|
FEB '06 Tuesday: 2-28-06: I got an email yesterday that has been on my mind ever since. “I liked your Glock piece today and I must tell you I completely agree on this. I would just like to point out that Springfield XD's, in the same vein, also pose such a problem. How do I know? Because I had a case of the dumbass a month ago and I shot myself in the index finger of my right hand. Like you said, it can be an easy mistake, especially for someone who has taken such a pistol apart hundreds of times. And after 17,000 in hospital bills and a slight timidity where my pistol is concerned, I have begun to ask some questions, and your article happened to come at a coincidental time. So, my question: Is the XD as flawed as the Glock in this respect? Because for a polymer pistol, I think the XD is a really nice weapon, with a lot to it that makes it better than a Glock. But all of this doesn't mean a whole lot if the same potentially fatal flaw exists in the XD, as I am beginning to realize. I am a big fan of your site and I respect your opinion, so I must ask: What would you do if you were me? Should I ditch the XD now and find a 'safer' weapon? - Nick” At first my response was this: “The XD's grip safety should overcome a lot of the Glock's problems. Namely firing when you are not gripping it. But if you are gripping it... Well... Ouch. Glad you are mostly OK now. Handguns - any handgun - should be treated with the same care and respect as you would handle a pissed off cobra. The moment you stop respecting it, it will bite you. You might want to consider a traditional Double Action/Single Action. These new "Light Double Action" do give me concern. Many are not equipped with external safeties and even go so far as to remove them if the regular versions of the gun have them.” However, I've been thinking about this all night and I'm not sure if I like what I said. These “Light Double Action Only” guns have me wondering... Para's LDA, Glock's Safe Action, HK's LEM, SIG's DAK... everyone is bringing something like that to the table now. (Yes, I know the XD is actually a single action but to the end user the system is transparent) The question I am thinking about is this. “Is this a good thing?” I don't know if accidental or negligent discharges are more common with these things, but I can see that such a thing is more easily accomplished. Some of these triggers feel as light as a 1911's, and the pull is impressively short. Is this a good combination? For a shooter who uses the gun for competition, maybe it is. But for a carry gun? On a 1911 type gun, common wisdom dictates that its not a good idea to have the trigger lighter than 4 pounds. Why is that? Because lighter is just too damn light to be safe. Yet this is a gun that has a grip safety and an external safety that you have to flip down. You have to think about it, and then you have to act on the safety. On a Glock, you don't have that. On an XD even, you don't have that if you have a grip on the pistol. On some of these other guns, they don't have that either. Just pull the trigger, and there you go. Double action revolvers have a longer pull, and most of the time they are about 8 pounds or greater. A Glock can be as light as 3.5 pounds with a drop in trigger kit. I've felt even lighter trigger jobs on competitive Glocks. I don't think this is such a good idea. I'm not saying I like heavy triggers. I'm just saying that sometimes “light” is too light, and that maybe in some cases these DAO guns might not be such a great idea. For example, for Cops. I think a Cop Gun should have an external safety. There has been a number of documented cases where a Cop was about to get shot with his own gun, but the bad guy didn't disengage the safety. The result was that the Cop was able to take action and save his life. Other cases are out there with other less happy results of course. But still. I'm of the opinion open carry guns should have external safeties. A CCW gun doesn't necessarily need one, but it should at least have a trigger that you have to conscientiously pull to shoot it. Smooth is one thing. I don't know. The one gun I'm reviewing now, the HK P2000 with a DA/SA trigger... I hate the trigger. It's too damn heavy. Not only do you have to think about pulling the trigger, but it takes effort to do so. Is this safer? I think it is. Is it better? No, not really... makes the pistol harder to shoot well with. I think balance is in order, and the HK is out of balance. My personal favorite pistol is DA/SA, my P-01. It's pull is longer and heavier. I've never had any thought regarding a lack of safety... still don't. I'm not going to accidentally shoot myself in the ass while reholstering it, because the trigger provides enough resistance that one would feel the snag... and I don't have to pull the trigger to take it down, which is certainly a plus. Anyways, let me ask The Horde this. “Are Light Double Action pistols sans external safeties a good idea?” Remember my post about the Ferrari Enzo crash? The Plot Thickens. There was a pistol magazine in the car. The article doesn't say anything really about that