Guns

Range time

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Slipped out to the local indoor gun range this morning.

First thing I noticed was all the new benchrests they had! All the old worn out crappy rests were gone and replaced by new ones. I figure they know hunting season is coming and they’ll have a lot of business from people zeroing rifles and needing rests. This was welcome, especially because that’s why I went today.

My goal was to get my Savage 11 set with a “zero” to be 1″ high at 100 yards. Looking at all the data, that should allow me to be within “minute of dead deer” from 0 to 200 yards without any problem. Zero at 100 yards would risk me being too low at 200 yards, and zero at 200 yards I think would have put me a little too high at 100 yards or less. So at least on paper, this should work for me. Thing is, I really wanted to go to a range with longer rifle ranges today but it just didn’t happen for various reasons. My hope then was if I got it 1″ high at 100 yards I could refine and ensure 200 yards at a later date.

I started using my Prvi Partizan .308 168 grain BTHP match ammo. I have tons of it and it’s far less expensive per round than my hunting load (the Federal Vital-Shok .308 165 grain Barnes TSX stuff, P308H). Use that to get me in the ballpark, then finalize it with the Prvi. I believed the rifle was set to 0 at 100 yards, so I knew I’d need to adjust a bit. Shot a few rounds, got things adjusted, and thought it was good enough to switch over to the Federal.

Loaded one round of Federal, shooting at the lower-left little target thing on the sighting-in target. Look through the spotting scope and I don’t see anything on the paper. Huh?!?!  I look around at the center of the target and counted 6 holes. But I only shot 5 Prvi on that target at the center. Is that saying my Federal was off that much? Loaded another round and shot at the center of the target. Sure enough, that one went way high and right. Wow. I know that loads can be different, but I did not expect that drastic of a difference. I only had 8 rounds of my hunting load left so I had to get things dialed in quickly. I managed to do so and think she’s there, but I’m not totally sure. It could have been the gun, it could have been the cheap scope, it could be the rounds, maybe the barrel was warm enough that it was throwing things off. I don’t know for sure.

So, I packed up and opted to head home. I’ll try again in the near future and only use the hunting load. See where that first cold-barrel shot lands and go from there.

Ultimately I really need to get going with reloading. One box (20 rounds) of the P308H is $45. Now that I’ve got a lot of good .308 brass and I’ve got a box of 50 .30 caliber Barnes TSX, man, it’ll be far cheaper to load it all myself (probably half the cost).

Anyway, it’ll be nice to get the rifle sighted in before the rush of everyone in the area cramming up the ranges trying to get sighted in. Plus we saw a bunch of hogs on the game cameras at the deer lease. Mmm… pork.

New laws in effect

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

Being September 1, a bunch of new laws go into effect here in Texas.

Here’s the press release straight from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Some highlights:

HB 55 makes it illegal to use a wireless communication device in a school zone unless the vehicle is stopped or a hands-free device is used. Cities or counties wanting to enforce this law must post a sign at the beginning of each school zone to inform drivers that using a wireless communications device is prohibited and the operator is subject to a fine. It is a defense to prosecution if the operator was making an emergency call.

Why? Because talking (or texting) on the phone can be very distracting and render you a more dangerous driver, less aware of your surroundings? distracted from your primary task at hand? If it’s bad enough to avoid doing this in school zones, why isn’t it bad enough to avoid doing this everywhere?

SB 129 goes into effect. I never heard of “neighborhood electric vehicle” before.

Relating to concealed handguns:

HB 2730 amends numerous provisions regarding concealed handgun licenses (CHLs), including eliminating student loan defaults as a disqualifier, to clarify that DPS must suspend or revoke a license when the licensee becomes ineligible and mandating that a magistrate suspend a CHL held by the subject of an emergency protective order.

There’s actually a lot of stuff in HB 2730.

HB 2664 provides a defense to prosecution if a concealed handgun license holder carries a concealed handgun into an establishment that gets 51 percent or more of its income from the sale of alcoholic beverages, but has failed to post the statutorily required notice that it derives 51 percent or more of its income from the sale of alcoholic beverages. (Under current law, a concealed handgun licensee can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor for doing this.)

