Guns

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. 🙂

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.

National Reciprocity – A step forward

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

Looks like amendment 1618 to S.1390, the national reciprocity effort of Sen. John Thune, passed the US Senate with a 58-39 majority. Obviously that’s bipartisan.

Good news.

Updated…. oh wait, I misread that. No, it didn’t pass. It needed 60 votes to pass, but the vote still demonstrated a majority. Hopefully this will enter into NRA grades for the upcoming elections. Shows you who is on what side of the fence for sure.

CNN article.

While it didn’t happen, I still think it’s a step forward. It still shows where the US Senators stand on such issues. It still shows that a majority can be had.

There is a time to give them up

/ hsoi

When do we give up our guns?

Never!

“Cold dead hands” and all that.

Right?

Well, maybe not so much.

Joe recounts a personal story, which tells of a good time to give them up.

Aside from the personal drama, the lesson I want to impart is that there IS a time when we need to give up the guns.

The problem is that we won’t know when that time has passed. I know my uncle [who suffers from Alzheimer’s] wouldn’t hurt a fly, but he doesn’t understand the “sudden” mistrust. All he knows is that he does not want to hand over a prized possession, nor be disarmed.

But the doctor reports near 90% loss of short-term memory. He may take an “unloaded” pistol and find it loaded after all.

I empathize, but I know the guns have to go. My only option that night was to forcibly take it, but I was not prepared to devastate a huge, strong man for whom I care very much. Afterwards, he went in the kitchen and looked so absolutely hopeless and depressed… to say it was hard to watch is a gross understatement.

Give the whole piece a read. It’s moving.

National Reciprocity

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

There have been numerous attempts at national reciprocity, even within this current US Congressional session.

The latest attempt? S.1390, the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2010. More specifically, amendment 1618 to that bill, sponsored by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. This amendment appears to be the same as Thune’s stand-alone S.845 bill, just in amendment form.  I see Sen. John Cornyn has signed on as a co-sponsor of the amendment form but not of the stand-alone form (odd). Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, where are you on either?. Note, if my links to the bills don’t work, go to the THOMAS website, search for S.1390 by bill number, then you can see everything including the amendments. THOMAS is neat, but it’s linking system totally blows. Anyway…

I’ve been a bit torn on this topic because I don’t really want the Fed to step in. But when you consider some unexpected bedfellows in matters such as trucking interests, and then how Thune opted to word things, this is actually reasonable.

As well, while I normally am not hip to using amendments as a way to shuttle pet projects through, I think this is a reasonable place for such an amendment. If there’s one thing the Federal Government is supposed to do it is national defense. This is the defense appropriations bill, and bringing about national reciprocity falls in line there.

For those that expect this will cause doom and gloom, I suggest you do a little homework before you start with the hysterics.

If you haven’t contacted your Senator, now is the time.

Updated: Didn’t happen. This time. Still, I think it made a good showing.

Why do you want my gun?

/ hsoi

So a liberal asks: why do you want my gun? (h/t to SayUncle)

After reading his story it reminded me of a “joke”:

Q: What do you call a Democrat?

A: A Republican that’s never been mugged (yet).

So what do you do?

/ hsoi

Caleb recounts how he just went to a concert and had to disarm himself. I’ve run into this same situation.

This is why we cannot be one-trick ponies, relying upon guns alone. To carry other weaponry such as a knife, collapsable baton, pepper spray (women will likely be able to get away with this more than men can) — a layered approach. But of course, even those may not be permissible given the venue. Thus all you are left with are your wits and your hands.

This is why it’s good to know how to use your empty hands.

But this is why it’s even better to know how to use your brain, keep your wits about you, be aware, and follow that first rule of self-defense: ABC — Always Be Cool. That seems to hold even moreso in a context like a concert, where cool is so much what it’s about.