magazine... but it does make the story more interesting. The other thing... the owner of the Enzo... the bastard had two of them! Two! There were a lot of guys clamoring because Ferrari wouldn't let them buy one, and this guy has two. Sigh. Look at the photos with that article. The engine is 50 yards away from the car! Ripped in half. That must have been one spectacular crash. If the owner was the passenger and the driver had a gun... well... this all makes for interesting speculation. The truth is probably quite boring. Monday: 2-27-06: LORD OF WAR: This is an interesting film that The Horde might be interested in. The movie of course takes the position that guns are evil and that if there were no guns, there would be no problems in the world... and that most everything about all of this is all America's fault. This film was done very well and by the end you come away feeling rather ill... this was the intention of the film makers. But lets look for a moment at the real truth of this. This movie is based on some facts, that's true. However this film is also leaving out certain based truths. For example, remember the seen when Cage's Character is making a deal and his brother looks out over the tent village? What happens there? We see a woman and child try to run away. And what happens to these people? As they are running, a truck pulls up, a bunch of thugs jump out, each one holding a long machete, and they proceed to chop up the woman and child. This is the truth of the matter. This is the heart of the matter. And the movie makers only gloss over that bit to get to the gun bit. The special edition of this movie comes with a second disk which contains a little documentary about the arms trade. They make it out that should this evil practice of making and selling weapons be put to an end, that there will be peace in the world and we will all live happily ever after... especially if Americans stop driving SUV's. Let me remind The Horde that the Cold War was an extended second phase of World War II, which was of course a Sequel to and caused by the conditions after World War I. All of this happening pretty much before Americans started driving SUV's. World War I we did see the advent of such weapons as tanks and machine guns... even chemical warfare in the form of gasses as weapons. But long before the advent of these things, even firearms in general, the same ground was fought over using much simpler weapons. Arrows, Spears, Swords, Sharp Sticks, and Rocks. It doesn't matter at all what the tool of choice is. Because the weapon is just that, a tool. And if people are denied one sort of weapon, they will use another. The situation in Africa is really and truly fucked up beyond all recognition. It is easy to say that the cause of all this is “Small Arms”. It's much harder so say that the cause is because evil people are in charge and there is nothing we can do about that, but since I'm a bleeding heart liberal I can just say “Its the fault of the gun”. The guns do not pick themselves up and pull their triggers. People do that because they choose to do that. If they didn't have a gun, they would use knives or clubs. If you want to stop the violence you have to get the people to decide that there is something better to do than to kill someone you disagree with. You have to take away that killing instinct and motive. This is much harder to do because it not only takes time in the form of generations, but it also takes coordinated efforts of millions of people. This would be a huge process. First it would require education, then economic reform, and basically an entire rebuilding of the entire nation. And since we are talking about Africa, we are basically talking about rebuilding almost an entire continent. Is such a thing even possible? Yeah, it's possible. We landed people on the moon, so of course this is possible. Realistically could this be done? No, I don't think so. Yes, you do have a continent that is extremely rich in all the natural resources that would be required. You even have a population of people who are strong willed and quite clever... if they really wanted, they could. But they don't really want to. They expect others to do all of this for them. They would rather fight each other over territorial disputes about who gets to sit on which pile of shit. They are so divided into gangs with no ambition other than sitting on top of the pile of shit that they don't see that they could be building cities. This is Africa by and large. Until they can picture themselves as something other than the biggest warlord sitting on the biggest pile of shit, then that's all they are going to have. And really, that's all they deserve to be honest. If your idea of bettering yourself is to kill everyone else around you that has a bigger pile of shit than you do... well, you reap what you sow. I'm not even going to touch all the religious aspects of Africa. Moving on... To blame the US for winning the Cold War, or for the Ukraine for selling their overstock of arms... that's being both simple and narrow minded. Lord of War tells an interesting story... I just wish