I got to review an Aimpoint CompM4s for TacticalGunReview.com.
Please go read the review, here.
(NB: I did not receive compensation for the review, but I’m still marking it as “For Hire” because I was doing it for the TGR website; and I will have the opportunity to buy my own CompM4s at a discount… and I will, because I loved it.)
US House is going to vote today on a resolution to condemn the Arizona shooting.
Question #1. Why is this shooting somehow more horrific or deserving of more attention or special-casing than other shootings and murders that happen every day?
Then there’s this:
[U.S. Senate Sergeant-At-Arms Terrance] Gainer said he does not believe more members of Congress should carry guns. “Violence prevention is a very difficult matter. Preventing homicides is very difficult. I think every chief and sheriff across the nation is trying to figure out how best to do that. Putting more guns in the mix is not the answer. It may be part of a solution to have more police, more law enforcement. But we shouldn’t just turn to guns as the how to end violence,” he said.
But you see, more police, more law enforcement…. they are only considered for the mix because they have guns! If you put more police in the mix, you are putting more guns into the mix. Or if you want, how about removing the guns from the belts of those police and put them into the mix. Will that still achieve your desired effect? No. You want more police in the mix because they have guns.
What you’re saying is you want more of a police state. You want more nannies to watch over us. You don’t want the allow the citizenry to be empowered. Because I tell you, no matter how many more police you put into the mix, it will never be enough. Police can’t be everywhere to protect us all.
Oh wait… you’re not interested in protecting us all. Just your elite selves.
I see.
Top competition pistol shooter, BJ Norris, blogged about his 2011 goals.
Note. BJ is in the elite of competition pistol shooters, with numerous Open Junior National championships and also a World and National Steel Challenge SteelMaster title. He’s fast, he’s accurate, he’s good at what he does.
So notice what his goals are about:
What do you notice? It’s all fundamentals and working those fundamentals on a consistent basis. It’s also very calculated: shaving 0.1 seconds off his draw adds up to 3.1 seconds over the course of a match, and that’s HUGE at his level of competition. He wants to repeat the World title this year, and that will be all about speed and accuracy. So he’s doing what he can to go faster and do it in a calculated manner. Working group shooting will help his accuracy and work those fundamentals of sight picture, sight alignment, and trigger control.
It’s always interesting how we journey through something. As a beginner we learn the fundamentals but want to get on to learning the advanced skills because they’re fancy and exciting. But once you get to that advanced level, you realize that you need to go back to the fundamentals if you want to become a master. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, it’s all about fundamentals. They’re never sexy, but you’ll never get anywhere without them… nor the goals to motivate you along.
Building on my previous post about how knee-jerk legislative reactions don’t solve problems, we have yet another knee-jerk legislative reaction that won’t solve the problem:
Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, is planning to introduce legislation that would make it illegal to bring a gun within 1,000 feet of a government official, according to a person familiar with the congressman’s intentions.
[…]
It is already illegal in the U.S. to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. King’s legislation to make it illegal to knowingly carry a gun within 1,000 feet of the president, vice president, members of Congress or judges of the Federal Judiciary, would offer government officials the same protection.
Full article here, at the HuffPo.
Interesting choice of reasoning. It would offer government officials the same protection as schools. Well… we’ve seen how well that “schools are a gun free zone” has worked. How is it that Rep. King things “the same protection” would actually be of any good? How will it stop crazy people from going crazy?
Furthermore, why is it that these politicians think they need some sort of special protection? What about the rest of us? Why are they so much more special than the rest of the citizenry? Inflated sense of self-worth?
This shouldn’t happen in this country, or anywhere else, but in a free society, we’re going to be subject to people like this. I prefer this to the alternative.
We don’t need King, Lautenberg, McCarthy, Feinstein, trying to pound through knee-jerk emotion-driven legislation… because they will drive us towards that alternative.
A Virginia Delegate wants to ban firearms from the state Capitol and General Assembly building. Of course, it’s a knee-jerk reaction to the shooting of Rep. Giffords in Arizona.
“The tragedy this weekend in Tucson should cause all public officials to re-examine the safety and security of themselves, their staff, and visitors,” [Del. Patrick A. Hope (D-Arlington)] said in a statement.
I will agree with that statement, but I will differ upon the means to the end.
How is disarming the law-abiding citizenry going to improve things? Show me the concrete evidence that supports this as an actual solution that succeeds in meeting the desired goal.
If you ban firearms, fine. Is this going to stop a criminal or some crazy guy hell-bent on destruction? Nope. By definition those folks don’t obey the law, so how would such a law help prevent things like what happened to Rep. Giffords?
