All posts by MadOgre

Training

Vitals of Defense

5 Comments

I know a lot of Firearms Instructors. Let me rephrase that… I know a lot of excellent Firearms Instructors. One of the best, and one that I am proud to call a Friend, is Daniel Shaw. You may know him from GUNFIGHTER CAST.  Daniel spent a lot of time training US Marines to be better Marines. He has translated his Military experience into a very good practical approach to Self Defense with a Firearm. This isn’t a regurgitation of other training, this isn’t rehashing of other training programs. This is a fresh and new approach without hype, and without fanfare. Daniel is very easy going, none of that over the top bravado that some trainers have… Outside of Training, He’s one of the best guys I know. You are going to enjoy this training program, you are going to learn a lot from this program, and you will be glad you got it. I’ve been watching it and it’s fantastic. I look forward to taking one of his courses in person one day.

There are two parts and each is only $5.56.  That’s less than lunch a drive through.

VITALS OF DEFENSE.

Weapons

SHOT 2014 Impressions

15 Comments

This year’s SHOT Show was pretty optimistic compared to the last couple years.  Last year it felt more like a funeral as there was a heavy cloud over everything.  Year before, the ATF arrested a bunch of guys from S&W, which put a wet blanket on a lot of folks.  This year… The table was turned.
Our friends at Tannerman’s Trading Company snapped THE PHOTO that captured the Spirit of SHOT this year.

1609803_10152227583106289_1527628208_n
Ryan Horst spotted this and nudged Travis Bishop who snapped this classic picture that has gone viral.  It’s all over Facebook and hitting the blogs now.  (Even mine!)  Agree with this or not, it’s a good example of Peaceful Resistance.  One of the ATF Agents did admit he laughed at it.
I’ve posted on Facebook my impressions of some of the guns I took the opportunity to check out.

Glock 42. It’s the best .380 Auto now. Take that for what its worth… There is no reason that wasn’t a 9mm. Glock will own the .380 Market – Yippy Skippy. 4 years late, Gaston.
The Glock 41 is awesome and I must have one. Points and feels better than a 21SF in my hands. I will have one. I’m a sad Ogre that it will not be available in 10mm. Glock seems to be done with 10mm. Hopefully Lone Wolf can make a conversion slide/kit for that.
I really can’t tell you how much I dislike the Remington R-51. The feel of it in the hand was disappointing. Longer than a Solo, and a little taller… but the action when I pulled the slide back was just terrible. Notchy doesn’t begin to describe it. The grip safety is horrible too. Oh, it will sell. For awhile. I wouldn’t take one as a gift. I’d rather have a blister on my belt line than an R-51. I consider it suspect they would let a few people shoot it at Gunsite, but not let the gun press shoot it at the Media Range Day. Disappointed and Suspect move. Now, if they got rid of the Grip Safety and the stupid action and made it with a normal lock system… the gun would be good. Maybe.
Sig’s 320 really is an adhock mashup of putting a striker system in a P250. It was disappointing and I was hoping for better from SIG. Trigger felt Twangy. The gun felt more like a toy than a serious weapon to me. If this is SIG’s push for future pistol development… I find it very sad. I heard one guy say that S&W and Springfield better take note! I about laughed until I saw the dude was wearing a SIG badge. Yeah, no bias there.
Walther has a 5″ barrel version of the PPQ. THIS is the Sleeper of the SHOT SHOW. No fan fare. No glitz. Just a quiet presence in the small Walther booth. I freaking love it. I’ll get one of those too, one of these days.

The other weapon that I am impressed with and ogled was the Desert Tech’s MDR.  A Caliber Changeable Bullpup that can be run ambi.  Very well thought out, and handles well.  Feels good.  Looks good, and you can shoot it right or left handed without changing anything.  It’s impressive.  To say the least, I want it.  I think I’m going to have to start saving up.  Because it can go 5.56, .300 Blackout… and .308.  I’m quite smitten with it.  Photos of that are found here.

 

Uncategorized

Unicorns

24 Comments

A good Browning High Power has always been my #1 Unicorn. Followed very closely by #2, a SIG P210.
Those are so close as to be more like 1 and 1.2…

The Browning is a very special pistol to me.  Not that I’ve some nostalgia for it… but I’ve just always held it in high regard.  The pistol is almost as historic as the 1911 and is considered by many to be John Moses Browning’s crowning achievement in handguns.
The SIG has it’s own merits that make it extremely desirable.  One is it’s fabled accuracy. The other is its accuracy.  The downside to the SIG P210 is that it’s a very expensive pistol.  It requires a lot of machining processes, which naturally increase it’s cost.  But there is a cult following of the 210 that doesn’t allow used 210’s at reasonable prices to be found.  Those that are put on the market are snagged up so quick it’s insane.  Now that SIG is officially making them again, it’s going to mean new used 210’s on the market, so hopefully this changes.  But most guys who buy one, and shoot it, do not sell them off.  I’ve yet hear anyone that has actually owned one that said they didn’t like it.  Not one.  I’ve heard some guys who’s borrowed one sour grapes..

