Month: July 2010

Compact Gun Oil

/ hsoi

Check this out:

Purple Haze gun oil.

Good oil in a little bottle. The bottle is small enough to be stored in any little nook or cranny of your AR, so there’s no excuse to not have lubricant handy, and thus no excuse for your AR to not be adequately lubricated.

Neat concept!

Disclosure: I have no personal vested interest in this product or endeavor, but I’m acquainted with the guy behind the venture. It was a cool bit of inspiration he had (necessity being the mother of invention), and I’m happy to help and support him in this.

Blessed are the Peacemakers

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Louisiana allows guns in churches. Of course, the usual suspects are saying the usual things.

Opponents argue it’s inappropriate to have concealed handguns in church.

OK, can we keep them out in the open?

“The question Louisiana residents need to be asking themselves is: Is someone who takes a single eight-hour class fit to defend themselves should a crisis situation arise in the church?,” said Ladd Everitt, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “We would say no.”

And what gives you the expertise to draw such a conclusion? I recall Tom Givens relaying a story of a woman, an immigrant, working at a convenience store. Someone came in to rob the place, and she was able to successfully defend her life. I believe she had only taken the basic handgun course and otherwise had never touched a gun in her life. Granted, an anecdote, but it demonstrates that people can defend themselves after what some obviously consider to be inadequate training. Countless others have no training whatsoever and are able to defend themselves.

Everitt said violent crimes should be handled by police officers, who have extensive training with firearms. At a minimum, he added, the law should demand more extensive requirements of churchgoers.

“There are enough people with that level of training, that level of accountability,” he said. “We are seeing the NRA moving us to vigilante-type justice with little accountability.”

Mr. Everitt, if someone attacked you right now… right this very second, are you going to wait for a police officer to arrive to handle it and take care of you? Sounds like it. Are you willing to undergo my simple experiment? I doubt it, but maybe you ought to consider it and consider the folly of your statement (I know I did many years ago, thus why I am where I am today… there was no police officer around to defend my wife when she was sexually assaulted while pushing our infant son in a stroller on the sidewalk just outside our apartment complex in a good part of town).

Vigilante-type justice? Oh please. We have to follow the law and the law does not allow for vigilantism. If someone does that, they’re breaking the law just the same and ought to be prosecuted for it. Please spare us your ignorant hysterics.

“Legal Community Against Violence believes that loaded firearms have no place in a house of worship,” Laura Cutilletta, a senior staff attorney with the group said in a written statement to FoxNews.com. “Important research confirms the common sense conclusion that more guns create more opportunity for injury and death. Houses of worship should be places where families and others can worship in peace without worry that their safety will be jeopardized by the accidental, or intentional, use of a gun.”

First, as for your important research, can you please show it to us? I’m sure Howard Nemerov would love to see your data.

As for being able to worship in peace, I agree. Just ask Jeanne Assam. She would also agree with you.

Just remember, good people, law-abiding people, are not the people you need to worry about. Guns in the hands of good people do good things (that’s why we grant police the ability to carry and use guns, isn’t it?). Guns in the hands of bad people do bad things. If you remove the guns, it’s still the same: good people do good things, bad people do bad things. And one of those bad things that bad people like to do is bring harm to good people, especially in places where good people can be at a disadvantage. Why should good people be put as victims to bad people, and have the force of law being what makes good people suffer? Where’s the “common sense” in that?

Black Bone Child @ Saxon Pub

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

This past week a friend was visiting from out of town. Austin being known for its live music, he wanted to check out some sort of live music. So we looked at the list of bands playing around town last night. Of course, we had no idea who was who, so Google was our friend. My friend also suggested to just pick a venue I liked and we could just go there. That helped, so I looked at The Saxon Pub. A band called Black Bone Child was playing. Found their website, listened to some music samples, and figured that wasn’t too bad a choice.

They hit the stage shortly after 8:00 PM and just played song after song.

Musically we dug the band. They seemed pretty tight, had a good sound, good groove, some soul. All things sounded good enough to want to investigate them more afterwards (e.g. buy a CD and spin it for a while at home). We left before they finished so we didn’t have a chance to buy a CD (don’t even know if they had any for sale), but I’m looking at them this morning at the iTunes music store.

