Gun Nuts

Remember those who cannot celebrate with us today. Not with sadness, but rather celebrate the lives they lived with joy.

Always a great time.

That right there is some of the best shooting of my life. 12 hits, 9 of which are 10s or x’s.

Cheap nylon holster? Check.Mag pouch on holster? Check. Classic OC dude, classic.

It has been a fairly busy week. I think I used up all the good juju in my gun shooting a main match PR of 1717 at Rockcastle. Here’s a quick breakdown of my three events so far:

Practical: 415/480. Pretty rough. I got very impatient with my sights here and didn’t wait for the best sight picture at 50, that cost me a ton of points.

Barricades: 416/480. Basically the same problem I had on the Practical. Got jumpy, pulled the trigger before the sights were where they should have been.

Plates: 360/480. I think this my worst score on the plates since my first year here. I was shooting them great in practice, constant 44-47. But in the match itself, pressure and nerves got to me for the second year in a row and I choked.

I’m going to shoot my last event, the Mover in a couple of minutes. The good news is that I’m as relaxed as I can be, because my match was over yesterday! That’s the game, and Bianchi is the toughest one out there.

Last year, I wrote a post called “Scam busting: InstantAccuracy.Org” where I offered my opinion on the claims made and product sold by the website, InstantAccuracy.Org. It was filed under “Editorial” as many of my posts are, because it contained my opinion on a product. On Tuesday, May 20th I was contact by Patrick Kilchermann from Instant Accuracy regarding the post, almost a year later. Here is the entirety of his email:

The OC movement in Texas says that they want to have open carry legalized in their state. Under the current law in Texas, open carry of a handgun is illegal, but OC of a rifle is legal. Hence, their OC movement carries long guns with the stated purpose of getting handgun OC legalized.

That’s where we part company. Instead of having “look at me look at me” attention grabbing events, I would have a lot more respect for the OC movement in Texas if they organized a massive civil disobedience event where they all open carried handguns in defiance of the law. That would be an impressive and powerful piece of activism. That’s why I laugh when OC people compare themselves to civil rights advocates from the 60s and 70s. Those people were actually breaking the law to make a point about the injustice of the laws of their time. What OC advocates are doing is obeying the letter of the law in an annoying fashion.

So, open carry Texas, it’s time to man up. You want to prove that you’re really advocating for OC in Texas? Try some actual civil disobediance. Get your big boy pants on, man up, and put together the most impressive handgun OC rally ever seen. It’s time to stop with the childish, attention grabbing, rifle carrying nonsense.

Last week I managed to snag a rare warm, sunny Friday off to go to the range with some friends…and when we arrived we found the range was a disaster area. We had barely gotten out of my buddy’s ancient Jeep when a couple of U.S. Forrest Service employees showed up to assess the damage to the place caused by cretinous jackasses of the lowest breeding and poorest intellect imaginable. This public range, you see, had been closed down at least once before due to wanton abuse by feckless nitwits who insist on tearing the place up.

There is no longer walk than the walk to the scorer’s shack when you know you’ve shot poorly.

For the purposes of my review (parts 1 & 2 linked here) CZ-usa was kind enough to put together the very first 712 Practical (since production had not yet officially begun) and ship it out to me. I am exceptionally grateful for this generosity, but CZ didn’t stop there. They gave me the freedom to modify the 712 Practical as I see fit, because they realize that is exactly what their product is designed to do. A 3 gun shotgun, or any gun used in competition for that matter, should be expected to receive at least a few modifications before it is all said and done. CZ is well aware that their 3 gun shotgun doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the high end models by other brands. They leave these modifications as opportunities for the end user to adjust as they see fit. I agree with CZ’s thinking here, because from what I have seen even the high-end 3 gun ready shotguns, do get some tweaking for the pros.

As I sit and write this, I’m currently attending the 2014 Bianchi Cup. For those not familiar, the Bianchi Cup is technically the American national championship for the shooting discipline of NRA Action Pistol. Every two years, NRA AP holds a world championship match. Previous matches have been held in Australia and Germany, and 2014 it was the USA’s turn. The venue selected was the famous Rockcastle Shooting Center in Kentucky, just a short drive north of Bowling Green.

Nationally-recognized competitors such as Dave Sevigny make great role models, and are a good reminder to us all that MEN SHOOT TOO!

In my post on Wednesday we covered the following parts of the CZ 712 Practical, (6) Loader, carrier button, (5) safety, (7) bolt release, (8) bolt handle, (10) mag tube extension and follower. Some, I felt, were excellent for an entry level shotgun such as this one, other features, I said, needed minimal tweaking to bring them to a level that would benefit the beginning 3 gunner. We’ll get to the DIY opportunities that the 712 Practical offers, but first, we must discuss a few major (and a couple minor) features of the gun.
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Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend, everyone.

While I’ve known Julianna Crowder for a while, my first real exposure to the A Girl & A Gun Women’s Shooting League was at their National Conference this past March down in Waco, Texas. It was a wonderful experience; the classes and instructors they had were all top notch, and I couldn’t believe how many women were there enjoying themselves and learning a lot along the way. 

I don’t really get attached to guns. Sure, the guns my dad has given me for presents, the 10,000 round Colt; I’m attached to those. But for the most part, I get about as emotional about guns as I get about baseball bats. Obviously, not all shooters feel the same way, and some feel quite strongly about guns. I imagine if I had a 25,000 Italian over/under shotgun I might be a bit more emotionally attached to that. But you know what I do get attached to? Cars.

The other day I was at a local gunstore with a friend and he asked me an interesting question: If somebody came to you with a very small budget for home defense or self defense and they had to buy what’s sitting on the store shelf right now, what would you set them up with? It’s a trickier question than it may seem on the surface. We need selections that are cheap, reliable, and effective. As the old joke goes, you can typically pick any two items from that list.

Walther: making compact DA/SA carry guns before it was cool.

There are so many different cartridges on the market, it’s not uncommon for new shooters to end up with decision paralysis when trying to figure out what their new defensive cartridge should be. There are lots of choices, from tiny mousegun calibers like the .25 ACP all the way up to ridiculous wildcat cartridges and boutique magnum rounds. But what’s the best? Here are our top 5 choices.