 

More on this later.

Government

I miss the good old days

6 Comments

When ATF was “Automatic Transmission Fluid.  When NSA was “No Such Agency.  Before TSA and Homeland Security.

Back when things made sense.  And now when something does make sense, it’s taken as a surprise.   Check this out.

bilde

Detroit— If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday.

Urban police chiefs are typically in favor of gun control or reluctant to discuss the issue, but Craig on Thursday was candid about how he’s changed his mind.

“When we look at the good community members who have concealed weapons permits, the likelihood they’ll shoot is based on a lack of confidence in this Police Department,” Craig said at a press conference at police headquarters, adding that he thinks more Detroit citizens feel safer, thanks in part to a 7 percent drop in violent crime in 2013.

Craig said he started believing that legal gun owners can deter crime when he became police chief in Portland, Maine, in 2009.

“Coming from California (Craig was on the Los Angeles police force for 28 years), where it takes an act of Congress to get a concealed weapon permit, I got to Maine, where they give out lots of CCWs (carrying concealed weapon permits), and I had a stack of CCW permits I was denying; that was my orientation.

“I changed my orientation real quick. Maine is one of the safest places in America. Clearly, suspects knew that good Americans were armed.”

Craig’s statements Thursday echoed those he made Dec. 19 on “The Paul W. Smith Show” on WJR (760 AM), when he said: “There’s a number of CPL (concealed pistol license) holders running around the city of Detroit. I think it acts as a deterrent. Good Americans with CPLs translates into crime reduction. I learned that real quick in the state of Maine.”

Robyn Thomas, director of the the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in San Francisco, disagreed.

“I think at its core, his position is an emotional one, based on the idea that people feel safer when they have guns. But studies have shown more guns don’t deter crime,” Thomas said. “There’s no research that shows guns make anyone safer, and it does show that, the more guns in any situation, the higher the likelihood of them harming either the owner, or people who have access to them.”

Rick Ector of the Firearm Academy of Detroit, which teaches gun safety classes, said Craig’s comments are unusual for a police official.

“It’s a huge, radical departure for the police chief to say good people should have access to firearms,” said Ector. “I’m not ready to say he’s pro-gun just yet, but it’s vastly different from what police chiefs have said in the past.”

Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police director Robert Stevenson agreed.

“A lot of police officers have no problem at all with law-abiding citizens having guns,” Stevenson said.

“I think it’s probably like the citizenry: Some are for it, some are against it. But most police chiefs don’t want to talk about the subject.

“It’s a divisive issue, and a lot of times chiefs are reluctant to get in the middle of those debates. Gun control, the death penalty — most chiefs try to stay out of those discussions. Craig speaks his mind; you’ve got to give him credit for that.”

According to a March 2013 anonymous poll of 15,000 officers by the law enforcement website policeone.com., almost 90 percent of the respondents believed casualties would be decreased if armed citizens were present during shooting incidents, while more than 80 percent supported arming teachers who were trained with firearms.

Although Craig said more responsible gun owners would likely lower crime, in the past he also has called for a ban on assault weapons, regulating high-capacity magazines, tighter restrictions on Internet ammunition sales and more stringent background checks for merchants who sell firearms at gun shows.

Detroit police have reported 73 justifiable homicides in the city since 2011. The number in 2013 was 15, down from 25 the previous year.

Most of those cases involved citizens who defended themselves by killing criminals. Among them: 77-year-old Willie White, who in March 2012, fatally shot a man who’d broken into his northwest Detroit home.

Prior to the incident, White’s home had been broken into several times. The break-ins stopped after he killed the 18-year-old intruder, he said.

“I think these criminals would definitely think twice if they knew more citizens were armed,” White said. “I know it stopped them from breaking into my place.”

ghunter@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2134

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140103/METRO01/301030038#ixzz2pRMAXNYr

Uncategorized

First Post of 2014

6 Comments

Well, let’s just get this out of the way.  I have a new desk calendar, so that means it’s a whole new year.  I’m really not all that hyped about the whole New Years thing.  This just means we’re all a little older and we still keep plugging along doing what we’re doing… except now we’re doing it with 58 Billion in new taxes and 40,000 new laws.  This also means we get to start worrying about Taxes and all that… Let me find my party whistle for that.

