFE’s hands is if the gun shop you purchased it from has gone out of business OR they are tracing a particular firearm and that firearm never changed hands without going through a dealer. The notion that they just do a couple keystrokes and find you bought a 10/22 last week is a bit far-fetched.
Now, some states do require the gundealer to send the records into a state agency and the state agency may have a database. Thats up to the state. In a place like Montana, and many other states, there is no state registration. What about ATFE just coming into a shop, grabbing all the 4473′s and going door-to-door? I suppose they could but the idea that they have the manpower for such an activity is absurd. Oh, they might try to recruit local law agencies but I bet that wouldn’t go very far. And, honestly, if they ask where that AR is you bought in ’04 and you say you sold it at a yard sale to some college kid..well, that’s legal (in this state) so..sorry, can’t help ya, guys.
Does that mean there’s no advantage to buying unpapered guns? Well, I prefer unpapered guns but I can’t really put my finger on why. Intellectually, I know that the guns I do the yellow sheets on for myself aren’t going in a database somewhere…but I still like to get those free-range guns when I can.
Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.
There seems to be some disagreement on precisely what an EO could or could not do vis-a-vis firearms regulation. Something to think about: even if a law is found to be unconstitutional or illegal, until it is proved to be that (or a process is started to determine that…usually with an order to suspend enforcement pending further court drama), it is treated as legitimate. So, if an EO came through saying something bad, even if it were illegal and unconstitutional, it would still be the valid until the court challenges start.
“The president is going to act,” said Biden, giving some comments to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence. “There are executives orders, there’s executive action that can be taken. We haven’t decided what that is yet. But we’re compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required.”
Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.
I only use steel cased ammo in guns designed for them (‘Commie’ guns). I’ll run steel cases out of AK’s, Mosins, Makarovs, etc. since those Commie guns were pretty much designed around them. I try to avoid shooting steel cased ammo out of my non-Commie guns (AR, Glock, P35, 1991, etc) since, usually, those guns are more valuable than the Commie guns and I think it’s asking for trouble to fire steel cased ammo out of it.
I never shoot steel-cased out of my AR’s. First, the notion of steel cases bouncing around in an aluminum receiver gives me visions of horrible gouges and scratches. Additionally, I just dont think there’s enough definitive data to show whether firing stee-cased ammo out of AR’s increases malfs and extractor wear.
Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.
So…what kind of world is it when you want to flee a Socialist leader and his economic policies, you expat yourself, and the country that takes you in because it is a bastion of freedom from such Socialists is……Russia? I didn’t know they had a 13% flat tax. How amazingly…..progressive. Come up with better gun laws, less birthmarks on their women, and I might have to move.
In further examples of WTF-ery, we have these classified ads from yesterdays local paper:
The SKS has not been built that is worth $1300. And I don’t care how much cocaine and hookers it comes with, no Ruger AR is with $4300. And $2500 for an M&P that was dealering at around $600 a few months ago? Insane. And, please, lets not get started on the “Real US Army sniper rifle”. I will confess to being interested in the Ruger MKII, though…although I’de rather get it for $250.
And just to show that maybe things arent as hopeless as they seem, Here’s a shot from the post office today:
No more free Priority Mail tape for me to wrap my packages. Bummer. Hmmm…whats this scrawled at the bottom?
Well, someone has a sense of humour. Regrettably, it wasn’t me showing that sort of initiative.
Indeed, it’s an interesting world we’re in right now. Thats ‘interesting’ in the Chinese sense.
Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.
Well, even with the cold, any day you get to go shooting is a good one. The fun aspect of this range trip was watching my buddy finally get to shoot his para-FAL that he got several months back and for met to get to try my dream gun – the SIG 716. For a while I have been thinking that the ideal rifle would have a FAL-style gas system and AR ergonomics. The SIG 716 appears to be pretty much exactly what I wanted. This was a wonderful gun to shoot and was even better with the awesome BattleComp muzzle device on it. The rifle was a joy to shoot and I really, really want one. They ain’t cheap, but if you were dropping me into some place with short- and long-range shots mixed in…like, oh, Afghanistan…I would think this gun would be just the ticket. (If ammo logistics supported it and you didnt mind humping around the heavier ammo.) One other interesting mod was the addition of this Umbrella Corporation Grip…yeah, you read that right. The angle and design of the grip ‘forces’ you to maintain a tucked-in shooting style so youre not chicken-winging your strong arm out there. It was very comfortable to shoot and I liked it quite a bit.
My buddy’s FAL was, of course, great to shoot. The slender side folder stock was just the ticket for the thick bulky coat I was wearing. The FAL is my favorite .308 MBR but that SIG 716 might be just the ticket….the only thing that really sours me is the price (although it’s silly to argue about the price if the gun is exactly what I want) and the rather limited magazine availability. Magpul makes mags for it but if they stopped…who knows where your next mag is coming from. I don’t worry about that with the FAL, since dozens of countries made/make mags for it….and I don’t worry about it for the HK since the mags were cheap enough for me to get several hundred.
I, of course, had to bring my .308 along so I swapped out the furniture on it to the winter white version and brought it along. A delayed-blowback…violent and brutal but always reliable..its a love/hate thing. I wish those guys at BattleComp made a brake for the HK91 but they dont. I thought maybe they could sell me one of their AR-10 devices before it had been threaded and they shot me down on that too. Grrrr.
All in all, a great day of shooting very cool guns. Makes standing around in 20-degree weather almost bearable.
Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.
A few days ago I ordered this little jewel.
