Well, I just have to say something about these guys, don’t I?

First, I’m not real keen on folks calling these guys a militia. A more appropriate term would be a survivalist group. Militias are there for the common good, or at least should be. Survivalist groups are just out for themselves which I don’t have a problem with in itself.

But these guys? Whoa boy. I never heard of them until the other day. So it was really entertaining for me to listen to what an actual commander in the Michigan Militia has been saying about the group on a forum I’m on.

The Michigan Militia has made it policy “for years” to have nothing to do with these guys. If you’re in the MM you do not play with the Hutaree guys at all. Crazier than Jim Jones, says my source.

Dude, when you get told by the Michigan Militia that you’re too militant it might be time to reevaluate your stance oh, well, just about everything. It’s not that I think the guys currently running the Michigan Militia are bonkers, but they’re out there on the fringe.

I know what you’re thinking, “Oh sure, they say that NOW!” but think about it: The Hutaree are anti-Muslim. Who did they call when the raids started for safe harbor? A local Michigan Militia group that was led by a Muslim who, naturally, declined. I think that’s a pretty good indicator these Hutaree guys had no idea who was even running the local chapter there. It’s probably something they would have known to be a bad idea if they were palling around in the woods with the actual Michigan Militia on weekends.

Some folks, like Jay G. are comparing this to Waco and Ruby Ridge. I think that’s a bit uncalled for but I’ll grant him and others thinking like this a bit of lenience. About four minutes after I learned of the story I had an actual known commander in the Michigan Militia posting stuff saying that he’s known these guys were nutters for years and the latest news didn’t surprise him at all. That was the knockout punch to my skepticism.

But, that aside, there’s some really big differences here between Waco and Ruby Ridge.

For starters they actually took the suspects into custody. They’ll get a trial, all that fun stuff, and we’ll learn the real truth. Go-Go Gadget Justice System.

Ruby Ridge played out much different. Cliff Notes: Randy Weaver goes to an Aryan Nations gathering in 1986, never goes back from what I gather, but they had an ATF agent there because they see some link between white supremacists and gun owners. The agent befriends Randy and in 1989 asks him to cut down some shotgun barrels for him. Randy asks how short, agent points to a spot on the barrel, Randy does his work and hands them back over. They’re 1/8″ shorter than legal. they want him to infiltrate the Aryan Nations, he declines, they summons him to court with the wrong date on the mail sent to his house, and he fails to appear. That results in armed FBI agents coming into the remote home’s area, shooting the family dog, and upon hearing gun shots his son and a friend run out, armed, and exchange fire. Son gets shot, wife gets shot holding a baby in her arms, etc. Bad stuff.

Yeah, not seeing much parallel to that one.

Waco: ATF rolls up armed to the teeth to a compound that can see shit coming for miles and a standoff ensues. ATF later crashes a Bradley into the building, fires flammable CS rounds into the place, it catches on fire, and they burned a bunch of women and children to death along with the men.

(FYI: The local sheriff suggested they arrest Koresh on one of his many trips to Wal-Mart. Should have listened to the local guy, as usual.)

Not seeing much parallel to that one either.

Thankfully they managed to arrest these guys without incident. I think some kudos are in order for the FBI and ATF here for not killing innocent women and children during the events. Usually that’d be a career ending move but not with them. Folks like Lon Horiuchi got to keep his job as a sniper after drilling Vicky Weaver in the head as she held an infant in her arms and later got to participate in Waco. If they hadn’t kept him on the payroll who would tell the new hires not to shoot unarmed people in the head? That’s the kind of knowledge one can only gain from real world experience, apparently. Obviously keeping him around has paid off.

Makes you wonder if the FBI has a chalkboard in the office: “It has be ___ days since we shot an innocent woman or child in the head.”

I don’t think we should trivialize the absolute clusterfucks that were Ruby Ridge and Waco in comparing this picture perfect arrest to them. Women and children were killed in those events and everybody from Federal law enforcement just skated on all charges.

Maybe during the trial we’ll find some parallels but right now I’m not seeing them.

Footnote:

HS Precision is a maker of high quality stocks tailored for accurate rifles. They printed an endorsement written by Lon Horiuchi, the guy that shot Vicky Weaver in the head, in a catalog a couple of years ago. They’ve never properly apologized for that. And they get rather irritated with you mention it. Just making sure that stays up there in the Google searches.

Plopped open my copy of American Rifleman for this month and found out Alliant has come out with a new shotshell powder they’re calling “Extra Lite.” Nothing on their website about it yet so I had to do some reading on shotgun forums where Alliant has a rep dishing out info.