I started out 2014 as optimistic as ever, but that faded faster than my list of New Years Resolutions.  Which was first to have one.  I couldn’t find it.  SO.

For us Gun Guys, the New Years means getting ready for SHOT SHOW which is in a couple weeks.  Why is SHOT always in January?  Really it needs to be in March.  March is a much more reasonable time.  Spring time.  The new beginning.  Where as January is the dead of winter and I’ve yet to travel to or from SHOT without having to use Four Wheel Drive at some point.  Well, Last year I did drive a 4×4, but didn’t engage it.  We were however engaged by Homeland Security armed with HK MP5 topped with EOtechs… And this year I’m looking at a lack of snow and now suddenly wondering if I should fly to Salt Lake and rent a 4×4 for good luck.   Alas, the flight is already booked and the down side is that the flight plan actually takes me to LAX before rebounding back to Vegas.  So not only do I have to enter California, but I’ll be in Los Angeles of all places.   I must have been unusually cruel to puppies in another life.  But still… SHOT SHOW.  I’ve got a schedule of meetings I’m putting together, and in between, I’m going to be looking at some of the New Hotness.

Already there is much buzz about the Remington R-51 pistol, which you have all already seen.  Quick note to all those telling to look at the Remington R-51 Pistol. Yes, we’ve seen the new Remington R-51 and are blown away by the resurrection of the strange design from 1917 that was then a commercial failure but will now be a dramatic renaissance. It is a good looking pistol and different from what is current fashion. We are sure it will sell like hot cakes.  However it does not impress me. The action seems wonky to me and I don’t like it. While it has some nice features, I’m just not as impressed as some folks.  I eagerly await the return of the Savage 1907 and the Borchardt C-93. I shall start saving immediately.  But I’ll look at this new R-51 and give it a fair shot.  I will strive to be open minded, as I always am and will freely admit that I was wrong if it turns out that I am.  I’ve changed my opinions on many things as new information comes to light.  So while I’m not impressed in the slightest, if it feels good in the hand, if it has a good trigger, those are certainly pluses.  But reliability is my main concern and reliability will not be proven at SHOT Show.

Weapons

Glock’s Model 42, their new .380 pistol.

25 Comments

Okay, the cat is out of the bag on Glock’s new Model 42 pistol.  It’s a sub-compact, single stacked .380 Auto, according to TFB.  Check the link for the apparent specs.
Now, a lot of people have expressed disappointment over this pistol, even though it’s not been released yet.  I’ve even muttered that Glock is about 4 years late on the .380 Craze Wave.  Colion Noir has even said that “It’s the gun no one has asked for“.

You know what though?  I think it’s brilliant.  Look at what this little Mini-Glock is going to be and compare it to what’s already on the market.   What is it going to compare with?    Ruger LCP, KT P3AT, S&W Bodyguard, the Kahr something or other… I think Glock is just Depth Charged everyone else in the Little .380 Market.  What’s one thing none of the other .380’s have?  A decent trigger.  Is a decent trigger important on a little gun?  Sure as hell it is.  Even more so.  Try to shoot a Mouse Gun accurately.  It’s damn near impossible.   So if Glock rolls out the 42 with their stock 5.5 pound pull, and if it has a decent barrel in it… the 42 will have instantly blown everything else out of the water in that market segment.  And if we have easy to swap sights like normal Glocks… fantastic.

Pocket Pistols remain a popular choice for Concealed Carry.  .380 isn’t the New Hotness anymore… That was taken by .410 Shotshell firing revolvers and then by 9mm Sub Compacts… but .380 Auto remains popular.  Glock took their time engineering it.  So what?  SIG took 2 years to roll out a .40 cal pistol, and they did that with the 229.  This was back when SIG took time to do actual engineering, sure, but see, Glock is even more careful.  We’ve not seen Glock’s Pistol Caliber Carbine yet, have we?  And that’s been rumored since before there was an Internet.  I think I first heard about it on my Dial Up Prodigy account.

I’m not saying I’m going to rush out and get a 42.  But I can see it banging the gong for a lot of folks who want something as concealable as possible, yet still want to be able to shoot it. I think the 42 will be a real winner.