200 lumens may have been a bit much. (Said in the same tone as “Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?”) But, nothing kills like overkill, right? I’d been wanting a tactical light for one of my 870′s for a while but just couldn’t get myself to pull the trigger (see what I did there?) on getting one.
Brightness? Holy Crom..imagine painting the interior of the sun white, filling it full of magnesium and setting it off just as the sun goes supernova *and* the universe suddenly hit’s the exact moment the expand/contract cycle switches. It’s 10x that bright. I think I could strip the paint off the side of house with it.
I paid a few extra bucks and got the model with the constant/temporary/lockout switches. While it’s nice being able to light up your target, there are times when having the light on your shotgun light up might be a terminally Bad Thing…so, a lockout switch.
And I learned something very interesting. You don’t need to buy a forend wrench for the 870..(although the SureFire light came with one)…the 870 has one built in . The slide assembly, apparently, can double as a forend wrench. Now, I would only use that as a last resort since if you have a tight forend you might bugger up the slide assembly and then you’d be up the creek. So, get a tool. BUT…in a crisis, you can use the slide assembly.
I’m sure the Matt Foley* survivalists would say that this is just more expensive yuppie gun toys and that anyone on a “working man’s” wages could just duct tape a $4.00 made-in-China flashlight to the side of the barrel on their $125 Mosin Nagant and achieve the same effect and have plenty of money left over for more 7.62x54R ammo. Who needs a ‘fancy’ light on their gun, anyway?
Uhm..I do. It’s dark 50% of the time and when I have to go snooping around in it I don’t want to have to rely on a Stalin-era fencepost with a ChinaMart flashlight taped to it. Since I can afford to get a purpose-built piece of quality gear, why wouldn’t I?
* = The guys who think all you need to survive the apocalypse is to live in a van (or travel trailer) down by the river.
Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.
I have a small quantity of the masks mentioned in the previous post to sell. Email me for details. zero@commanderzero.com
Well that didnt take long. Watch this space if more become available. (I’ll also mention it in a post somewhere if/when they become available again.)
Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.
I get the most interesting stuff in the mail. Todays trip to the post office landed me this:
Normally an unsolicited package like this makes me think I should a) cut the blue wire! and b) wonder if there’s a buncha guys with earpieces and badges standing in the parking lot waiting to see who walks out the door with the obvious-looking package. But..I had a bit of a heads-up about this and although I was not informed of the contents, I was told to expect it. Yes, I am amassing a fabulous collection of Hardigg products. My house is starting to look like their showroom. But, as cool as the box is (and it was pretty cool..what with “PROPERTY US GOVERNMENT” stamped on it and all) I’m deadly curious to see whats inside. Lets undo the annyoing wire twisted through the locks and see what we have:
Ahh, yummy. SEA-brand first-responder emergency masks, filters, pre-filters, and voiceboxes. Just the thing for when the SWAT team thinks a couple tear-gas rounds will send you running out the door crying. Actually, as an aside, the masks used by our local department are surplus US military masks from the 80′s and 90′s..even a few of the old Porky Pig style. Tragic, but heartwarming to know I’m outgearing the SWAT team on this one. Well, this one and several other levels…but I digress……..
Where’d these come from? My brother picked up a couple gaylords of these things and apparently has some left. (Yes, I used the words ‘fabulous’ and ‘gaylord’ together in one post. Big deal.) The story behind these masks is kind of interesting and while I can’t say how true it is, I can tell you what I heard.
DHS sent the various NYC agencies a couple zillion of these things. They came in a hard plastic case with mask, prefilter, voicebox and a filter that was vacuum-sealed in foil. The powers that be figured everyone would carry one of these in their rig and in an emergency they’d take the filter out of its vacuum-sealed pouch, thread it onto the mask, put on the mask and go fight evil. The unions said “Uhm…that would take about thirty seconds to unwrap the filter and put it on the the mask. We want the filter to be on the mask at all times.” Problem was, once the filter was out of its vacuum-sealed foil pouch, it was rated for only a few months and then would need to be replaced. Kept in the foil pouch, it was good for years. NYC was faced with having to replace zillions of filters every year if they did it that way. So…no one got any of them and they were surplussed out.
These things were issued during a time when there was no real uniform standard on mask/filters for these sorts of things. You know how body armour basically uses the NIJ criteria for it’s metrics? Well, there was not such thing for masks/filters at the time. They made one up after the fact and these things didn’t quite meet the new standard…but thats okay because even then they still do exactly what you and I would want…”Used against particles, dust, smoke, fume, bacteria, viruses, biological warfare agents, and a wide range of organic, inorganic and acid gases and ammonia. Examples: Sarin, nerve gas, mustard gas, cyanogen, phosgene, radioactive dust, toxic particles, aerosols, tear gas, bacteria, viruses, anthrax, smallpox etc. — Also provides protection against industrial gases such as ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, acid gases, chlorine, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and many more.”
I had a few of these socked away because, well, what kinda survivalist doesn’t have creepy-scary stuff like this? Now, is something like this really necessary? Good grief, I hope not. I hope that I never need something like this. But…it’s an interesting world we’re living in (and descending into). Besides, while Montana doesn’t exactly have much of a history of being a favored target of terrorists, (With one notable exception.) we do travel to larger metropolitan centers every so often.
Anyway, a cool package in the mail, another Hardigg case for the collection, and fodder for a blog post….seems like a good day so far. (Knock on wood.)
ETA: Some folks were wanting to know if I had plans to sell any of these. I wasn’t planning to but let me check and see if maybe there are more to be had. Gimme a couple days.
