Month: July 2009

Sen. Murray supports states rights (when it’s convenient)

/ hsoi

Joe Huffman has a nice little back and forth between himself and his US Senator Murray.

Joe’s original email was regarding support for the Thune Amendment. Says Sen. Murray:

Legislation to regulate the use of firearms is and should remain primarily a state issue.

Joe’s response:

Since you are of the opinion that legislation to regulate the use of firearms is, and should remain, primarily a state issue I presume I can count on your support of efforts to remove firearm regulations at the Federal level. I would like to suggest you introduce legislation to undo the continuing infringement of our rights inflicted by the following Federal firearms laws:

• National Firearms Act of 1934
• Gun Control Act of 1968
• The Hughes Amendment
• The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act

Once those are infringements have been successfully resolved I will be glad to provide you with a list of other Federal firearms laws that need to be eliminated as well.

Go read the whole thing.

Well done, Joe. I’m doubting you’ll get a response, or if you do that it will be anything more than boilerplate “thank you drive through”. Still, one can have a little hope that a worthwhile response may come from the Senator.

More on snub ammo

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

Now that I’ve got my snub, I’m researching good carry ammo.

The trick is that a snub only has about a 2″ barrel, and that’s not a lot of time for velocity to build up. So you need a load that can get up to speed quickly. The consequence of that however tends to be making a stronger load which then can be harder to control in the already hard to control snub nose revolver.

The standard load is nicknamed the “FBI Load”, which is a .38 Special +P 158 grain LSWCHP (I believe that’s lead semi-wadcutter hollow point). An informal test. Another. More data. Even more.

I’ve heard that the semi-wadcutters are a good way to go. They will expand, at least somewhat, but more importantly they get good penetration. Again, with these short barrels you may risk not being fast enough to get enough oomph for reliable expansion. So if you wind up with a bullet that barely expands and doesn’t penetrate deep enough, what good is it? And even if it reliably expands but barely scratches the surface, is that any good? But if something maybe doesn’t get really big but at least gets to the heart of the matter, that’s arguable a better way to go.

Another load that keeps coming up is the Gold Dot 135 grain +P’s. Speer has been making a flavor of their Gold Dots for “short barrel” guns, optimizing characteristics for that situation. The Gold Dot seems to get a lot of positive support, from what Google turns up for me. Here’s some informal tests comparing the LSWCHP vs. the Gold Dot vs. some Corbon.

Now, all this Federal Nyclad stuff. The round seems interesting, and being standard pressure has a small appeal of being more managable out of an Airweight snub. But from what I can read, the original Nyclad’s were 158 grain +P loads and pretty respected in performance. But the new ones are 125 grain standard pressure loads and just aren’t going to perform out of a snub. Seeing this performance data bugs me.

I do read that Buffalo Bore makes a 158 grain SWCHP standard pressure and some regard it as the new gold standard. Something to consider.

I’ve been very curious about Hornady’s new Critical Defense ammo. But I just haven’t seen any sort of data. The theory seems sound, the marketing is good, but it’s such a new product and there just doesn’t seem to be a lot of data on the round yet.

Anyway, hit up Google. There’s much to be found on the topic. I’m only starting to scratch the surface.

I will admit I’ve got some of the new Nyclad (bought it with the gun) and we’ll see how it goes. But given what I’ve read so far, I suspect I’ll either go for a 158 grain wadcutter (Remington, if I have the choice, or maybe the Buffalo Bore), or maybe the short-barrel Gold Dot 135 grain.

Researching is fun. 🙂

Updated: Went looking for more information on Hornady Critical Defense.

Got my snub

/ hsoi / 14 Comments

I finally got my snub.

It’s a Smith & Wesson 442, with no internal lock.

Simple specs: J-frame revolver, Airweight series (aluminum alloy frame, carbon steel cylinder), “Centennial” frame (fully enclosed hammer), 5 rounds of .38 Special +P, double-action-only, 1 7/8″ barrel, integral front sight and fixed rear, 6 5/16″ overall length, 15 oz. empty weight, matte black finish. The finish is the only difference between this and the 642. And hey, black is cool. 🙂