Weapons

Why I prefer Glock

11 Comments

It’s all about simplicity, really.  Nothing needs to be tuned or tweaked.  Nothing needs adjusted.  Out of the box, you could take it, unprepared to a 500 round pistol course and run it without problems.  Then when you get home you can throw it in your gun vault and neglect it for as long as you like.  When you take it out again, it will still run.
Any “upgrades” are optional.  Such as sights.  You can shoot it just fine with the factory sights, but may find improvement with some aftermarket options.  But that doesn’t effect the reliability.  It’s out of box performance is exceptional.  Easily the best I’ve experienced.  Even better than S&W M&P’s and XDM’s, both of which are outstanding systems.  And while many complain that Glock is uncomfortable – that’s something that is easily changed like the Sights.  You can do it yourself.  At home.  With some sandpaper and a soldering iron that you can buy for 10 bucks from Harbor Freight. I did.

Government

Hate and Loathing in D.C.

14 Comments

Congress showed their hand prematurely.

GRIT YOUR TEETH AND READ THIS.

The Obama Administration asks you to sacrifice everything.  Your health, your lives, and the well being of your families.  They ask you to train yourselves to stomp on those that simply ask that the Government follow the Constitution.  They label your fellow Veterans as National Threats, potential Terrorists, or Dangers to society.  You are only useful to them while you are in Uniform and On Duty.  And as soon as you take off your Uniform, you become one of Them… those very people you were told to keep an eye on, to watch out for, to be ready to fight “just in case”.    They don’t care about you.  You are just a guard dog, to be chained up in the back yard when not needed.   They consider you only to be political pawns at best.   They are in fact disgusted by your very existence.  This Administration has shown that it does not care… They cut your benefits, they cut your health care… Hell, they were even closing your Post Exchanges when and were they could.  Where your families buy their groceries.  4th of July Fireworks?  They cancelled them.

These people think you are stupid. I forget who it was, Vice President Al Core or then Senator John Kerry that pointed to the Marines and threatened his children that if they don’t do well in school they will end up like those Marines. WTF kind of respect is that? That’s not respect. That’s loathing. You Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers, are beneath them. They hate you. And they want you to hate Civilians that love the Constitution. The very document that you swore your Oaths to Protect and Defend.

How long must this be endured?

Government

That’s your Dynasty?

15 Comments

The NDAA was passed into law. Meaning that the Government can sweep you up and lock you away indefinitely without due process. It’s pretty much the suspension of our constitutional rights. Innocent until proven guilty? Gone. Speedy trial? Gone. Right to face your accuser? Gone. The Constitution? It’s a foot note in the history books now.
But who cares? Some guy on a TV Reality Show got booted!
Republicans locked armed with Democrats and voted to cut the benefits and healthcare for Vets… But didn’t make any cuts on themselves… and of course, by the standing law they put into place, they will continue to get an increase ever year.
But who cares? Some guy on a TV Reality Show got booted?
And if they are not talking about Phil Robertson (Yeah, I know his name because I’ve met him. I’ve not watched his show) they are talking about Miley Circus shaking her boney ass.
What about Obama making up rules and changing laws at his own whim? The NSA is recording fucking everything… It’s all out of control.

I’m sorry but I thought I remember growing up and learning that we had 3 branches of the Government and that it was the Legislative Branch’s job to make the laws, and the Executive Branch’s job to enforce them, and then the Judicial Branch to make sure it was all legit.
All of this is a sad puppet show now. It’s political theatre… and the show is a Satire.

So maybe there is no difference anymore with talking about one Performer, Phil, or the other, Obama.

The Government makes me feel so greatly disappointed that guys like West and Mattis haven’t take shit over. There’s a Ticket I could vote for. Take it over, knock it down and hit the big red RESET button and put the laws back to how they were originally. Because it was pretty damn good then.
All men, created equal… That says it all right there.

Weapons

Shooting just for some fun.

3 Comments


It’s good to get out and just pop a few rounds for fun. Nothing serious. Brought a couple of my boys out, joined by Louis Quarleno and we just had some fun shooting just for the fun of shooting.

The guns were my Daniel Defense DDM47vLW, and a Bushmaster ACR. Both great rifles. No malfs. No problems.
I have to say that my Daniel Defense keeps creeping up the later in “Favorite Rifle Ever” category. It’s the Light Weight version, but with the Battle Comp 1.5 on it – there’s just no recoil to speak of and the accuracy is right up there were my Rock River Elite A4 was, but the Daniel Defense is 1/2 the weight of that beast. The other thing I really like on the Daniel Defense is the Lucid HD7 optic. Simple, Solid, and it just works. I love the reticle options, but pretty much just always keep it on the T shaped option, because it’s fast and accurate… or I should say that I’m the fastest and most accurate with it.

Oh, and as you can see, I was playing around with my Drift HD Camera. The Glocks came out too, but no video of that. Even though we did try to mount the Drift HD under Q’s Glock 17. It worked, but the video result was just boring.