it told all of the story. Best Guns Ever? Field and Stream is a pretty good magazine, one that I always enjoy reading. The just did a “Gun Nut” issue where they talk about firearms somewhat more than they normally do. According to their survey, the number 1 rifle/cartridge combination is a Remington 700 chambered in .30-06. This combo is used by more hunters than anything else. You know, I really can't argue that. That's a great recipe. That will do just about everything you need to ever do with a rifle. Everything but clear a building... then again CQB work is a different animal altogether. The survey also found the best shotgun to be a Remington as well, the 870 pump action. Again, I can't argue that choice either. Handgun (took my a bit to find that choice, it's a tiny blurb) of choice is the Colt 1911. I'd have to agree. But unlike the other “What's the best” choices, the handgun specified “Best American” handgun ever made. What? Wait a second here. Other guns are “What's the best?” or “What's the best for this certain game?” Handgun choices are limited to American made? That's a bit unfair don't you think? That means the Browning High Power wasn't a contender, the CZ-75 isn't an option, neither are Glocks, SIGs, or the like. I'm sure even if the field was opened up, the 1911 would have still won that round, but the runners up would have been completely different. SIGs come from the factory with polished rails, CZ's come with near perfect ergonomics, Glocks come with... I don't know... but for some damned reason they remain popular. Here is my choices for the “best guns”. However I'm afraid we have to throw in some new categories: Hunting Rifle: Ruger 77 Fighting Rifle: AK-47 Sniper Rifle: M-21 Pump Shotgun: Mossberg 590A1 Automatic Shotgun: Saiga 12 (mainly for the detachable box magazine) Automatic Pistol: CZ P-01 Revolver: Ruger SP101 .357 Magnum This brings me to the subject of Glock automatic pistols. I tend to have an aversion to Glock pistols. I don't say this lightly and I have to admit that I did in fact own one. It was a Glock 17 back when the Glock 17 was new and mistaken for a ceramic, security slipping sinister pistol. I got it because I admired the design. And really, I still do. The action inside the pistol is remarkably compact and will thought out. So what do I not like about them? Well, really I think the design has one fundamental flaw. When you disassemble the pistol for cleaning, the design requires you to pull the trigger in order to remove the slide. I think this is a drastically bad idea for any gun. This requires you to break 2 of the basic fundamental rules of firearms safety. One is to keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire, and the other is to not point your weapon at anything you are not willing to destroy. When I'm at home and I'm taking down my pistol for cleaning I try to keep it pointed in a safe direction, usually upwards. But there is nothing really that I want to destroy up there. For a Glock, not only and I pointed the gun upwards, but I have to pull that trigger. Some have argued my point of view here is flawed and that all gunshops are in violation because they are laid out under the counters all pointing at something. Yeah, that's true, smartass, but a gun in the case doesn't have to have it's trigger pulled to be looked at through the glass. A Glock, you have to pull that trigger in order to disassemble the thing. It takes just a blink of an eye to make a mistake. Just a single slip of the mind... you forget to clear the weapon. Bang. Something has just been shot that you didn't want to be shot. I know personally of about a dozen cases where this has happened and each case the shooter was a long time and experienced shooter, and quite often a cop. I will never own another Glock and I don't think I'll even bring one into my house again. I don't like them. I don't like the way they look either... for a guy who was so clever in designing the pistol's action and trigger system, you would have thought he could have found some way to make the pistol to be not quite so ugly looking. One of the things I appreciate about firearms is the craftsmanship and artistry of the design. The Glock fails in these areas. Sure it works as its utilitarian purpose dictates, but so does a Filing Cabinet... doesn't mean the handgun should look like one. It has all the good looks of a 70's Volvo but none of the charm. Hey, if you like it... good for you. Fine. But me, I don't. Maybe if Glock could take the action, drop it into an alloy frame, give it a take down and safety lever, and mill a decent slide for it... then they would really have something there. But Glock doesn't think so. They have what they call “Perfection”. And that attitude is another thing that turns me off of Glocks. Other gun makers tend to listen to their customers. Glock has never shown any indication that they have ever done any such thing. They only look to expand their market by putting out a new pistol when there is a new caliber. Small Medium and Large in the caliber of your choice... That's not perfection in my book... that's not