Tag Archives: Guns

3D Printing

My sons and I were discussing current events today and the subject of Printable Guns came up.  Along with other topics such as how most new tech is driven by the porn industry….
So, were talking about the 3D printers will one day combine printing circuits which will allow you to print a drone, and the controller for it.  And print your own robot…. And once the porn industry gets a hold of it, you can take creeper pics of some hot chick you saw, then go home and print her as a Lovebot to molest… Or download a celebrity. 
Back to the gun issue.  ITAR shutting down the plan for a 3D printable gun is the government building sandcastles in front of the coming tide.  It’s futile.  The cat is out of the bag.  And since schematics and detailed plans are already out there for most any type gun… The only issue is one of material science.  And instead of printing a gun, print molds to make guns out of better materials.
Colt started out with a wood carved revolver… Now look at it all.  I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.

My Rifle.

This is my person AR-15.  I’m not done tweaking it yet.  I’m going to shoot some Olive Drab Green on it, a little brown on it, and some MagPull Flat Dark Earth… But I’m in no hurry to do so.  I’ll select color and pattern after I move to NC.  Get the local colors there.  Going all FDE isn’t going to do me a bit of good out there.  And I’m not going to do it in anything fancy like Ceramic empregnated polymer or epoxy based resins or teflon infused bone.  None of that.  Krylon.  Spray on, rattle can, Krylon.  Why?  To remind me… that this rifle is a Tool and not a Precious Keepsake.  The wear on the Krylon will be viewed as Training Badges.  Scars gained in activities that develop and teach skills.
Also, I’m going to order a drop in trigger for it – because, to be honest, the trigger is Meh.  I was going to order a popular now trigger that starts with a G and no one can pronounce the name the same way twice.  But instead, I’m going to order one from “Black Rain”.  They have a solid adjustable unit that lets you tune it.  I like that.
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Instead of taking the time to order put parts together, I just started out with an off the shelf rifle.  I selected a Daniel Defense DDM4V7 Light Weight.  Then Joe at Crusader Weaponry installed the BattleComp muzzle brake and hit the Bolt Carrier Group with a Permanent treatment of Crusader Weaponry’s SLIPSTREAM lubricant.  Makes the gun run slick and snot, and it feels like a .22LR when shooting.

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Here you can see the BCG better.  The Slipstream gives it a satin grey finish… nothing flashy or “pimped out” about it.  It’s just slick.  If you hand cycle it slowly, you can actually feel the bolt lock and unlock within the action.    On top of the rifle is the Lucid HD7 Gen 3 FDE optic.  Backing it up is a set of MagPul flip up sights… which is kinda pointless as the Lucid is bullet proof and the batteries last forever.

I’ve thought about putting an upgraded optic on it… something “Better”.  But looking at the so called better options… I’m really not seeing any Red Dots that qualify as tangibly better. I’d have to go all the way up to the Trijicon SRS… and those suckers retail for over 900 bucks, for only some sort of perceived “Betterness”.  Yeah, I’d rather spend all that extra coin on ammo.

If I do switch off this optic… it would only be for something that was magnified  Perhaps in a 1-4 variable.  But to be honest, nothing as really sold me to justify the swap.  Vortex has a PST 1-4 something or other that looks cool, but has huge unprotected turrets that can easily get spun unintentionally.    Forget that.   Yeah, I’m happy with the Lucid HD7’s.   They define “Bang for the buck” value.

3D Printing and guns.

You cats with the 3D Printers are making it wrong.  Guns made this way, using conventional designs, are resulting in fragile, failure prone temporary guns.
Rather do that, do a more robust design, or better yet, print Molds and Cast stronger parts.
Designs like the Sten or Ingram would be simple to do.
Just saying.

Dear Colt and Remington

The State of New York is going to pass the Micro Stamping requirement. They do not believe you would actually move out over handguns stamping as they are a smaller portion of your business.
Well, here is the thing… your customers are not going to want stamped guns.  Its bullshit science, easily removed or worn off, its a useless requirement.   But is going to do this regardless. NY thinks you guys are blustering.
The stigma of rolling over and doing the stamps is going to hurt you worse than just pistol sales. I sell a lot of rifles, tons of Remingtons. I can easily see the customer base turn against you, even here where you are hugely popular.
Look at S&W and the Department of Urban Housing Agreement.  S&W almost didn’t survive that, and they are still suffering from it today.
You guys need to move to a state where you would be cherished, appreciated for who you are.
Come to Utah.
A state that has one the highest guns per capita than anywhere else. Not only come to Utah… but come out to Vernal, Utah.  We have the highest per capita in the State. 
Just saying…. why live where you are not wanted?  Live where you would be loved!
Besides… Utah was built by people leaving New York.  Its like a tradition.