This is welcome. I’ve been in a few places where I was surprised to discover a 51% sign was posted, but because it was posted improperly I didn’t learn about it until I was technically in violation of the law.

HB 2730 removes DPS authority to suspend a concealed handgun license (CHL) for the holder’s failure to display the CHL to a peace officer on demand. It removes associated penalties and suspensions for the failure to display.

I still think it’s generally sound advice that, if you’re carrying and a DPS officer requests identification (e.g. drivers license) that you include your CHL too. But the law is improved.

SB 1188 went into effect, bringing Texas out of the dark ages.

Drivers license related laws went into effect. HB 339 increases the number of hours a teenage student must have behind the wheel. I’m not so thrilled about state requirements, but to drive is a privilege. Frankly, I think the more the hours the better anyway… driving is something you need a lot of practical experience with.

SB 1967 changes things for motorcyclists. Now to obtain a “class M” certification on your drivers license you must show successful completion of a motorcycle rider safety course. I think those courses are very good things to have and data has demonstrated that riders that have taken those courses, as opposed to learning to ride by themselves or via family/friends, are safer riders. To arive alive and in one piece is a good thing. Again, driving is a privilege. The helmet law was improved; if I am reading this right, you don’t need to prove the extra health insurance and have the proof sticker any more to ride without a helmet. I think that’s reasonable, just don’t expect anyone else to pay to put your brains back in your skull if you choose to ride without a helmet.

Rangemaster September 2009 Newsletter, and more

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

The Rangemaster September 2009 newsletter is now posted.

This issue of the newsletter stands out with a lot of good information.

  • An article about dealing with semi-auto pistol malfunctions. Interesting to note that one suggestion for dealing with a malfunction is not: draw your back-up gun (BUG). Heh. 🙂
  • A fantastic article about shooting one or two handed. This is a response to an article Mr. Givens read that he felt was flawed in what it was promoting as shooting technique. This article alone is worth the read.
  • A discussion of Tennessee self-defense laws. In addition, some good advice is given for anyone that might be involved in a self-defense incident. One suggestion that was new to me was after speaking with the police, ask to be taken to the hospital. Read the article to find out why this is good advice.
  • A brief write-up about the Ruger LCR.

I found the write-up about the LCR kinda funny. I had emailed Mr. Givens a few months ago when I was doing my snub researching. He told me what he carried, and the feeling I got was that the LCR wasn’t proven enough. It’s cool to now read that he liked the LCR. Furthermore, it seems his carry ammo is Buffalo Bore 150 grain hard-cast wadcutters. Take that for what it’s worth.

One additional point I wanted to comment on was the one vs. two handed shooting article. Foo.c and I tend to go around and around on something a lot, and I think this may provide me an opportunity to clarify my position for him. 🙂  I advocate 9mm over .45 ACP because in the end their terminal abilities are more or less the same. Yes I can see some slight edge to .45 ACP on paper, but real world results show that 9mm vs. .40 S&W vs. .45 ACP all amount to about the same terminal performance from your modern self-defense loads. So if they’re essentially the same in that regard, to choose one over the other comes down to other factors such as capacity, cost, ability to shoot it well, and so on. Now, foo.c seems to think that I advocate that the 9mm round is more accurate than the .45 ACP round. That’s not what I’m saying. What I do say is that I believe people can shoot 9mm’s faster and more accurately: i.e. the ability of the shooter, not the ability of the round. Why do I say this? Recoil, both recoiled produced and ability to manage it. Sure the .45 ACP doesn’t kick like a pissed-off mule, but it does generate more recoil than a 9mm. Then you need to be able to manage that produced recoil, be it through the structure of the gun (e.g. big and heavy) or your shooting technique (e.g. modern isosceles stance, Todd Jarrett kung-fu crush grip) or a combination. With 9mm producing lower recoil, then you have less recoil to counter so in the end you wind up having 9mm being more controllable than .45 ACP (all other things being equal). You’re going to be able to get off more shots, on target, in less time. This bears out in an anecdote from a trainer friend of mine, something to the effect of skilled shooters shot courses with 9mm and .40 S&W and their times were 15% slower with the .40 (the story was something to that effect). It’s just more recoil to manage.