My friend commented that nothing about the band stood out… like there was no melody that stuck in his head such that he’d be humming it on the way out the door and still playing in his head the next morning. I’ll agree with that on two counts. First, every song felt like it was a study in the key of E. That is, it’s very guitar-driven music and so that 6th low open E string often becomes the foundation for most rock songs and these guys didn’t sound any different. While certainly there was some good songwriting, some different structuring, there was something about the overall tone that felt the same from song to song. Things just seemed to blend one into the next. Which brings up the second point: everything was a blended blur.

I recall hearing big successful bands saying how back in their early club days they didn’t play like they were playing in front of 20 people, they played like they were up in the arena playing in front of 20,000 people. If I closed my eyes last night my ears would enjoy what I heard. But since my eyes were open, they wanted to see something too. There was nothing going on up on stage. In fact, one of the guitar players had a look on his face like he didn’t want to be there and just wasn’t into what he was doing. Come on! Smile! Show some facial expressions. Get into your playing! Don’t the band members interact with each other any? I don’t expect some KISS pyro show, but you can at least be a little alive up there. If you’re having a bad day, get over it and don’t show it on stage because you’re there to do a job, put on a show, and entertain us. If I just wanted to hear the music, I could spin your album on the stereo at home, but I’m out to see live music so let’s see some live music. Talk with the crowd some. Give some interaction. Assume that since you’re an unsigned and up-and-coming band that there’s probably at least one person in that audience that has no idea who you are and what your songs are, so maybe introduce them so we can know the name (maybe we liked that song and now that we can know the name it’ll help us want to seek it out again). Oh, and don’t mumble either… when the singer finally said the name of the band (after 3 songs) he was so quick and a bit mumbled that if I didn’t know the name of the band I would have been asking “what??!?!?! who?!”.  And if you have merch for sale, say so.

So, they have the music part down pretty well, but they really need to work on the live show part, IMHO. Give people a reason to want to come and see you live.

Don’t get me wrong. I overall enjoyed it. Found myself tapping my feet and digging the tunes. I hope the best for them. I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing them again, but I’ll give them a little time in hopes they’ll work on their show a bit.

NPR on gun control — it doesn’t work

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

NPR… yes, NPR saying gun control doesn’t work (h/t Uncle)

Strict gun-control policies have failed to deliver on their essential promise: that denying law-abiding citizens access to the means of self-defense will somehow make them safer. This should come as no surprise, since gun control has always been about control, not guns.

NPR points out what created gun control: racism:

Racism created gun control in America. Confronted with the prospect of armed freedmen who could stand up for their rights, states across the South instituted gun-control regimes that took away the ability of blacks to defend themselves against the depravity of the Klan.

And of course, we must remember… that if it saves one life, then it’s worth it:

Advocates of gun control will not be swayed by the Supreme Court’s holding in McDonald. No matter the evidence, the rallying cry will continue: If gun control “saves just one life” it will be worth it. This plea ignores the irony of crusading for individual safety by disarming all of society. That logic can now be squarely turned on the advocates of gun control. If it saves just one life — or many, since jurisdictions with more legally owned (and carried) guns tend to have less violent crime — we should create a sensible legal framework for gun ownership that does not hamper the right of individuals to exercise self-defense.

Thus due to this:

Three times in the last month, Chicago residents have defended their homes or businesses with “illegal” guns. In the first, an 80-year-old Navy veteran killed a felon who broke into his home. In the second, a man shot and wounded a fugitive who burst into the man’s home while running from the police. In the third, the owner of a pawn shop killed one of three robbers in self-defense, sending the other two running.

That’s 3 lives saved… so allowing law-abiding citizens to posses and use guns must be really really really worth it.

Chronograph results & stats – 9mm plinking load, primer modifications

/ hsoi / 17 Comments

I went to the range.

I was able to chronograph those primer modifications I made to my basic 9mm plinking load recipe. I had previously collected some performance data on that load, and that somewhat influenced how I did things on this go around.