Hope, who is in his second year in the legislature, said he was taken aback last year when he first found himself riding the elevator with a man who had a gun strapped to his leg.
“I felt very uncomfortable and very uneasy,” he said in an interview.
Ah. I see. You felt uncomfortable. So your lack of understanding, your ignorance, is why we should all be subject to your viewpoint of the world. I see.
Hope continues:
He said he drafted the bill several weeks ago, before the events in Arizona, but said they illustrate why such a move would be smart.
“We’ve got take every prudent action to protect ourselves, our staff and the public,” he said. “Look at airports, look at Congress, look at federal courthouses. They’ve been able to pass these. Why are we any different?
But look at airports. They have some of the highest “security” measures in the world, but it doesn’t stop things from getting through nor “bad things” from happening. Look at Congress and courthouses. That they don’t permit it doesn’t stop criminals, it doesn’t stop crazy.
Hope said his bill would not make it a crime to bring a gun to the legislature but would direct Capitol Police to help gun owners check their weapons at the doors before entering. It would also exempt members of the legislature from the ban.
Oh, that’s even worse. First, they can still bring guns but then the guns have to be checked. That’s a bad idea. The more you fiddle with a loaded gun, the more you risk a negligent/accidental discharge. You load the gun, you put it into the holster, and you leave it there and don’t touch it. Any time you touch it you raise the chances of the gun going bang when you didn’t want it to go back. Case in point? just keep reading the article!
The most notable incident involving a gun at the General Assembly Building in recent memory did, in fact, come from a state delegate. In 2006, then-Del. Jack Reid (R-Henrico) accidentally shot a handgun in his General Assembly Building office, firing into a bullet proof vest he kept hanging on his door as a joke. He apologized profusely for the incident, which he said occurred as he was removing a clip from the gun which he carried to work each morning.
He was fiddling with this gun and boom… N.D..
*sigh*
But I also like Hope’s little slip in there: that members of the legislature would be exempted from the ban. Why? Oh I see, because you feel you and your type are more important than the general citizenry? That you can be trusted more? That you’re above all of this? I think not. You are a citizen like the rest of us. I see no reason why you should be allowed special privileges when the very people you are supposed to be serving are then thrust to a lower standard. However, the reality remains: trying to make some sort of little “safe zone” in which you think you can keep bad things out and you’ll be safe inside? it’s a false sense of security. Public schools are set up as these “safe zones” and look how well that’s worked out.
But you know what actually worked?
When Loughner started shooting, there were tough men and women willing to fight. They weren’t going to stand around and wait for someone else to come to their rescue. They dove in, they took charge. In fact, one of the men that directly stopped Loughner? He was carrying a concealed handgun.
That is what will improve things.
Allow people to stand strong. Allow people to fight. Realize the citizen that’s already there is the first-responder. Encourage people to become better equipped to handle such situations, be it having the right tools or (better) having the right mindset. Don’t neuter the law-abiding citizen, for it accomplishes nothing positive.
This is for all of you that live in Texas.
The state legislature convenes it’s 82nd session tomorrow. It runs until the end of May. That means there’s only a few months to deal with the legislative needs of Texas.
Are you a gun owner? Do you care about gun rights? There are some important bills on the table for this session already and likely more could be introduced in the coming weeks. If you care — and you should — you need to get active.
One of the best ways to help? Join the Texas State Rifle Association. Yes, the NRA is important, but most laws in this realm are on the state-level and TSRA is going to have greater impact here. Alice Tripp and her crew need your support. In fact, here’s a letter written by Alice just yesterday about the upcoming session.
If you’re not a member of the TSRA, it’s only $30 to join as an annual member (reduced rates for juniors, seniors, and others). As well, the TSRA PAC, a separate group for political action, needs donations to fund their work.
Don’t do this tomorrow, don’t do this later. Do it today. Do it now, while you’re thinking about it.
(Disclosure: I am a Life Member of TSRA, but otherwise have no affiliation with them… not on a fundraising committee or any such thing…. just some dude with a blog that thinks it’s an important group to be a part of).
A couple things to add to the previous range posts.
In my shotgun ammo trials, I was most impressed with the performance of Federal Tactical buckshot (9 pellet 00 buck, reduced recoil). I was curious if the results of any gelt tests were available. Sure enough, there are.
Federal publishes a PDF that provides data on their various law-enforcement loads. There’s gel tests, and gel shooting into bare, through heavy clothing, glass, steel, plywood, wallboard. They also show patterning at 20 and 30 yards. Results there were consistent with what I experienced, including that the full-power load generates slightly larger patterns at longer distances than does the reduced load. Since I’m using a pump shotgun in a home-defense situation, I’ll be just fine for my needs with the reduced recoil 9 pellet buckshot (LE132 00).