The One Rifle.

On YouTube I watched a video by a fellow named James Yeager about how there is no such thing as One Rifle for everything.  He calls it a myth. 
I call Bullshit on that.
History is full of instances where a man has just one rifle and did everything with it, just fine.  Survived to tell the tale.  James Yeager is free to express his own opinions, but he is not free to his own Facts.  US History, be it Frontier History, Western Expansion, Wild West, Military History… what ever kind of history you want to call it.  Only in our Modern Email Era do we enjoy having more than one rifle for different purposes. 
In this Modern Era, the late Colonel Jeff Cooper considered a One Rifle concept and called it the “Scout”.  His Scout Rifle Concept is a proven winner.  Steyr manufactured their Scout with Jeff’s blessing and assistance.  And it pretty much did what was promised.  Now Ruger and Savage are making Factory Scout Rifles with pretty good success.
Any one of these would make for a fine “One Rifle” solution. 
Historically, the One Rifle has been a Winchester Lever Action in .30-30, .32 Special or the like.  Today a good solid and smooth cycling Lever Action is truly a thing of joy.  There are few things you can’t do with a .30-30.  I’ve even killed an Elk with one at 200 yards, and I’m sure I’m not the only person in history to have done so.
Today’s Rifleman though is packing an AR.  The Black Rifle has gone mainstream… and for many new shooters, the AR is The One.  The AR-15 might be kind of light for a One Rifle, but an AR-10 type rifle gives you some considerable advantages in terminal performance on big game.
After some consideration, I’m thinking a new One Rifle is more than doable.    Let’s do that AR platform in .308.  Let’s hit it with a light weight, 16″ True Polygonal Rifled Barrel, and let’s give it some lightweight furniture with an adjustable stock.   Simple, Clean, and effective in most any situation.  Give it an adjustable 1-4 power optic.  Give it a tough finish, resistant to abrasion and corrosion. 
Contact CrusaderWeaponry.com to order you a Crusader One Rifle.

How to Invest in Guns

Many questions arise on the subject of investing in firearms.  Look guys, I’m not going to tell you what guns you should and shouldn’t buy.  I’m not a Stock Broker or Financial Adviser.  And I can’t tell you what a good buy is because Gun Values hinge very heavily on the Gun’s Condition.  Condition is everything Make, Model, Year, and Condition.  Condition is like Mileage on a Car since there is no Odometer or such in a gun.  In a gun, every little mark, scuff, blemish, scratch and ding subtracts from a gun’s Value.

Let’s talk about this more…

Continue reading How to Invest in Guns

.22 Rimfire for serious defense?

I’ve always scoffed the use of .22LR for Self / Home defense.  But consider the following.

The HK MP5, in .22 LR.
CCI Stinger, a .22 round at 1640 FPS.

A combination such as the above as a lot of potential for a .22LR House Gun or Truck Gun.  The Stinger is pretty much the hottest thing going for .22LR that I know of.  It claims 1640 FPS, which is smoking for these little Rimfires.  Put 25 of those little suckers in a little carbine such as this HK MP5, or an S&W M&P15-22, or even a good Ruger 10/22, and you just might have something there.

I know I don’t want to catch any of these Stingers, and certainly not 25 of them.  That’s a pretty goodly amount of fire power in a package that even a small child or frail adult or very strange ladyboy could handle with little problem.

We’ve nodded at the value of a training analog using such rimfires to offset the cost of ammunition with 5.56mm and the like.  Ammo is expensive, but luckily .22LR can be had in bulk at the average price of 20 bucks for 500.

As a survival tool, .22LR is a clear winner for sure.  Packing 500 rounds is pretty easy compared to 500 rounds of anything else.  Lots of ammo on hand, cheap ammo, it has a lot going for it.

.22LR is a very lethal little round when used with good accuracy.  It’s killed quite a few things over the years.  And it’s been used with success as a defensive tool as well.  However the point of Defense is not to Kill.  The point of Defense is to Stop A Threat.  The mad man with the knife is the model often used as an example, and perhaps this is unfair for the rimfire, as it’s also unfair to most handguns… only thing that really works there is a 12 gauge anyways and even then you are going to use multiple shots, so what chance does your 9mm have let alone a .22?    The most often “Defense Use” of a weapon is pulling the gun up, pointing it at the Threat and saying “STOP”.  This usually works because even stupid bad guys don’t want to get perforated regardless of caliber.  And a scary looking .22LR like the picture posted is probably going to be every bit as effective for this purpose as anything else.  If not, you have 25 bullet points in your argument to present… I am thinking that this might be convincing enough.