Performance Data

General Information

I shot these the morning of 5 July 2010 @ the Austin Rifle Club. It was about 75º out, 94% humidity, altitude was 449′ above sea level, winds calm and the day generally pleasant.

I used a PACT MKIV XP timer/chronograph to record the data, with the chrono set about 10′ from the muzzle. All shots were off a heavy steel benchrest. I shot two guns: both Springfield XD-9’s, one with a 4″ barrel and one with a 5″ barrel. I did that because most of my previous data was out of the 4″ barrel and I wanted to get more data on what that extra inch of barrel would give me. I shot 10 rounds out of each gun over the chronograph screens, however not all strings recorded all 10 shots for whatever reason the chrono didn’t get it. Still, I feel enough shots went over the chrono to give me enough of an idea of how the load and modification performed.

Load Information

The point of this exercise was to test out primer modifications. The say every time you change a component you need to retest to ensure all is good, thus here we are. My basic recipe is: Berry’s 9mm TMJ RN 115 grain bullet; 4.5 grains Titegroup; mixed used brass cases; 1.135″ overall length; and Remington small pistol primers. Previously I tried out changing the bullet, and as expected there wasn’t much difference. This time around I have another bullet change (Precision Delta) but more importantly a primer change. So I ran 5 different loads:

  1. The base original recipe (with 11 secret herbs and spices)
  2. The base original recipe, but swapping a Precision Delta 115 grain FMJ ball copper jacket bullet.
  3. Base + PD bullet + Winchester small pistol primer (WSP)
  4. Base + PD bullet + Federal small pistol primer (#100)
  5. Base + PD bullet + Wolf small pistol primers

I also wanted a baseline factory load that was closer to the sort of load I was going for, so I ran some good old Winchester White Box (9mm 115 grain FMJ’s) for that purpose. And since I had some carry ammo that I needed to cycle out, I ran some Gold Dots over the chrono just because I could.

The Data

Winchester White Box

4″ gun

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1160.9 fps
Standard Deviation 18.285
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 1.575%
Mean Absolute Deviation 13.45
MAD Coefficient of Variation 1.159%

5″ gun

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1217.04 fps
Standard Deviation 17.934
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 1.474%
Mean Absolute Deviation 14.392
MAD Coefficient of Variation 1.183%

Base Recipe

4″ gun

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1149.689 fps
Standard Deviation 14.842
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 1.291%
Mean Absolute Deviation 12.104
MAD Coefficient of Variation 1.053%

5″ gun

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1201.45 fps
Standard Deviation 13.585
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 1.131%
Mean Absolute Deviation 9.97
MAD Coefficient of Variation 0.83%

Base Recipe + PD Bullet

4″ gun

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1137.97 fps
Standard Deviation 14.824
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 1.303%
Mean Absolute Deviation 11.79
MAD Coefficient of Variation 1.036%

5″ gun

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1193.012 fps
Standard Deviation 9.917
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 0.831%
Mean Absolute Deviation 7.562
MAD Coefficient of Variation 0.634%

Base + PD Bullet + Winchester Primer

4″ gun

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1149.967 fps
Standard Deviation 11.041
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 0.96%
Mean Absolute Deviation 9.17
MAD Coefficient of Variation 0.797%

5″ gun

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1199.289 fps
Standard Deviation 9.996
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 0.833%
Mean Absolute Deviation 8.452
MAD Coefficient of Variation 0.705%

Base Recipe + PD Bullet + Federal Primer

4″ gun

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1135.66 fps
Standard Deviation 10.05
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 0.885%
Mean Absolute Deviation 8.412
MAD Coefficient of Variation 0.741%

5″ gun

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1189.257 fps
Standard Deviation 9.769
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 0.821%
Mean Absolute Deviation 6.661
MAD Coefficient of Variation 0.56%

Base Recipe + PD Bullet + Wolf Primer

4″ gun

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1134.871 fps
Standard Deviation 15.973
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 1.407%
Mean Absolute Deviation 13.147
MAD Coefficient of Variation 1.158%

5″ gun

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1187.511 fps
Standard Deviation 9.92
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 0.835%
Mean Absolute Deviation 8.057
MAD Coefficient of Variation 0.678%

Speer Gold Dot 9mm 124 grain +P

5″ gun (15 rounds)

Avg. Velocity (mean) 1248.571 fps
Standard Deviation 13.74
Std Dev Coefficient of Variation 1.1%
Mean Absolute Deviation 11.89
MAD Coefficient of Variation 0.952%

Analysis

I’m quite pleased with the results.