enough choices for my taste. I want more. Let's not even go into all of the Glock "KB" and other "AD/ND" problems they have. Hell, we didn't even have the term "KB" until the Glocks came out. Sucks to be a Black Male in Virginia if you are wanting to legally buy a gun. This report says why. Now I know there are two sides to every coin. The LEO's I've talked to have all said that what the ATF did was a disgrace. I've yet to hear any credible reasons for the ATF doing what everyone said they have done. I'd would love to hear from anyone within the ATF that can give me the low down on just what the hell was going on and why – and explain to me why these actions were kosher. I can see and understand a reason for the BATF... I really can. But right now I'm seeing a lot more reasons to shut them down as a whole or at least squash the Virginia offices and fire every single person in the ATF that participated in this unconstitutional atrocity of our Second Amendment rights. Last night was pure hell at Ogre Ranch. Our second youngest had to get the Midnight Run to the ER again. Asthma attack like never before. He hasn't had the slightest hint of a problem in about a year, and then all the sudden he's turning blue on us. An can tell you with authority that an 87 Ford Contour SE will do every bit of the 135 MPH indicated on the speedometer and it can cruise at that speed. Thank God for that. The hospital in Roosevelt, Utah is the best one in the Uintah Basin. Thank you to the staff there. Thank you to our friend Kippy who came over to watch the rest of the boys while we flew to the ER. And thank God for letting our son live to see another day. Thinking about tonight... gives me a panic attack inside and I find it hard to breath myself. Bullet wounds are one thing... I'm okay with trauma. Trauma sucks, but at least it's something you can see and you know what to do about it, even if it's just applying pressure or something. With an Asthma attack, pretty much all you are able to do is stand there and watch your kid drown in fresh air. The nebulizer (sp?) with the drug in it didn't help, all the other things didn't help... nothing helped... The O2 and the steroid at the hospital did the trick and helped a lot. I'm going to order an O2 tank as soon as I can. I know that they say O2 is a drug and has to be administered by a licensed doc or some shit... but screw it. I know lack of oxygen when I see it. The blue face and convulsions tend to give that away. This is the only one in my family with Asthma... I don't know where he got it. We are pretty sure that this is brought on by an allergy and we know milk products are one trigger for it, but this time... he hadn't had anything dairy. There is something else. We are going to find out what.
Thursday: 2-23-06: I am so jazzed, I'm having to keep myself from busting out and doing some breakdancing or something. I'm now on board with two new magazines, a truck mag and a car mag focusing on Nissans. I've always been a huge fan of Nissans, because they build cars right and respect the driver. Few makers actually let the drivers manually shift powerful engines these days. Its insulting. You tell Nissan you want a big powerful engine and that you want to shift it manually, they give you a knowing nod and point you to your next car. When I picked up my Contour, I had been looking for a Nissan but the closest one was 250 miles away. Yeah, I know I'll drive that far just for a good sandwich, but still it was a matter of limited time. Love my 'Tour, but a Sentra SE-R or a Maxima? No question. Anyways... pretty jazzed over here. Feel like getting a big chocolate malt right about now. More details about this later. Pontiac is once again killing the GTO. This time the reason is “Airbag Regulations”. Right. If Pontiac had any balls or imagination they would find some way to fix the airbags to meet the regulations. But the truth of it, is that there is no money in the GTO for Pontiac to bother with fixing the problem. Why? Because the GTO isn't selling. The car is just not moving. In Europe, the same car is being sold under the Vauxhall brand as the Monaro. They are selling like crazy over there. So why can't Pontiac move them? Well, look at these two links I just gave you. Take a look at the cars in question... what's different? The front facia. Pontiac just has to put the same ugly front end on everything. So everything from Pontiac looks like a damned Aztec or Grand Am. What Pontiac should have done – other than design a real new GTO instead of importing an car from Australia and giving it such a badge of honor as the “GTO” nameplate – is to just simply have kept the original, handsome front end look. Or better yet, gave the front end the same lines the real old GTO used to have. This psychoticly driven necessity of branding every front end so it can be “recognized” as any given make... this only makes sense if your Brand happens to be Rolls Royce. If you are building cars and you are NOT Rolls Royce. Funny how the Pontiac badge logo looks like the same symbol used by the stock market to indicate falling stocks. Coincidence or