How does that pertain back to the article? The article’s data shows that even highly-skilled shooters cannot shoot as fast one-handed as they can two-handed. Why? Recoil management. You can manage recoil far better with two hands. So, my whole debate with foo.c really comes down to that: recoil management. Suppose you shoot a string of 9mm at your best: fastest you can shoot and get them all in the A-zone… your best Bill Drill ever. Now, can you replicate that same time (or do better), same round count, all good hits, with a .45 ACP (all things equal, like gun size, weight, etc… only the round is different)? I doubt it, only because there’s more recoil to manage. It may only come out to a few hundredths of a second difference, but sometimes that matters.

For me, I can shoot .45 ACP just fine. I can shoot .40 S&W just fine (tho I don’t really care for the snap). But I prefer 9mm because it’s “good enough” for terminal ability, I can carry more rounds (who says there’s such a thing as too much ammo? who wants to walk out the door with less ammo or half a magazine?), it generates less recoil thus is more controllable and I can shoot it faster and still get good hits (fast and accurate). But that’s my preference. And maybe foo.c might understand where I’m coming from now… or he’ll just continue to needle me because he likes to. 😉

Small incident

/ hsoi

Had a small incident tonight.

I’m chillin’ with Daughter in the house when Oldest rushes into the room and says, “Mom needs you, now.” Urgency there, I get up and go. Wife briefs me. There’s some dude hanging around the street-light a couple houses down. Gave Oldest the willies, and it was certainly odd behavior. Strange person, why would they just be hanging out at the street-light?

I head outside to check on things. I’m able to do a few things in the yard to look busy and otherwise occupied, but watching what the dude is up to. Then I see good neighbor across the street, who has a similar penchant for paying attention to the neighborhood goings on. I head over and we talk, as he too noticed the dude.

As we watched, dude’s behavior wasn’t too suspicious. Perhaps just waiting for someone to pick him up. But then it dragged on. We were standing outside talking about life, family, work, hunting, playing in band back in grade school, whatever topics. But dude was still there… hour went by, still there. It went from a concern, to probably nothing but we’ll keep an eye, to “this is just getting weird.” Why just standing there, doing nothing, for about an hour? Gave the police a call to have them drive by. I don’t know exactly how long it took them to show up, but I know I checked the clock and 15 minutes went by and it was some time after that before APD rolled onto the scene. Two cruisers showed up, they spoke with dude, eventually some people from a nearby house come out and there’s interactions with the police and discussions. Back and forth for a bit, APD seemed eventually satisfied and left. People from house brought a phone out to dude, and eventually he leaves in a car with someone (they had pulled up prior to APD arriving).

While the men were outside minding things, the women of the neighborhood were on the phone alerting all other neighbors. People were watching out their windows, noting things, taking descriptions, pictures, whatever. If something was going to happen, we were going to be prepared. 🙂 Plus, as everyone connected, it was evident that others had noticed dude too and had similar concerned feelings about the matter.

No idea what was going on, but it was still all very strange. We’re attempting to contact APD to find out the story.

Lessons learned:

  • Don’t blow off gut feelings. If something feels wrong, act on it.
  • You don’t know when ugly will strike, so always be prepared. I have all my everyday gear on me (including my flashlight), every day all the time. Wife needed me now, I was able to go and was ready (well, didn’t have my phone on me… still trying to work out a good “gotta keep it charged but need to keep it on me” strategy). I didn’t have to take time to get all my stuff together, I was ready and could act immediately.
  • Ensure all your neighbors know each other and have each others contact information. You don’t have to be friends, but you are neighbors. Even if you might not like your neighbor, there may come a time where there’s a bigger evil that will require you to come together.
  • If you’ve got a team, ensure you’ve got a plan. My wife and I? Team. Kids can be involved too. Then have plans, and ensure people know their parts; practice. Wife knows one of her primary roles is communication: she calls proper people, gathers information. I didn’t have to walk out the door and tell her to do any of this; she knows her role, I know mine. Kids even do to, for instance, they know that yeah sometimes in life you might be able to argue with Mom & Dad, but when something serious is going on you must obey… and they know that.
  • Don’t count on a fast police response. I’m not surprised they didn’t come blaring in with sirens within 2 minutes, and I expect if they had to get two cruisers/officers and coordinate a bit that that would require a little more time too. I wish they were a little faster in their response but in the end it was acceptable response time. Still, it was quite a long time for the response…. you can only count on the police for so much, and your immediate safety isn’t necessarily part of that equation.
  • If you believe in self-defense, your training shouldn’t be in only physical skills such as punching or shooting. You need to know street smarts, mental skills, and other such things. That will take you further.