Last time I did tests, the only factory load I had to compare to was 124 grain American Eagle, which due to the bullet weight difference wasn’t apples-to-apples comparison. But based upon what I saw then I figured that my load just a hair under a factory load and the above data bears that out. I’m fine with that, it’s close enough.

The 5″ barrel gives about 50 fps more than the 4″ barrel. Due to this consistent behavior, in the future I’ll just test with one gun and do a little math if I really want to know how the other barrel will do.

Overall, the results were as I expected they would be: the changes didn’t amount to much.

Changing to the Precision Delta bullet didn’t change much, which is good. I’ve got a lot of PD bullets to use, and given that they’ve been running well and load well (compared to the troubles I’ve had with the Berry’s bullets) and are about the least expensive bullets to buy (especially in bulk), I’m sure I’ll stick with PD bullets for the foreseeable future. Consider my plinking load recipe officially changed. 🙂  One thing to consider on that front is I explicitly was trying to stay under 1200 fps because of the limits of the Berry’s bullets; but now that I’ll be using not-Berry’s bullets, I could start to change the load up for more velocity… but given the purpose of what this load is for? I see little reason to do that right now. This load is working well so why mess with it?

Changing primers didn’t seem to amount to much. One could argue the Federal primers gave me the most consistency, but this is such a small data set (20 rounds with each primer, 10 of each out of each gun) that I’m not ready to say “Federal primers are more consistent” as a general statement. I will say that now that I’m out of Remington primers I’ll probably use the Federal primers because the box they come in is HUGE and I wouldn’t mind reclaiming some shelf space. 😉

It was nice to see the load, on the whole, performed very consistently (look at the MAD CV), even more consistent than the factory loads. It’s also interesting to note that out of the 5″ barrel there was even more consistency. I’ve been wanting to move to the 5″ gun in general, and this just nudges me further in that direction.

Accuracy was acceptable for the guns and the intended purpose of the gun and these loads. Nothing here is “match grade”, I don’t expect to put ’em through the same hole at 25 yards. It was all good enough for the intent.

All in all, I’m pleased with the results. Onward!

Quote of the day

/ hsoi

From Tam:

People generally worry way too much about guns and not enough about shooting.

My heart says to buy more guns (we all like new shiny things). In my head, it says use that same money to buy more ammo, take more classes, do more dry fire, and get to the range. I try to let my head win.

Water Buffalo Ribs

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

A friend of mine is in town.

He wanted to try the water buffalo.

I figured hey… I’ve got that new smoker. Why don’t we try smoking the water buffalo ribs?

And so we did.

Temperature was about 250º. Kept ’em in there about 8 hours. Used charcoal to get things started, but then it was all split oak wood logs from there. Just had the ribs with salt and black pepper overnight, then once I put them onto the smoker I rubbed them down with extra virgin olive oil. Closed the lid. Let it roll for 2-3 hours, then wrapped the ribs up in foil for the remainder of the cooking time.

The rule has been low and slow, thus the 250º and the longer cooking time. The meat is so lean, I figured the olive oil would help, plus wrapping them up in the foil for the bulk of the cooking time would help retain what moisture there was.

Thirty minutes before pulling them off the racks, I gave them a baste with some Stubb’s original BBQ sauce.

How did it turn out?

Well, a lot better than expected, but still not hot. Plus, I think we set our expectations kinda low to begin with.

They were a little dry, but what can you expect? This has been the biggest challenge with the meat. Due to the need to break down those muscle fibers, you have to cook for a long time over low and slow heat. But, that just leads to dryness, and given how lean the meat is there’s not a lot of moisture to go around for that long a time. I’m sure there’s a way to do it, but we just haven’t yet figured it out.