Irony? You be the judge. If I was at Pontiac, I'd fire the guy who decided to bring this car out as the GTO. No, it's a good car... very worthy of any American open road. But to call this a GTO is heresy. Pontiac needs to go back to the drawing boards, and chisel out of forged steel a new car with retro styling, that meets the same “Damn that's cool” dynamics that the original GTO started. Because when it came to factory made performance, GTO started it all. I'm still playing around with this HK P2000 pistol. It carries well... and I guess it can be said that overall its a fine pistol. However the more I handle it and shoot it, the less I'm impressed with it. The last few pistols I've reviewed for Concealed Carry Magazine, they've all been great pistols with glowing reviews as a result. This review is going to be, umm... a little different. Wednesday: 2-22-06: President Bush is a big pussy when it comes to National Security. He's opening our Ports to foreign management and totally ignoring our national borders. If he's doing this – how can anyone say he is strong on national defense. And if he isn't strong on national defense – then what good is he? The arguments that the UAE manages the ports of origin where the shipping containers come from isn't a valid argument. That's just making it all the easier for bad guys to abuse the system. Just because we might have a flight coming in from Palestine doesn't mean we might as well let the Palestinians do airport security on this end. Screw that! That's a whole giant disconnect of logic. And Bush who didn't really know anything about it before is now saying he is going to veto any move to by the Congress to stop it? Bush isn't being very smart here at picking his fights. Rush Limbaugh is defending this – but I strongly disagree with him. His response (as always) to those who disagree with him is to insult them. We'll he can insult me all he wants, but the evidence is on my side. The company in question is a state owned company... owned by the UAE... and we know that the UAE has supported terrorism. The British owned company was a private company and as far as we know have not supported terrorism. This is like putting Michael Jackson in a management position of a daycare. This whole thing stinks. I'm sick and tired of watching Bush beat his chest about being strong on protecting America and then just throwing open all the doors and windows. When is Bush going to grow a dick instead of being one? Tuesday: 2-21-06: Okay, so I mentioned some time ago the Mazdaspeed 6 as a worthy car and a potential start for a Ford Fusion SVT. But now, check this out. The Mazdaspeed 3. What they did was take their smaller 3 series car, and shove the same engine as the Mazdaspeed 6 down it's throat. This overcomes the 6's downside, a major weight problem. The Speed 6 might be fast as snot, but it weighs about the same as a damn Lincoln. So you take that potent and smooth engine, drop it into a car that is smaller and weighs almost half as much, and you just might have something very very special. Early reports are saying that the 3's engines are going to be detuned, but that will be something that could be easily remedied to get the engine back to proper levels. Also it is said that that the engine will not be turbo charged. Again, something that could be remedied... and to be honest, the 6's turbo was small and doesn't put out the boost that guys with turbos really want. It needs to be more "turboey". This little Mazdaspeed 3... this is what a “Hot Rod” is all about... a big engine in a small car. Then again, this isn't really that big of an engine... its a 4-Banger. But its an overpowered 4-Banger. Never mind... but the car should be as much fun as Angelina Jolie and Ann Hathaway together in a bathtub full of pudding. On another car note – check this out. The Ferrari Enzo is special to those who are into these red sports cars... the Enzo... news report might say it's worth a million bucks. But in reality, it's worth much more. Because you can't buy one. Even if you took a stack of cash and shook it under the noses of the Ferrari salesmen... you can't buy one. Ferrari selects who can buy one. I doubt highly that the driver of this car was the owner. I suspect it was either stolen or it was a Motor Trend writer. Now about this HK P2000 pistol I picked up yesterday. You know, despite the sloppy yet heavy and gritty 18 pound double action trigger pull... it's not that bad. No, really. Note: I said "as much fun" not more fun. I'm Mad, but not completely mental.
