I’ve heard of some odd shotgun loads, but this one takes the cake: Season Shot
What is it, you ask? It looks like the idea is to mash bird seasonings tightly together and form that into pellets which will then be loaded into shotshells and used to take fowl. No shot to remove from the bird. Nothing but seasoning left in the field if a pellet misses.
Novel idea. I’ll give them that! I’m not so sure they can pull it off, but if they do I’ve got the perfect spokesperson for them:
A couple of my recent entries were on the Military Commissions Act (MCA). They can be found here:
Habeas Corpus
Habeas Corpus II
I think I did a pretty poor job of explaining how I feel about them. Let’s try to keep this short and simple:
Selfishly I was simply relieved that the Federal government managed to do something that didn’t entirely shit on our rights in the name of the War on Terror.
Well, it looks like Gunner has reminded me that the powers that be aren’t afraid to do that:
In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President’s ability to deploy troops within the United States.…
Public Law 109-364, or the “John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007″ (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a “public emergency” and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to “suppress public disorder.”
President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006.
I took a quick trip to an open house viewing this afternoon with the girlfriend. It was a listing that didn’t leave either of us very impressed but figured it was worth a look.
The first thing we noticed upon pulling up was that the front porch (cement pour) was tilted a good 5%. Wasn’t sure why that was the case.
Upon entering we both noticed that the plaster walls in the front rooms were cracked. I already knew what was happening: The whole freaking house was falling over. I know this because the house I grew up in was in the same condition at one time. There had to have been a major support beam under it rotting out. Further evidence of this trend was found throughout the house and I could tell every floor was slanted that way.
The half bath was connected to a room that could only be used for a bedroom or office. Not exactly a great situation.
The full bath was in a 2nd floor room on the old house and in room on the perimeter which meant the celing was slanted on one side. Heavily. Heavily enough that there’s no way even my 5’9″ self could stand at one end of the bathtub/shower.
The realtor did mention that there was another full shower in the basement… but the basement ends up with water in it every time it rains. So, the basement is useless for anything. I couldn’t even store the gun collection down there.
I think I’m gonna pass on this one.
I hit the Gun Show in Grand Rapids, MI this weekend. It’s the first one I’ve gone to in I think 6 months. Generally speaking the show doesn’t change much from event to event. You’ll find the same guys selling the same junk that never moves, like the guys trying to sell 15 round Glock 19 magazines for $100 instead of the proper $25 or a used .223 Saiga for $800 that you can pick up for $300-$320 brand spanking new.
Still, there are some dealers there with a good sense of business. Products people want at reasonable prices.
One of them was Randy’s Hunting Center. I’ve purchased from them in the past at said show. In fact my very first gun was purchased from them. They had on their table something I had been interested in for a while:
Marlin 1994C but lacking the white dot at the top of the front sight post. This makes it a little bit easy to lose the front sight in my opinion. Some white nail polish might fix this up.
Once mounted it does swing about nicely. I’ll give it that. With the short receiver and 24″ barrel it feels a bit like a light O/U shotgun more than anything else.
As far as the trigger does there’s no slop to it. Feels about like a stock NEF rifle to me.
There’s no manual safety on it, which doesn’t bother me one bit, and lowering the hammer down to half cock feels as comfortable and natural as can be. Even my tiny girl sized mitts can easily reach all the necessary bits.
All that said, the thing to keep in mind here is that this gun was meant for one market only: The Cowboy Action Shooting circuit. Sure, I can think of other things that it would be suitable for, but that was really the reason it was put into production.
The only other reason somebody would buy one is just to have fun with it as a plinker. That’s what baffles me about the choice of releasing .45 Long Colt before the .38/.357 version. While I don’t know what caliber is most popular in CAS I do know that, unless you’re a reloader, dropping money on a plinker in 38/.357 is a lot easier to do than something in .45LC. However, I’m sure they had their reasons. It just was’t a choice that made it easy for me, personally, to plunk down the cash for one.