Updated correction: There are actually two differences between the 642 and the 442. The most obvious is the finish, with the 642 being a matte stainless finish and the 442’s a blue/black. I’m not 100% on the details, but some Googling turns up that at least some older 642’s had a clearcoat finish that could come off over time and cleanings. I believe the 442’s frame finish is anodized. If you use either gun, both will eventually show wear; just care for them. The difference other is on the 642 the cylinder (and supposedly barrel) are stainless steel, whereas on the 442 the cylinder (and supposedly barrel) are carbon steel. I haven’t been able to find any information on if the materials difference makes any difference, and I’m not a metallurgist so while I know carbon steel is “softer” than stainless steel (given use in knife blades) I’m not sure if it equates to any real difference in a revolver cylinder. Tho I am curious as to why S&W chose to use carbon steel in the 442; maybe it accepts the finish/cosmetics better? Anyway, it seems the choice between 442 and 642 really comes down to cosmetics as the guns are, for all intents and purposes, the same. In my case, I really didn’t care. When I phoned the gun store to see what they had in stock, I asked for a lockless 642 (as I know those are most common in the stores) and the guy replied they had a lockless 442; thus why I got the 442. But hey, black is cool.

Updated correction 2: Direct info from S&W themselves.

As you can see, it pretty much fit the bill for what I wanted in a snub. The key factor was wanting the snub now. As I’ve had snub on the brain, I’ve found more and more times when carrying a snub would be more appropriate or more convenient. So, I felt that I had enough justification to get one now instead of waiting who knows how long before the perfect all-steel model would come along (if ever). While I’m not 100% thrilled with the lightweight, I’ll live for now. I will keep my eyes open for a steel model.

I do need to get some better grips for it. The research starts for that (tho I think Hogue makes a good set).

Damn that trigger is long and heavy.

And of course, I think about ammo.

There’s the famous Chuck Hawks article. I keep reading about this Federal Nyclad. I mean, out of a snub, all ammo isn’t created equal and you really need to get something that’s appropriate for it: not just any .38 ammo will do. So on the Nyclad I find this article. It tells of the “one shot stop” statistics, and links to some actual ballistics data of this load. Here’s some more ballistics data for other loads out of a snub. Handguns Magazine did some investigation into different loads.

Much researching to do. Meantime…. well, I’ve been sitting here doing a bunch of dry fire just to work the trigger. The gun locked up on me a couple times. Hrm. Well, I knew I’d be taking it to a gunsmith to polish her out. Gotta deal with that plus break it in (shoot maybe 200 rounds flawlessly) before I trust it to carry.

Anyway, here we go. We’ll see where this winds up. 🙂

Ozzy Osbourne cheese

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Daughter is nibbling on a foodstuff. Goes to share it with Wife/Mom:

Daughter: Here Mom. Have some Ozzy Osbourne cheese.

Wife: What?

Daughter: You know, the Ozzy Osbourne cheese!

Wife: Oh, you mean the asiago cheese!

🙂

Am I getting old?

/ hsoi

Twisted Sister, celebrating 25 years since the release of Stay Hungry, appearing on Regis & Kelly.

Twisted Sister. Remember? The band on the PMRC’s shitlist. Dee Snider, testifying in front of Congress, leading the rebels in the fight.

Now, on a daytime television show, where the audience is primarily middle-aged to elderly women. (Well, they looked like a bunch of ancient ugly drag queens, so maybe it was to be a fashion segment?)

Fucking Regis & Kelly. They have no clue who or what they’re shilling, but they know how to read cue cards (Dee Smith?) and fill time.

Geez. Is Slayer booked for next week?

When did all of this become socially acceptable?

Oh that’s right, because we all got older. 🙂

Get off my lawn.

Wow, they did their job

/ hsoi

It’s nice to see the “news media” actually doing their job.

OBAMA: “I have also pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade, and I mean it.”

THE FACTS: […] budget experts have warned about various accounting gimmicks that can mask true burdens on the deficit. The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget lists a variety of them, including back-loading the heaviest costs at the end of the 10-year period and beyond.

OBAMA: “You haven’t seen me out there blaming the Republicans.”

THE FACTS: Obama did so in his opening statement, saying, “I’ve heard that one Republican strategist told his party that even though they may want to compromise, it’s better politics to ‘go for the kill.’ Another Republican senator said that defeating health reform is about ‘breaking’ me.”

OBAMA: “If we had done nothing, if you had the same old budget as opposed to the changes we made in our budget, you’d have a $9.3 trillion deficit over the next 10 years. Because of the changes we’ve made, it’s going to be $7.1 trillion.”

THE FACTS: Obama’s numbers are based on figures compiled by his own budget office. But they rely on assumptions about economic growth that some economists find too optimistic. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, in its own analysis of the president’s budget numbers, concluded that the cumulative deficit over the next decade would be $9.1 trillion.

I guess if you can’t dazzle ’em with brilliance, baffle ’em with bullshit.