I believe the world is a generally safe place. I believe the world is filled with good people. But evil can come in any form to any place at any time. Nothing is immune. If you don’t want evil to harm you and your loved ones, it’s good to be prepared to deal with it when (not if) it comes your way.

Scope covers tidbit o’ info

/ hsoi

I’ve been needing some covers for the scope on my hunting rifle. The rifle was a combo that came with a scope. Seems the scope is a Simmons Blazer, the 3-9x40mm model. A set of Butler Creek scope covers would be fine. Thing is, I didn’t know what size to get. So, I did the logical thing: I called Simmons to ask.

The guy on the phone said I wanted a 10 eye (1.516″/38.5mm) and a 28 objective (1.890″/40.0mm) (these are the regular flip-open models). So off to the store I went and bought them. Came home, put them on, and well… technically they fit, but really they don’t. They’re probably the exact size, but that made them just a hair big and thus they were loose. No way they would work. So, went back to the store looking for the next size down. No luck. I did find a 26 objective (1.820″/46.2mm) which was fairly tight but works, so I exchanged the 28 objective for the 26. I think a 27 objective (1.840″/46.7mm) would probably work… fit well so it wouldn’t fall off, but not be so tight that it’s difficult to remove (like the 26). I don’t know what eye I would need, but my initial guess is just one size smaller at a 9A eye (1.485″/33.7mm). It’s possible a 9 eye (1.468″/37.3mm) could be right, but no way I can know until I can try them. Apparently Cabela’s should have 9 and/or 9A, but I don’t feel like hauling all the way down there just for one of these. I’m sure I’ll be down there sooner or later anyway and I’ll look for one then.

Just wanted to put this information online for the search engines… in case someone else runs into this eventually.

BTW, here’s a handy Butler Creek scope cover size chart.

Front Fiber unfixed

/ hsoi

Since I had to fix the fiber optic insert on my front sight, I tried using the green insert.

It didn’t pan out.

It just didn’t show up bright enough. Not enough to “draw my eye” to the front sight. After a few days of dry firing and working with it, it’s just not working to grab my eyes.

So I just changed it back to a red fiber. Much better.

That said, this isn’t me advocating red as better than green. My understanding is it’s truly a personal thing depending on how your eyes work. Some people work better with green, some better with red. So I’m glad I used the opportunity to figure out what worked for me, and it seems my eyes like red.

Subtle bias

/ hsoi

I am at the teacher supply store (yea iPhone!) waiting on Wife to finish shopping for some teaching supplies. While waiting I wander around looking at the teaching aids and workbooks. I happen upon the book section on social studies and government. Oh cool! A workbook on the US Constitution. I flip through it. There is a section on the second amendment. It has a brief discussion of the “controversy” of 2A. Then the question section:

On the lines below, describe one argument for and one argument against gun control.

Why not for or against the right to bear arms? for or against the right to defense? for or against the abridgement of a fundamental right?

Subtle bias?

MHI – in progress

/ hsoi

The gun blogger world is all aflutter about Monster Hunter International.

I didn’t get it (it being everyone getting so gah-gah about the release).

I guess I still don’t get it, but I guess if you know who Larry Correia is (and before this I admit I didn’t), then I guess that’s part of the fun. Plus, books like this just aren’t my thing. I’m a geek… I tend to prefer non-fiction. Subjects like in MHI aren’t totally out of the realm of things I’d enjoy, but I just really had no compelling reason to read the book.

Nevertheless, TXGunGeek loves the book and and lent me a copy.

Now I see James Rummel wrote a review of it, probably one that the gun-blog-fanboys will be all up in arms over, so to speak.