Monday: 2-20-06: HK has sent us a pistol to test which just arrived this afternoon. This is their P2000 9MM pistol. Coming off of a $3000 pistol, I'll be honest... this pistol feels like a chunk of junk. It feels cheap, rough and altogether crappy. The trigger sucks and the sights are something I'd expect on a Glock or a Lorcin or something. Okay, that's just because I was comparing the two different guns side by side. I'll put the Wilson Combat back in the vault and spend some time alone with the HK to give it a fair shake. I've got plenty of ammo for this one, and I'm feeling angry and cruel... feeling harsh... feeling abusive. I'm going to kick this HK around for awhile and if it starts crying for Momma. We all know Virginians can't drive in snow... but damn... this is crazy. I'm thinking about restarting my Paintball section again. Just an idle thought. Thinking out loud. What makes me think about it are three things. First, a guy here at the computer shop is a player and he's trying to pull me back into the sport. Second, Paintball is getting huge and looking at the stuff at SHOT really got me thinking about it all the more. Such a fun/thrilling sport – if you've never played it, you are really missing out. Don't give me that Laser Tag crap, that doesn't fly. And then there is this that Dr. Zox sent me. The M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, FAL, and the MG42 conversions give me chills. The only downside to these sorts of markers, is that they look too real from a distance. You suddenly bust one of these out on my field and I don't know it's a marker, I just might draw my CZ on you. But for the big scenario games that are becoming ever popular... these are just too cool. I like the Automag conversions. I'm an Autococker guy myself, but if I couldn't use one of those, I'd use an Automag. I can't tell you guys how uncomfortable I am about the UAE controlling our ports in Florida now. That's just great. Might as well just lay off everyone working airport security now. This is just fantastic. We can go ahead and cut out the FBI, Homeland Security, and the Border Patrol. Who needs them now? This is like putting sex criminals and child pornographers in charge of all the Day Cares and Schools. Here is a handy little page for you... File Hippo. Lot's of good downloads. Saturday: 2-18-06: Yesterday I was reading through some SHOT Show reports from other fellows and took in all the opinions about the different new guns coming out. What a fantastic time it is to be an American Shooter... we have so many choices about how to turn money into noise now that it isn't even funny. Everyone pretty much is of the opinion that the new FNH USA SCAR rifle is fantastic. The “New” always gets the attention... that's the nature of things. But do we really need it? Other than to keep the whole bloody industry alive and kicking and making cool new shit... does the average end user really need the new flashy things? I don't think so. Look at the new Springfield XD .45 for a second. Great handgun. Outstanding execution of the concept, and it was the hottest pistol at SHOT this year. But look at the 1911, which is essentially a design that is a hundred years old... fires the same caliber... has a solid and honorable war record. Is the XD a better pistol than the 1911? Not hardly. Sure it's different, but different doesn't necessarily mean better. Now what about the SCAR rifle? Does one need the same weapon that the Special Forces use to protect your Castle? Thankfully we have the option to select that same weapon, but do you really need that? No, no you don't. (Don't let your wives read this... because you HAVE TO tell them that you absolutely do need that rifle! It's that cool, brothers... seriously.) Let's take a look at one of the older rifles there at SHOT. I didn't mention it, but I did see an old classic, one of my favorites... an M1 Carbine. This old warhorse was used in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. It remains in stock in certain Armories... and it's still there for good reasons. The old girl is still every bit as powerful – and in fact more so thanks to modern ammo – and it remains easy to use. Experienced shooters always consider the .357 Magnum to be an effective handgun cartridge. The M1 Carbine is much more powerful than the .357, while being easier to shoot and easier to nail your targets with. With modern ammunition, the .30 Carbine cartridge is effective, and I would wager more so than the 5.56MM round for CQB work. Many might argue that, but look at it this way... average 5.56MM is 55 grains to 60 grains... .30 Carbine is 110 grains. Sure the 5.56MM is a lot faster, but 110 grains with a much fatter caliber than .22 at 2,000 feet per second is nothing to sneeze at inside 100 meters. In fact, that's pretty dang good coming out of a package the size of a Ruger 10/22. I'd love one with a Paratrooper's folding stock. Such a small package, you could keep hidden away nice and safe, and at the ready. If you are looking for a home defense rifle, this is really all you need. Some guys might like the idea of hanging lights on it, forward grips, lasers, scopes, web servers... whatever is the trick gadget of the day. But those things are only as necessary as the individual makes them... and there are enough aftermarket things out there that you can trick out an M1 Carbine into an M4-like configuration... but then you loose the simple elegance and good looks of the original M1, you loose the charm, and you gain a lot of weight. Those new gadgets certainly are fun though. Email came in from our friend Marcus Wynne: “...You should read, and review for The Horde, Pauls' book LEADERSHIP AND