Tag Archives: Top Ten

Top 10 New Cars I’d kill to Own

Since the NSA is reading everything I write, this is The List.  If our Government needs someone wacked, buy me a Warehouse, someplace secluded, near Wilmington, NC, and park one of Each in it for me.  Licensed and Insured for Life, and I’ll go Terminator on any target in any country:

10.  Porsche Cayman S.   Probably Porsche’s best sports car they have ever made.

9.  Cadillac CTS-V.  Cadillac’s middle finger to BMW.  It’s beautiful, powerful, handles like a tactical weapon, and the only downsides according to Top Gear is that it’s not British.

8.  Ford F-150 4 Door RAPTOR.  Because brute force needs to be all terrain sometimes.

7.  Mazda  Mazdaspeed3.  The 2.5 Liter version, with a manual.  I like the Hot Hatch category of cars, and remember with fondness the VW GTI I once had. However the new Golf GTI’s are sad and don’t have that edgy seat of the pants feel.  The Mazdaspeed3 does.  I think it’s the best looking of the hot hatch bunch too.

6.  Land Rover’s Range Rover Sport, with a Supercharged 510-hp 5.0-liter V-8.   It does everything very well, it’s fast, and it looks down it’s nose at all other SUV’s.  And it’s one of the coolest looking SUV’s I’ve ever seen.

5.  Audi RS7.  The straight up pissed off version of the A7.  Twin Turbo, V-8 in the most powerful sedan Audi will let us Americans buy.  And it’s the best looking Audi I’ve ever seen.  I saw one in Wilmington and it was like a vision of power and glory.  It slid past me on the highway like it was a shark on land.

4.  Ford Mustang GT500.  Part of me has always loved the Mustang’s looks.  I find faults with them as well, some faults I’ve not been able to overcome, but the latest GT500 cross the line and it’s become one of those cars that has to go on this list.  Steven McQueen would have this car.

3.   Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT.  Because Hemi.  It’s a Hot Rod.  Its fast and angry and sexy as hell and apologetically so.

2.  Subaru BRZ.  One of the most True Sports Cars ever made.  I would have to have an extra 10 grand for upgrades, because it has a lot of potential that is waiting to be tapped.

1.  The Corvette Stingray.  I’ve always disliked the Corvettes for one reason or another.  But the latest Stingray just does everything so Spot On.  It’s performance and styling are on point, but more than any other Vette, the interior is done right now too.  If you could image sitting in a Space Fighter – that’s the Vette.  The dream of the Flying Cars in the 50’s is realized in the Stingray.

It’s really hard to do JUST a Top 10.  So I’m going to add a couple that are default and not negotiable.  

Chevy SS.  Basically an imported Holden from Oz.  Nothing wrong with that is the formula works.  Simple car, huge engine.  This is the modern iteration of the classic Muscle Car, done well.  I love the new 2014 Impala, but it lacks the vigor that the name plate should have.  This however, has some of the same styling touches that I liked about the Impala, used those and then stuffed it with power, insanity, and malice.  This car should be a Police Car is about 4 months from now… It has more room than the popular Chargers which actually make for very poor police cars due to the lack of room inside.  Ford’s SHO is nice, but it’s front wheel drive.  The SS just might be the last of the big american V-8 up front, turning the wheels at the back… The last of the American Muscle Cars.

A Unimog.  In a 4 Door van configuration.  Like this, for example.  This would probably be my Zombi Apocalypse rig.  Able to roll over and through just about anything out there. Just the big “frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” approach to any situation that doesn’t require going fast.  It’s available in just about any configuration, for any job that has you going away from pavement.  Or rational thought.  It’s the AK-47 of Trucks.

 

Top Ten Guns used in Crime

According to Time Magazine:

1. Smith and Wesson .38 revolver
2. Ruger 9 mm semiautomatic
3. Lorcin Engineering .380 semiautomatic
4. Raven Arms .25 semiautomatic
5. Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun
6. Smith and Wesson 9mm semiautomatic
7. Smith and Wesson .357 revolver
8. Bryco Arms 9mm semiautomatic
9. Bryco Arms .380 semiautomatic
10. Davis Industries .380 semiautomatic

I find this all very interesting about what is On and Not on this list.  In my experience, Hi-Points are also highly used, as are Cobra and Charter Arms.  Also, the guns that are not on the list according to the News:  AR-15’s, AK-47’s, and Glocks.   Now, crime according to the Movies and TV:  AR-15’s, AK-47’s, Uzi’s, Desert Eagles, Mac-10’s, Nickle Plated 1911’s, HK P-7’s, and Walther P99’s.