Flavor was good. And it was generally tender.

But the thing that we continue to struggle with is something that I don’t think there’s any way around: the texture. The muscle fibers are just thick and long (compared to beef). So it just makes for a different texture, and one that’s tough to deal with. My friend liked the flavor, but after trying to eat some more he just couldn’t… the texture just wasn’t doing it for him (and he admits, texture of food matters a lot to him). If I trimmed the meat off the bones and then cut it against the grain, it wasn’t so bad (the “chunks” of muscle fiber were made small). Even I found myself not rushing back for seconds because while the meat itself was about as tender as you could get it, the combination of that plus the fiber issue just makes for a less than pleasing mouth experience.

That’s been the general experience no matter how we try cooking this thing. Flavor isn’t bad, we can get it into the ballpark of tender, but the texture is always a problem… and while lean is good on paper, it’s not helping with these big-ass muscle fibers. It’s not the same as other game meat that’s lean, when it comes to cooking and preparing it.

It was suggested to me to try a marinade that includes papaya, since it contains an enzyme called papain. Apparently, papain cleaves the myosin (muscle) fibers at the fiber head which basically makes it impossible for the fibers to re-associate. Supposedly papaya-based marinades can turn chicken into mush in a few hours. So who knows. I think it’s worth a try.

Anyway… I must admit that the household is getting tired of the buffalo. Probably a little frustration, both at cooking and at eating. We’ve had the most success with ground (you really can’t tell the difference vs. ground beef) and with doing roasts in the crock pot (i.e. low, slow, and tons of moisture) but even the roasts in the crock pot still end up with you contending with big thick muscle fibers to chomp through.

We’ve still got a bunch in the freezer. We’re going to keep plowing through it as best we can. The experience is good for us all, and while Wife keeps saying “when we do this again, we’ll get it mostly ground and a few roasts”, I keep interrupting her and saying “if we do this again”. I won’t make up my mind until the freezer is empty, because while the experience has had frustrating moments, it’s still an interesting journey to take.

Fellow reloaders – your help is requested

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

If you reload/handload your own ammunition, could you do me a favor and reply/comment on this for me?

If you keep logs of your loads, what data do you record and how do you record it, especially over time?

For instance, I might start out writing down the original recipe (e.g. Precision Delta 9mm 115 grain FMJ; 4.5 grains Titegroup powder; COAL 1.135″; mixed used cases; Remington small pistol primers) along with any other data I might feel is relevant about it (e.g. “half crimp” with a Lee taper crimp). Then I’ll go out and chronograph the load, do some accuracy tests with it, or whatever. I’d record things like the temperature, altitude, any other notes about the weather and range conditions. I’ll record what gun I used. And of course, I’ll record all the FPS that I get. If the chrono does the statistics for me I’ll record those else crunch those numbers later.

So, that’s “one entry”.

But then how about over time? For instance, do you ever chronograph it again? perhaps you check a hunting load in the heat of the summer but then again in the cold of winter to see how it varies and performs. Would you log this as a separate entry entirely in your log book? or just another entry under that load’s data?

So I guess what I’m wanting is, what data do you record? and how do you organize your data?

Please feel free to comment a length. The more detail the better.

Thank you!

Pour it on

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Brock Lesnar is an impressive physical specimen.

In UFC 116, Shane Carwin gave Brock one hell of a fight.

Carwin spent most of the first round on top of Brock, pounding the hell out of him. This was smart strategy for Carwin. He knows if the fight goes on longer, it favors Lesnar. He also knows that if he gives Brock a moment, Brock will take the opening. That first round teaches and important lesson for self-defense.

Do everything you can to avoid the fight. Avoid, deescalate, evade, escape. But if the fight must come, if there must be violence, then it must be ultra-violence (phrase from Greg Hamilton); you must turn it up to 11, be more aggressive, give your attacker one massive reboot to their OODA loop. Carwin didn’t win the match, but without question he decisively took that round… and all because he poured it on.