TRAINING FOR THE FIGHT. I think it is one of the finest books on the tactical mindset and the thinking process for real world fighting written in the last 20-30 years. IMHO. Cheers” Thanks for the heads up Marcus. For the rest of The Horde – Paul Howe is the guy that was leading a Delta team in Mogadishu Somalia... a true American Hero and if the name didn't ring a bell with you... you should have your bell rung. Remember Blackhawk Down? That little incident that spawned the book and the movie? Yeah, that Paul Howe. The man has written a book about training? I'm ordering this book today. Hold on a second... Logging into Amazon.com... there. Ordered. Done. Outstanding. Considering moving Ogre Ranch. Still in the same area, but we are considering buying a much larger (almost 2 acres) plot of land and building a new house on it. Or we could stay where we are at and fixing up the old place we are at now. We don't know yet, but I'm favoring building. Friday, 2-17-06: China has a nuke boat... we knew this, but we hadn't seen a photo yet. Now we have. There is a new Lara Croft now for the next Tomb Raider movie. While others are going to be disappointed by the lack of Jolie, I think this new girl would do just fine. She is very attractive. So why is CNN so pissed that they didn't get to interview Cheney first? Come on CNN, when you drop market share faster than GM stock prices you know you are not the first on the To Do list anymore. These Networks are seemingly filled with a great many crybabies. This is the same network that had one jackhole wearing a blaze orange hunting vest and hat. Why should Cheney have gone to CNN? Who cares about CNN these days anyways? Fox News has more viewers than any other US news agency. So of course Cheney went with Fox. Now we see that this guy that Cheney shot, Harry Whittington, he is out of the hospital now. He'll live. In spite of all the prayers by Liberals to the contrary. This whole event really shows us something about today's modern Liberals and the Liberal Media. Let's to a simple compare and contrast of Cheney and Kennedy: Cheney – Accident. Kennedy – Driving while sodden drunk. Cheney – Sheriff was called within minutes. Kennedy – Walked away and pretended it didn't happen. Cheney – Stood up and took responsibility. Kennedy – Hasn't said a word about it. Cheney – Went to the biggest cable news network and talked about it. Kennedy – Hasn't said a word about it. Cheney – The guy he shot accidentally, invited Cheney to come back and go hunting again. Kennedy – She hasn't said a word about it. Because she can't. Kennedy left her underwater and ran away like a great big slobbering coward. So for all the Libs calling for an investigation – why are you guys not calling for an investigation of Kennedy? There should be an investigation as to why there hasn't been an investigation for hell's sake. I think Cheney and Whittington have handled this with a lot of class, a lot of dignity... honorably. The fools at CNN and the other networks... they should wear jester hats.
Wed 2-15-06: The SHOT Show is Las Vegas was amazing. This was the largest SHOT Show yet, with 615,000 square feet of exhibition space. I know you guys are all wanting to read my report of it. For the handguns, you will have to wait for that to come out in the April issue of Concealed Carry Magazine, along with my review of the Wilson Combat SDS. For rifles, I can post that here: I asked John Mays of Wilson Combat when they were going to build a serious fighting rifle. He pointed to their AR-15 offering and looked for a moment like he was about to beat me over the head with it. I suggested that they try a few AK-47 type rifles. He said that the AK was simple and rugged and reliable enough that they don't need any special work. I said “Yeah, but those are the very same things you guys are banking on with your pump action shotguns.” He looked stunned for a second then said, “Good point.” After a few more minutes of jaw wagging, John decided that he wanted to give a custom AK a try. Let's see if he can talk the other powers that be into actually going through with such a project. So if you see a Wilson Combat AK – sorry. That's my fault. John was fun to walk with, he had work to do or I could have hung out with the Wilson Combat guys all day. Back at the Beretta booth, they displayed their new fighting rifle. It look good. Like a beefier Storm carbine. I liked it well enough, but I have doubts about its strength and durability under field conditions. For those who's fighting rifles live in padded hard cases and only see the light of day at an outdoor range, I'm sure it would do just fine. For 3Gunners... you might come away with disappointments. Especially if you are fond of quick magazine changes. You can't do that with the Beretta because they put the mag release 4 inches our of reach. I did like the weird adjustable stock... It felt good and looked better. I think this was the rifle's best feature. Steyr didn't have anything new pistol wise, but they did bring back civilian versions of their famous AUG bullpup rifle. For such a spacey looking rifle, it looked