The reality of guns used in actual crimes are that they tend to be cheap, and they tend to be stolen.  S&W revolvers in .38 to .357, this report is as specific as saying “Ford Truck”… You are talking about the most common longest continually made double action revolver on the planet that’s been manufactured since 1908 with the first Hand-Ejector model. That’s over, by my math, a hundred years of constant production.  They are going to be out there in some numbers.   A brand new full sized S&W 686+ is not a cheap gun, MSRP is $849.00.  But I doubt that criminals are sporting a brand new gun.  Not unless they stole it in a home invasion.

Top Ten Guns I Hate: Pistols

10.  The S&W Sigma.   A direct attempt at copying Glock.  Who’s idea was this anyways?  Who thought that it was a good idea to copy Glock so closely the first versions you could even swap parts?  They did a pretty good job to… They got everything right… save for the quality and not knowing what a decent trigger is supposed to feel like.  They were crap then, and only until the last iteration now called the “SD Series” is it even half decent.  Which brings me to #9.

9.  The S&W SD Series.  Trying to make the Sigma into a half decent gun, they’ve almost gone close enough to the M&P  That it makes me scratch my head.  Who are they competing with now?  Drop the SD’s and the Sigmas all together, and lower the cost of the M&P by deleting unnecessary milling processes by giving it normal straight slide serrations and simpler slide geometry like on the SD while keeping the quality high like the rest of the M&P series.  Done.  You’ll be a better price point and you are no longer competing against yourself.   The SD may seem to be filling a nitch, but it really isn’t anymore.  It’s more money than that the cheaper guns, still has the Sigma Stigma, so buyers are just confused about it and either go cheaper or just get an M&P.  Couldn’t give those things away as a Retailer.

8.  Taurus.  Anything Taurus.  This whole list could be just the Taurus Product Catalog, but that’s too easy.  So I’m just going to say “Taurus”.  I’m not a Dealer anymore so I don’t have to make allowances or mince words about them.  The only thing half decent from them are better made by S&W and Beretta.  I know they are growing and trying hard and getting better, but they are not there yet.

7.   CZ P-07 Duty.  It’s ugly.  It’s awkward.  The CZ-100 looked cooler and should have been improved.  “This is a P-01 with plastic frame”, no it isn’t.  Because a P-01 doesn’t look like a Hi Point got drunk and fucked a Baby Eagle with Down Syndrome. I hate the trigger guard, the trigger pull and the sights.  If there is anything good to be said about the P-07 Duty, is that you can’t hurt it’s feelings when you throw it off a bridge from the center span.

6.  Ruger LCR.  A Plastic framed revolver.  W. T. F.  Take something traditional, and make it bite a pillow.  For what gain?  What’s the point?  To make it lighter?  Take an SP101 and make it out of a light weight alloy like Smith & Wesson and even Taurus does with the classic J Frame.  They figured it out, why can’t Ruger?  Come on Ruger, Make an Air Light SP-101.  Put some effort in it.  Instead you phoned it in with a Polymer frame that looks like you made it on a 3D Printer after drinking too much Wild Turkey and staring too long at an HK VP70 and then watching Blade Runner with one hand down your pants.

5.  The SIG 2022.  You want a SIG, but you don’t want to pay for one.  So you get this runt of the litter pick that only has one step below it on the SIG ladder, the P-250… you don’t want that, you want a “Real SIG” as I’ve heard said from behind the gun counter so many times I now have an involuntary eye roll when I hear “SIG 2022”.  While it’s not really a bad gun, it’s just the weird way they made the grips.  They couldn’t sack up and just make a decent grip like other guys, they have to just have interchangeable grips like all the cool guys do… But they could do it like that, they had to make the whole grip frame into two pieces like they just gave up and the end of the design day so it’s like a Stephen King book that’s good until the last chapter when King says “Fuck it” and let’s his Editor finish the ending for him.