It’s less dense than Red Dot so it’ll take up more room in the hull and is designed to be used in 7/8oz and 1oz loads. This page reprints a press release from Alliant, which is the first result when searching Google for “alliant extra lite”, that says it’s for shooters transitioning from 1 1/8oz loads to 1 7/8oz loads. That’s incorrect. I’m guessing the editor of the press release saw “1 and 7/8 ounce loads” and buggered it up. Easy mistake.

It’s also supposed to be cheaper than Red Dot too. That gets me excited!

The problem with Red Dot in light loads is that it operates at a lower pressure which can cause burn problems in cold temperatures. I got to see this first hand this winter when shooting some sporting clays with my 1oz loads. Not on all shots, just a couple in a 50 round course, but the report was significantly quieter on a couple of them. I didn’t understand why at the time but I do now.

Alliant says they just got DOT approval to ship the stuff and we should be seeing it in stores around mid April. I’ll probably pick up a pound of the stuff to play with it and figure out how it meters in my loader in a couple of months. I’ve still got 4-5lbs of Red Dot in my keg though so I’ll probably try and burn through that during the warmer months, switch to Extra Lite when winter hits, and if everything goes well with it just grab an 8lb keg whenever it’s time to restock and maybe a 1lb jug of Red Dot for times when I actually think I need to load up some 1 1/8oz loads.

Did I mention that I’m excited? I am. Also, I just realized I’m a huge dork because I’m this excited about a new powder hitting the market.

Vanderboegh said he once worked as a warehouse manager but now lives on government disability checks. He said he receives $1,300 a month…

Yes, it’s who you’re thinking of.

I purchased this particular HOMAK pistol safe from Amazon a few months ago. I held off on giving a review until now because the thing actually buggered up on me. Everybody loves a product until it fails them.

The good:

It’s relatively inexpensive when you compare it to a GunVault box and you can, in fact, put a few pistols in there. I can fit a Commander sized 1911, Glock 23, and S&W 442 in there while still in their holsters.

The bad:

The door is a bit small to actually get something, even as small as a Glock 23, in there with ease. The J-frame 442 fits in just fine though. It’s a bit annoying, and it means your gun is going to get a few marks from time to time as you stuff it in there and pull it back out, but it does work. Good luck trying to pull a pistol out of there during a home invasion. I don’t consider the design up to that task. The larger models might be.

The really bad:

Damned thing lost my programmed combination the other day. I came home, punched in the code, it failed, did it twice more and it locked me out for 15 minutes. I figured I just fat-fingered the combo three times in a row. Nope. It just LOST my code. After reading a few customer reviews it seems this is a common problem. So, I had to dig up the original factory code to unlock it. Thankfully they print it right in the manual and since I was still evaluating the product kept the manual right next to the safe. Also, kudos are in order for their customer support. Within a couple of hours of my initial “WTF, it broke” submission I had a rep respond via email and explain that the factory code would work and if I had lost it I could call a toll free number and they’d be able to figure it out for me. That’s cool.

The Summary:

Back in 2001 when I got into shooting my mentor said he used a pistol safes for his HD gun. After the kids went to bed he’d punch in the combo to unlock it. That seems like good advice, especially with something like the HOMAK that might just lose your preferred combo all of the sudden.

The HOMAK box is fairly robust but it is absolutely not a theft deterrent system. Hardly anything is, really. For me it’s just a way to lock a pistol up so that a child can’t get at it which is something I need to be mindful of these days.

I’ll probably buy another HOMAK soon simply because they’re less expensive than the Gunvault products. If I get locked out of a particular safe until I can find the original code for the day that’s acceptable to me as I have multiple firearms to chose from. However, if I was the type of person that only had one pistol around, and that was their sole HD gun, I’d probably opt for the Gunvault.

The Taurus Judge gets a bit of ribbing in the world of gun blogs and I tend to agree that it’s an awfully silly product that leaves gun nuts scratching their heads wondering who the hell is buying these things. I often wonder about their 2.5″ barreled .454 Cassull myself. Just further proof that if it’s a gun of any kind there’s a market for it in the USA. Nothing against Taurus in general, just saying.

Well, ran across a valiant defender of the Judge on Al Gore’s Tubes of Internets the other day. He was touting its awesome ability to fire flechette rounds to defeat body armor, flamethrower rounds*, and best of all that he’s managed to fit a .45-70 round into his and it’ll fire that too!

I sure hope he’s joking. If not, well, now we know what kinda market the Judge is hitting.

*: I can’t imagine anybody actually ever doing that more than once. Cylinder gap anyone?

You can find it here now.

Since the site has been sluggish all afternoon I’m also going to mirror a copy of the PDF. Link.