Wild animals don’t speak English, and can be unimpressed with your fancy gun regardless of caliber.  Noise often scares them away and any gun shot can do the trick quite often.  Having a high capacity here is a very good thing though because if the warning shot (ONLY FOR WILD ANIMAL THREATS OUTSIDE OF THE CITY) fails to send the critter running away, it’s going to come at you.  Some animals are much tougher to stop than others.  Badgers for one.  I hit one with a car and then a .45 and it just got pissed. (I was the one that ran away!  Evil little fucker!)

The key here with a .22 LR for Defense is ammo.  You want to use the good stuff for this.  And I’m talking STINGERS or VELOCITORS.  I’d not use anything else.  The cheap bulk stuff is good for plinking and practicing, but for serious use, keep your mags full of the quality made stuff.  Mini-Mag HP’s are the Minimum.  Shot Placement is more critical than ever here because the stopping factors such as hypovolemic shock are not going to come into play here.  The hotter rounds as mentioned are your best bet for penetration and tissue/organ disruption.  Hollowpoints are advised as well.  Not because they expand, because they rarely do reliably… but because the flatter ogive cuts more tissue instead of pushing it apart out of the way.  To get the Shot Placement that is so needed, practice becomes very important and again, the .22LR lets you do this.  So if you are practicing all the time with your .22 and you can make 5 fast hits in a blink at the sound of the buzzer… that’s a pretty solid defensive response.

Feel free to discuss or argue below.

FNH SCAR 17

I finally got my hands on a FNH SCAR 17, or SCAR Heavy as it’s also called.  Retailing for 2899.99, it’s not a cheap rifle… it’s not the most expensive one out there, but is it worth the asking price?

It’s a “Nice” rifle. But it’s not almost 3 Grand worth of nice. It’s freaking Injection Molded Plastic with some Stamped parts and a Mediocre Barrel… with Proprietary Expensive Magazines. If it has anything about it that is an actual tangible advantage to other 7.62mm Weapons – is that the SCAR is a very lightweight gun for it’s size…. because it’s plastic.  Since when did plastic become worth as much as Titanium?  Is it the notoriety of SOCOM affiliation?  No, really, is it?  Because there is another FNH .308 semi auto rifles that are also used by SOCOM in even more limited secret squirrel numbers… The FNH FNAR.  More accurate.  Less money.  And in my opinion a better rifle… but that’s another topic.

I like the SCAR 17 though.  It’s cool and different, and would make for a great mountain assault rifle.  If I was asked to patrol the mountains on foot with a small team, the SCAR 17 might be a great option for that.  But this gun isn’t worth almost 3 Large… Not even close. This is an 800 Dollar gun with 2000 Dollars worth of Gee Wizz. The trigger sucks, the sights suck, the action is about as smooth as an out of the box WASR-10, and the reported accuracy is average for a DPMS Carbine.  Not something I’d personally spend my money on…. not that much money.  I’d rather have Joe at Crusader Weaponry build me a custom SR-25 rifle, light weight, 16″ barrel, with accuracy like a laser pointer.  But that’s just me.  Now, if FNH was more reasonable on the price… say 1499.99, that would be a much better price level and I could get behind the SCAR.

There is one more thing about the SCAR 17 though.  It’s rare and exclusive, giving it an air of superiority based on that fact alone.  Like early iPod or iPhone adopters, they could be snobbish about it… but now everyone has iPods and iPhones and it’s cooler now to own a Droid phone.  (argue that in another thread I’ll start in a moment)   That isn’t going to happen anytime soon with the SCAR 17.  It’s going to always remain a rare find and highly sought after.

You know what… screw it… if I had a spare wad of cash and already had a Crusader Broadsword – I’d freaking have a SCAR 17 in a heartbeat.  Wouldn’t even have to think about it.  I’d have Joe trick it out, sure, but I’d still get one in an instant.  Who am I kidding?  Why?  Because it really is freaking cool.  It’s sexy looking and it’s full of potential violence… and that is just what I want to send my money on – Sex and Violence.  Ultimately, all true red-blooded American Males do to.