I mentioned in a recent post that I was wrong for not listening to former guest blogger MetallicSurfer about housing prices coming down when I first started looking about 9 months ago. I figured he might be right, but didn’t really take it to heart. Procrastination seems to have paid off this time.
Personal anecdotal evidence gained recently has shown that he was indeed correct not only about housing prices but also in ammunition prices.
Well, today via the Druge Report I see this: US house price fall steepest since 1970.
He wasnt right — he was DAMNED right!
With that said, based on other information and ideas I gained from MetallicSurfer some time ago I would like to make this suggestion: If you have a large amount of money stashed away in US Dollars get it into something else. Preferably someting that you can actually touch. Gold and silver aren’t a bad idea.
You’ll see reports that the price of gold and silver are going up but they’re not. You’ll also see indicators showing that the Euro and even the Canadian dollar are going up in value but they’re not: The US dollar is going down. It’s the very same reason the ammunition and oil/gas prices appear to be going up. The US dollar is losing value on the world market.
If buying up gold and silver sound like extreme measure then I’d consider buying Euros. Why not? It’s liquid — and it’s going up when compared to the US dollar.
As a follow-up to the last post let’s take a look at the ACLU’s take on the MCA. Abject_Disappointment suggested I do so, and it was worthwhile. Here’s their list of items that should have been added to the MCA:
I can’t argue with adding in those protections.
A frequent blog reader hit me with a message the other day about the Military Commissions Act (MCA). Having only taken a cursory look at the matter I had simply filed it away as something that’s probably not such a good thing but it didn’t get my knickers in a twist.
Depending on who you listen to the MCA is either the greatest terrorism fighting tool since smokeless powder, or, an abomination that will remove the right of habeas corpus from anybody the US accuses of terrorism. Sure sounds like something I’d have a strong opinion on, but I didn’t at the time.
Apathy? Sort of. I’ll explain.
The argument against the MCA is that the US government can simply declare somebody an enemy combatant under it and then put them through a military tribunal instead of the criminal courts of the US that provide protection of their civil liberties — the biggest difference being the ability to see all the evidence against you I gather.
That’s where the apathy sets in — we’ve already done that. That’s the reason the MCA went to Congress. The Executive branch needed the Legislative branch to sign off on it. The Judicial branch spelled it out recently in the Hamden case. That’s why the MCA went to Congress. Hence, I’m not too worried about Congress rubber stamping something that the Executive branch has already engaged in. However, I wasn’t happy about it, and that was taking a very pessimistic view of of the legislation that I hadn’t even read yet.
Today I found that Kim du Toit took a look at the MCA and, correctly I believe, demonstrates that the MCA only applies to non-US citizens. This seems acceptable to me. If that sounds counter to my general thinking on matters of civil liberties I’d encourage you to read Kim’s analysis. If his analysis is correct there are plenty of checks and balances with this system.
Further it seems as though Congress, properly, reigned in the Executive branch in this matter by restricting the MCA to non-US citizens. If so, then this shows that our system of government is actually working to protect the civil rights of US citizens.
So, I don’t really see this as a huge blow to freedom in America. Could it be bad? I suppose. However, I think I’ll wait to see these powers abused before before I jump on that bandwagon.
Heh.
Gunner got his brother hooked on his MAK90 and then brought him to a gun show to buy a MAADI AK-47 clone.
Nice!
I did a little more digging on this pistol after seeing one for $310 the other day.
It seems I didn’t find a lemon. The trigger really sucks that badly out of the box. It’s a very long pull with a really heavy breaking point.
The good news is CZ fans have got a few tricks to smooth the thing out. Sounds like you can get the pull down to what a good DA revolver would be, which is exactly where it should be.
I was also reminded that there’s a CZ 110 out there which would fit my bill much better. Instead of a DAO pistols it’s DA/SA and more on par with what you’d expect from a CZ trigger. Unfortunately because it has an SA mode it doesn’t qualify under the asinine BATFE import regulations.