Jay sent me a few pictures he took of me shooting during our recent range day. Here I am shooting his Winchester 94 .30-30 lever-action. Man, that’s a fun rifle.
When I went shooting with Jay, the main focus was on shooting shotgun ammo.
You see, shotgun ammo behaves in unique ways. You need to check out how ammo performs in your particular gun. Winchester buckshot out of this Mossberg may not perform the same as the same ammo out of a Remington. Furthermore, Winchester buckshot out of this Mossberg 500 may not perform the same as the same ammo out of a different Mossberg 500. Truly, the ammo-gun combination can be unique, thus it’s imperative that any shotgun you wish to use, you must take the time and trouble to find the loads that work best in your shotgun.
And so, that’s what we did. 🙂 Continue reading
You may know Jay from his blog, Firearms and More in Texas!
He doesn’t live all that far from me, and so this morning we got together to have some fun! His family owns property in the country and so, we went shooting there.
Of course, goal #1 was to have fun — and we accomplished that. But we weren’t just going to aimlessly shoot. There was purpose!
We actually started out by having breakfast at a local restaurant. Migas. Mmmmm. Then off to the property. Unpack, a little hauling and walking, and away we went.
We started with the shotgun shooting. Again, the intent here was to try out a bunch of shotgun slugs and buckshot, for home-defense purposes. See how they perform and behave. There was a lot of data collected here, so this is going to become a posting unto itself at a later time. You’ll just have to wait and see, but those of you that truly know how to run a defensive shotgun will probably not be surprised by the results (hint: it runs counter to “conventional wisdom”). Updated: the data is up!
We switched to shooting handguns for a bit. I shot his Glock 23 (a compact in .40 S&W). First time I’ve fired one and well… again, it’s everything as to why I don’t like Glocks. I don’t like the crappy sights, I don’t like the heavy gritty trigger, and the gun just feels like a turd in the hand. Yes it’s a good tool. It’s a solid tool. It works, it’s reliable. I was having a lot of fun shooting it at the swinging steel, even tho it was a compact in .40 and thus a little ornery to control (just use a solid grip!). There’s really nothing wrong with a Glock, I just want something that’s a little more than basic useful. I mean sure… you can marry an ugly woman, it works, it gets the job done, but why? (says the man married to a very pretty woman). 🙂
Also got to shoot his Beretta 92. That’s a brick. 🙂 I did like the Hogue grip panels. I hated the DA/SA trigger, but I have to say this gun’s trigger was very smooth and certainly serviceable. It was just a lot of trigger.
After that, we realized time was getting short. Pulled out the rifles. Jay had a Winchester Model 94 lever-action in .30-30. Never shot one of those before but gosh if that wasn’t awesome. One of these days I am going to get myself a lever-action.
Ya burned through a few magazines on the AR. He seemed to like it. Kept commenting about how little recoil there was and how much it felt like a toy. 🙂 Given all the heavy shooting we did earlier in the day, certainly this was nothing to our sore shoulders. I really like that red dot, but the write-up on that will have to wait for another time as well.
Really, just had a good morning. Good time with Jay, got some good data, weather was awesome. Really, can’t ask for much more in life. 🙂
Updated: Jay sent me a picture.
I’m done.
All of my Titegroup powder is gone. I loaded 300 rounds of .38 Special last night, and there was just a bit of powder left over. Not enough to bother with, so I’m calling it good enough and done.
I started with an 8 lbs. jug of Titegroup. 7000 grains in 1 lb of powder (56,000 total). I used it at a rate of 4.5 grains for the 9mm loads and 3.5 grains for the .38 Special loads. You do the math on how many pulls of the lever that was. 🙂
At the end of it all, I can say I really like my Hornady Lock-n-Load press. I’ve probably loaded close to 20,000 rounds on this press now with little problem. Is it perfect? No, but I’m quite pleased with it and it obviously does the job. And even here with me getting close to no powder, the powder drop was still dropping proper charges…. no worry about having to keep the hopper at least quarter-ish full to ensure consistent throws.
I need to run the press through some maintenance now, from cleaning, lubing, and so on.
And of course, I can now start on my .223 Rem reloading. But I’m not going to just yet; going to take a break. While I enjoy the reloading, the 9mm got to a point of “need to load all the bullets” which took quite a while. Then it turned into “need to use up all the Titegroup”. And it just loomed over me all the time… it became a chore, a chore I happily did and was dedicated to seeing through, but a chore nonetheless.
And now I done with it.
And now I can rest. 🙂
Stuff From Hsoi 