I’m only on chapter 5 or 6 (don’t remember, book is in the bedroom), or whatever chapter after Owen shows up at MHI and asks what happened on December 15, 1995 or however it all goes. I didn’t intend to start reading the book yet because there’s other things in my queue that should come first… but man, Atlas Shrugged continues to be unappealing to me. 😉

So far I’ll say the book feels fun. There’s no question Correia knows his guns and this is quite filled with gun geek stuff. The story seems to flow well enough and the reading is fine, but I’ll have to agree with James that even in the few chapters I’ve read Owen does come off like an amazing uber-hero without much of a flaw (other than maybe not telling his Dad the whole truth). I must admit, when they were reading off Owen’s history and said “black belt in two martial arts” I found myself asking “OK, which ones?”. 🙂  Still, I don’t like to get too tied up into things… suspend disbelief a bit and just enjoy the fun.

I’ll see how things come out whenever I finish the book.

Updated: Tweaked a few things in the above text, and look… Larry Correia responded to James’ review.

I will say. As I read this, I can’t help but think the book would be a lot of fun if it was made into a movie. Sure I like seeing character development, I like seeing more deeply fleshed out and realistic characters (even Superman had problems). But I also know that sometimes just mindless fun is good too. Sometimes movies without much of anything except a loose story for an excuse to provide lots of on-screen action is good stuff. Frankly, MHI (so far of what I’ve read) could really lend to that.

More thoughts on snub ammo

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

I was headed to Cabela’s last night to get some hunting stuff and realized that I should probably look for some ammo for the snub. I must admit, I’m still not settled on what ammo to use for self-defense. I’ve got this pull towards wanting to use the Gold Dot 135 grain +P’s, because I like Gold Dot and know they make solid stuff, plus there’s something about carrying and handling unjacketed lead that bugs me (probably the health-aspect of it all) so I’d like to carry some sort of jacketed ammo. Yet, as I look at ballistics data on a lot of your JHP rounds for .38’s (as shot out of snubs, regardless if the load is specifically designed for short barrels or not), they tend to get the expansion but not always the penetration. I think that’s perhaps one thing that bugs me about Hornady Critical Defense is that part of its design is to not penetrate more than 12″. If 12″ is considered the FBI minimum, to not go more than 12″ by design feels faulty to me. I can only guess why Hornady made such a decision (risks of overpenetration, since primary consumers are civilians?). But, all this data is partially subjective.

The thing is, expansion is certainly desirable, but if you don’t get it deep enough to hit vitals then expansion doesn’t matter. You want both depth and width, but given a choice between the two I’d say depth comes out as slightly more important because vitals are buried down deep and you need to ensure you get to them. Given that, while I don’t want to carry LSWCHP’s I think that’s really the only way to go for a .38 snub. The main reason? They get the penetration, and some expansion. Granted they may not expand as much as a JHP round, but they get the penetration and seem fairly reliable at doing so… then some expansion as a bonus.

I just look at data such as brassfetcher’s, and while it may be a single point of reference it’s still useful info. Look at this (but note the barrel lengths). Even consider this:

2-inch .38 snubs
There seems to be no JHP bullet cartridge that is capable of providing a reasonable balance of adequate penetration and reliable expansion. A bullet that expands will not penetrate deeply enough, whereas a bullet that does not expand will probably overpenetrate.

As a result, we feel the best cartridge for .38 snubbies is the 148 grain wadcutter target load. (MacPherson, Duncan: Bullet Penetration, Ballistic Publications, El Segundo, California, 1994. p. 247, Figure 10-2 Cylinder Bullet Penetration Depth.) The sharp-edged shoulder of the full wadcutter design provides the best penetration and wounding efficiency for this gun/cartridge combination.

Take that as you wish, as that was printed 11 years ago, but did include the Gold Dot in the testing.

I still don’t think I’m settled on what ammo to use, and I reserved the right to change my mind. But for now, I think I will stick with LSWCHP’s, and presently the Buffalo Bore 20c/20 stuff since that’s what I have. Didn’t see any for sale at Cabela’s (the only place in town I’ve seen Buffalo Bore for sale).

The quest continues….