4.  The XD.  Sure, it’s a good pistol, functionally.  But it’s dated and now eclipsed by the new XDM series which not only looks better but is better in capacity, trigger and accuracy.  Leaving the base XD’s in the Springfield line up is like Ford leaving the Mustang II in the line up as a low cost alternative to a new Mustang GT.

3.  Kahr’s CW Series.  Horrible patterning and molding on a gun that could be so much better.  The guns themselves are full of good potential but Kahr cheaped out on them so hard that it’s laughable.  The actions are about as smooth as Hillary Clinton’s thighs, while being about the same weight.  It’s impossible to drop the slides using the lever, which is about as sharp edged as a new CRKT knife – and I hate CRKT knives too.  For the price of 399, the gun might hit that “I’m cheap enough to buy on a whim” price, the fact that you can’t even throw in a spare mag makes the CW’s laughable.  And then the price of the upper scale P series is even more laughable considering they look virtually identical.  Find some Middle Ground, make the CW smoother, throw in that second magazine.  The trick to selling a CW is to make sure they don’t try to handle it.  Because they will try to pull the slide back, and then try to release the slide again… at which point the customer fails and and asks to look at the Stoeger Cougar.  Sure it will protect you, but it will also hurt you… leaving the only people who like the CW’s as Domination Mistresses and guys who talk like they’ve had repeated concussions.

2.  I was going to say The Judge here, but I’ll just leave that in the junk pile of #8 and move on to the Hi Point.  However the Hi-Point its self is what it is and remains a self defense value.  If it was food, it would be the burger off the Dollar Menu at McDonalds.  They are cheap.  Crappy, but cheap.  And they work pretty good, for what you paid for it.  But what makes it something that raises my lip into a Billy Idol Snear is the hordes of People Of Walmart who come out of Wal-Zone to defend the Hi-Point, yelling their one toothed yells of how good they are.  I’ve watched 4 of them self destruct in the hands of the owners while shooting.  Spontaneous Self Destruction, or Self Field Stripping… I can’t tell if this is a Bug or a Feature.   Next time someone tells you a High Point is good, ask them to Field Strip it for you.  Piece Of Shit.  For 130 bucks for a self defense tool to ride in a tool box, man, it’s fine for that.  For something to be actually used from time to time – Buy a good tactical folding knife.  You’ll get more mileage out of it.

1.  Kimber Ultra.  Any Kimber Ultra sized 1911.  Ultra Carry, Ultra CDP, whatever it is, it’s going to look nice, but not actually work.  Attractive and Useless… like Half the population of California, Blackberries, and Super Models that don’t speak English.  They are also expensive.   I can’t tell where the pride in ownership of a Kimber Utra CDP comes from, but it must be like owning a Prius.  You have an expensive, nice looking gun that is too good for the rest of us peasants that actually want a tool to be functional.  That’s fine.  You can look down your nose at my pedestrian Glocks, or my son’s M&P… but we can at least get through a day long shooting course without praying to Kimber that the gun finish a Magazine without Jamming.

 

The best defensive handguns in the world

1.  Glock 23. .40 cal.
2.  Caracal C .40 cal.
3.  S&W M&P .40 Sub Compact.
4.  Springfield XDM 3.8 Compact .40 cal.
5.  Glock 19. 9mm.
6.  S&W M&P Sub Compact 9mm.
7.  Caracal C 9mm.
8.  Glock 29 10mm.
9.  Glock 30 .45 Auto.
10.  Springfield XDM 3.8 Compact 9mm.

This list is going raise a few eyebrows. There are many popular guns that are absent. But this isn’t my tipping the hat to the popular. If I was to do that, then this list would have SIG’s, 1911’s, H&K… You know… the guns that are out dated, with cult like followings, premium pricing, and shortcomings for defensive use.
I’m looking at the best options for today and tomorrow. Feel free to disagree.
You’ll notice that I favor .40 cal over 9mm. I also favor the midsized options.