Les Lye passes away

/ hsoi

You may not know who Les Lye is, but if you watched “You Can’t Do That on Television” then you know. Mr. Lye died a couple days ago. TCDTOTV was a favorite of mine growing up. I remember the first time I saw it at a friend’s house: they had cable, we didn’t. Because of that show, I wanted to get cable TV.

Kids today watch Nickelodeon and see all this green slime being dropped all over the place. Ask them if they know how the slime originated and I’m sure their response will be “I don’t know.” 🙂

Working elsewhere

/ hsoi

I am fortunate that my job allows me to telecommute. I work from home full-time and enjoy it. I have everything I need, all the comforts such as listening to whatever music I so feel like and as loud as I wish. I have access to my wife’s awesome cooking. I get to be around my kids. Life is good.

That said, sometimes I need to get out. 🙂

I used to be able to go to my buddy W’s house. It was perfect. Interet access, comfortable digs, good food, and someone to talk to about work things which made it like a mini office setting. But W recently moved, so I no longer have access. Consequently, I’ve been wondering what I can do and where I can go when I need a change of work surroundings.

The key thing I need is Internet access, given the nature of my job. What’s cool is Austin has a great many places with free WiFi. I found a couple nice lists here and here. Trouble is, none of the spots are really ideal.

Some places are just right out. For instance, I will not go to the airport just to get WiFi access. Or some hotels may have free WiFi but you have to be a guest and get their passcode. So those places are out.

What does that leave?

The Austin Public Library, or restaurants and bars (including coffee shops).

None of this is ideal.

The library actually seems like the best bet. There should be electrical outlets to plug into. The place will be fairly quiet and conducive to learning, and some ability to be private. The downside is no food or drink. Plus if I had to take a phone call, I can’t easily do that.

Restaurants have pretty much the opposite problem. No problem with food or drink; in fact, I’d argue if I was taking up a table for a long time that I better buy some food and drink. If I need to take a call, no problem. Electrical outlets can vary (one nice restaurant near my house apparently has only one open outlet, up by the front south-facing windows… heat, glare, no workie). But it’s going to be noisy, especially at meal times.

Bottom line is, it’s good to see Austin is quite friendly and accessible. While much of this free WiFi may be limited for circumstances like mine, what it really shows is you can whip out your Internet-enabled phone (iPhone or otherwise) and do things. So while you’re having dinner, you could look up where to go afterwards. Or maybe you just want to see what traffic is like, or what the next showtime is, or when the next train/bus is coming. Having free WiFi “everywhere” is quite a boon.

Now I just need to find a place that can work for me.

Constitutional right to self-defense

/ hsoi

Eugene Volokh examines if we have a constitutional right to self-defense.

Thus, a rule that one can only use deadly force to defend oneself against threats of death, serious bodily injury, rape, kidnapping, and a few other very serious threats would likely be constitutional (even though many states also allow use of deadly force to defend against robbery and in some situations burglary). Likewise, the “duty to retreat,” which is to say the principle that deadly force can only be used in self-defense if it’s genuinely necessary, in that no safe avenue of retreat is available, is likely to be constitutional, too, because it has long been recognized in at least a substantial minority of states. There may be other examples as well. My point is that a federal constitutional right to self-defense likely exists, especially in the wake of Heller. But it is not unlimited, and is likely to be strongest precisely where there’s a broad and deep common-law and statutory tradition of recognizing such a right.

Carrying the LCP – one man’s experience

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

James Rummel refers to one man’s experience in carrying the Ruger LCP for a year.

His conclusion?

He’s not going to carry it any more.

It seems to be comfortable enough to carry, and it seems to be accurate enough to shoot. So why abandon it?

It’s not reliable.

That’s not good. Arguably above all else in a self-defense/carry gun, you want reliability.

He tells how he shoots a lot, and too many times he had first round jams and an inability to get off a second shot. Yikes. When you consider the questionable terminal effectiveness of the .380 ACP round, you sure better not count on a one-stop shot, especially when the gun forces that upon you. Sure he says that there are ways around that (e.g. keeping it heavy oiled), but to my engineering brain that feels like a hack and a workaround. When you consider modern guns like a Glock, Springfield XD, or S&W M&P that you can put through ugly torture tests yet still run, the level of failure and potential workarounds for the failure in the LCP? That’s unacceptable.

But granted, this is just one man’s data point and experience. I do have a friend that gave up his LCP. Two data points.

I’m still so curious about the LCR, and while it’s not the LCP, things like the above and Ruger’s other recalls on the LCP and SR9 are enough to give me pause.