Archive for January, 2010

SHOT Show Summary

January 24th, 2010

TD has a nice little round-up that I’m going to use for the basis of this post.

I agree with the universal consensus re: pricing for the Masada/ACR/whatever-they-finally-call-it. I’m also sure they’ll sell every copy they can make, with early adopters paying a premium over MSRP. Then, in a year or two, Bushmaster will roll out a revised Gen 2 version, correcting the real-or-perceived faults of Gen 1, and all the fanboys will again (1) bitch up a storm but still (2) line up to buy it.

Agreed. I’m also suspecting a slight up-tick in traffic to RobArm’s XCR page since it does the same thing and costs a full $1000 less than the plain version from Bushmaster.

The inexplicable success of the Taurus Judge still depresses the hell out of me. Taurus keeps cranking out new versions, each more grotesque, hideous and nonsensical than the last, and people KEEP BUYING THE GODDAMN THINGS.

Again, agreed. I believe he’s referring to the polymer framed Judge that they just announced. The thing is never going to be a really lightweight revolver so I don’t understand the polymer frame. Further, who wants a lightweight revolver in.45 Colt? Then again, this is the same company that produces a snubby 2.5″ revolver in .454 Cassul.

Speaking of 1911s, Dan Wesson is producing some very impressive-looking guns, albeit with equally impressive price tags. If I were in the market for a $1500 1911, I’d look very hard at their offerings.

This one depresses me a bit. When they were kicking out $1000 1911′s they were pretty much alone in the marketplace in terms of quality per dollar spent. Now they’re just another “me too” $1500 1911 maker.

The other Wesson has one new J-frame without the key lock, a nifty little 640 with tritium sights. They also seem to be going out of their way to only show the RIGHT side of their revolvers. They just might be getting the hint, verrrrry slowly…

Indeed. More no-lock guns, please, S&W. I was a bit irked to see that my 442 came with a lock when I believe the first batch of them didn’t have the lock. I thought they were seeing the light but maybe not.

The other thing S&W announced that has me, and Jay G, tickled is their new Bodyguard line. A pocket .380 and pocket polymer .38SPL with an integrated laser. If they can get that revolver into shops with a $500 price tag I might seriously consider one.

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Posted in Guns

Mortgage Madness

January 20th, 2010

Sorry, no gun blogging lately. News from SHOT Show is pretty much the big thing this week and everybody else is covering it just fine.

So, instead I’ll whine for a bit about my mortgage company.

I recently switched from a local bank to a local credit union for a number of reasons. With that change I moved pretty much all of my major monthly bills over to their auto-pay system since it works much better than my old local bank’s did.

So, I was a bit surprised to see that I had a late fee with my mortgage company this month. I check my bank’s record and sure enough, the amount of the monthly bill (plus some extra) was transfered to them. Log in to the mortgage company’s system and yes indeed, that money got there a full 3 days before it was due.

And they applied all of it, every last dollar, to a payment toward the principal. Nothing toward interest or escrow and 15 days after it was due they dinged me with a late fee for not making my payment.

I am not a happy camper. I’ll probably refinance it with my local credit union just to avoid this nonsense in the future.

5 comments »

Posted in Personal Life

Newborn Advice

January 13th, 2010

If you’re an expecting parent there’s a whole wealth of information out there for you. My wife and I read a considerable amount of it before our child was born and even took a class offered up by our hospital on the matter. However my wife did find an issue that was never mentioned in any of those that I’d like to pass on to possible parents.

Buy a watch. A cheap digital watch with a nice big “light” button on it that you can hit easily.

I have watches and so does my wife, but they’re all “nice” ones. Analog deals that are suitable to wear in a business environment. They’re great for telling time for the most part but not so good when it’s 3am and you’re trying to read it in the dark without your glasses on trying to figure out if the baby is due for another feeding.

Also, when trying to time your wife’s contractions before you head to the hospital it’ll be valuable. Cheap digital watches have stopwatch functions on them. That $200 Smith & Wesson deal with tritium inserts in it that I own? Not so much. Here the $13 watch from Wal-Mart beats the good watch. I wish I’d have bought one a couple of weeks ago.

So, there. My first bit of parenting advise.

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Posted in Parenting

I’m a dad.

January 8th, 2010

Eleanor Ewing Buist was born at 7:45am Jan. 8, 2010 at 7lbs 13oz and measuring 20 inches long after 57 hours labor. Yes, my wife is a champ.

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Posted in Personal Life