I might end up giving this one a shot. Seems like a very simple piece to try my first at-home trigger job on.
I had a coworker ask me to recommend a good first handgun in the $300-$400 range this week so I went out touring the local shops with him Saturday looking for some deals.
It was fun, and I think we found some good stuff out there.
The first stop was Gander Mountain. They were running a sale in the firearms department this weekend that I wanted to check out anyway. We hit the used handgun section first and I found a couple of S&W .357′s there between $315 and $350. For $315 they had a 686 with some scope mounts already placed on it. Not a bad idea at all for a first handgun but the buyer was pretty set on an auto-loader
Not a problem.
We took a gander at the new auto-loaders and they had a Bersa Thunder in 9mm for, I want to say, $320 or so. This certainly wouldn’t be a bad choice. The DA pull on them is very smooth. Long, but smooth and consistent. The SA pull on it wasn’t half bad either. They certainly have a very solid feel to them, and they’re a damned good deal for what you’re getting.
We also took a look at the Kel-Tec P11 sitting next to it. This was mostly to satisfy my own curiosity. The Kel-Tec was running, I think, for $280. Not a bad price at all. The trigger on the Kel-Tec was just like my P-3AT — a little sloppy but it works. A workable weapon, but not quite as nice in the hands as the Bersa. Probably a better CCW piece, however.
After Gander Mountain we moved onto MC Sporting Goods. In all honesty I didn’t even known if they sold handguns. Turns out, they do! It’s not a great selection, but they do seem to cater to the low budget handgun buyer. This was very nice.
First up, based on my recomendations, was the 4″ Springfield XD in 9mm. MC Sports, at least the one we went to (3160 28th Street, S.E., Grand Rapids) is running an inventory reduction sale on their pistols. The 9mm XD was going for $380 — a full $110 less than another shop in town selling them.
Awesome! This is absolutely, without a doubt, the pistol I would recommend given the budget constraints in this area. It’d probably still get the nod if the budget was set at $500.
While there we also took a look at the Ruger P-series and the Smith & Wesson SVE (no link, website seems down). Like the Bersa they’re both DA/SA pistols but the Bersa had a better “feel” to it.
To satisfy my own curiosity I took a look at z CZ 100 B that they had on display. The asking price was only $310 which was very attractive for me. Unfortunately I’m not at all impressed with the DAO trigger on them. The pull was clean but it broke like a pencil, not a glass rod. You pull, and pull, and pull, then it required some Hurculean effort to finally get the striker to fire it seems. I was really disappointed in it. I’m forced to wonder how much different this trigger is compared to other CZ triggers. I really hope a good ‘smith could fix it up and make it break much cleaner. The pistol felt pretty solid in the hands. Light, but solid. If I’m not mistaken George Hill is going to be doing a write-up on the CZ 100 for Concealed Carry Magazine pretty soon here, and I’d like to see what his impressions were on it. Maybe I just got my hands on a real lemon. We’ll see.
From there we went to Al & Bob’s but they were closing in 5 minutes so we didn’t look much. Since there wasn’t anything much in the used section that appealed to me I figure we weren’t missing much. They’re pretty hit-and-miss when it comes to handguns. I’ve seen, and gotten, some good deals there, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled until an actual purchase is made.
Next was Silver Bullet Firearms. Probably the best place in Grand Rapids to go looking for a handgun. A used SW99 for $350 caught my eye so I asked the prospective buyer to check it out. He liked it, as did I. The guys at the store also thought highly of the pistol. Definately a solid piece and the trigger on it isn’t too bad. A little sloppy, but I’ve seen a lot worse.
In the end it looks like the guy is going to go for the Springfield XD. In fact, I’m considering humping myself down to MC sports to grab the .40S&W version of the 4″ XD myself which they have on sale for a lowly $420 right now.
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