and felt dated. I don't know why. There was a time when these things were cutting edge. I guess by the time Die Hard 2 came out, I was over them. SIG's 552 rifle coming to the US for civilian ownership is going to be a hit. I can see it being an instant favorite for many shooters. I like it, but it's not my favorite. FN had the civilian version of their P90 SMG. This is a semi-auto version with a longer barrel. I found that the longer barrel really didn't detract from the P90 at all... in fact, I think its an improvement. One is less likely to blow his own hand off now that his support hand isn't a couple inches from the muzzle now. There will of course be a ballistic advantage as well. Maybe an accuracy advantage too. I'm not sure I'd be in the market for the P90. If it was in 9MM or any normal caliber, that would be different. The one new rifle I really liked was the new SCAR rifle from FN. Sure they had the FN2000 and that's a great rifle... but it plays second fiddle in my opinion to the SCAR. Everything about it just seemed right. This would be the one new rifle I would buy. Even if it is only a 5.56MM. I liked the rails (me, liking rails?) and that the top one runs along the full length of the receiver. Charging handle can go to either side, however you like. The controls are easily manipulated without looking at them or for them... unlike another new rifle out (cough-Beretta-cough). The folding stock is adjustable for length and it's actually formed to allow for a comfortable and solid cheek weld that puts the flip up sites perfectly in line with my eyes. This rifle feels like a real shooter's rifle... this is why it was my favorite at the show. To be frank, it makes FN's own FN2000 rifle look silly. Attending the SHOT Show is a treat and a curse. There was food available at a number of places. Pretty much anything you would want. One day for lunch my wife and I had a slice of pizza and a drink. Twenty five bucks. Oh sure, it was good. But not that good. That was the same day that we went upstairs and found we had just missed the Press Luncheon. Great. Friday night there was the Budweiser Outdoors Press Reception at the Hard Rock Hotel. Before we went to the reception we decided that we were hungry so we stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe and had Chicken Fajitas... for forty bucks. Then we found in the Hotel that the Reception was catering... you guessed it... Chicken Fajitas amongst other good things. Free too. I have to give Budweiser credit here... the conservation work they do is a big help to the whole industry. A guy looking just like Uncle Jesse won the award this year. The band Budweiser booked to perform... they were just horrible. The lead singing girl looked like a cross between Billy Idol and The Bride of Frankenstein and she sounded worse than both combined. But it was still fun... we stayed almost half way through before the caustic vocals forced us to pull the French Maneuver. We retreated back to our hotel room with the paper thin walls and listened to the vigorous sex going on in the next room. That girl in there... now she could sing. She should have been on stage. Come to think of it, she very well could have been at another venue... this was Las Vegas after all. I have to admit a strong dislike for Vegas. Next year SHOT will be in Florida. Thank goodness. We met a lot of readers of MadOgre.com and Concealed Carry Magazine, one of which was our man from Athens.... who Mrs. Ogre pointed out to me was the best looking man she has ever seen other than myself. Uh huh. Yeah, right. The Vice President seems to be in a lot of hot water. I just have a couple thoughts about this. First off, had this been a Democrat Vice President, I don't think the Old Media would have been so pissed if he didn't call them before calling 911. And second, this being an actual hunting accident and not a drunken fling where he drove off a bridge and left this guy in the sinking car... I don't see how this is such a horrible scandal. No one is calling for an investigation into Ted Kennedy. Cheney didn't run away from the scene and pretend it didn't happen... he just didn't call the Networks first thing. Okay, let me rephrase something... No one in the major media is calling for an investigation into Ted Kennedy. A hunting accident like this is serious and is something not to be taken lightly. But it is also something that people should not be reveling in either. The Major Media outlets are more excited about this than they have been about anything since John Kerry was running for office. They are absolutely giddy with delight. Ghouls, all of them. From the mail bag: “Would you rather go hunting with Dick Cheney or ride over a bridge with Ted Kennedy? Hint: At least Dick Cheney takes you to the hospital!!! Mart” Cartoon Riots: Rioting over political cartoons. Stupid, halfassed cartoons. These guys really are the Religion of Peace. No, really. Okay, I know a lot of Muslims who are horrified over this stuff, the violence and the havoc. They are peaceful people. So I can't bash the Islamic faith. But what I can say, is that these violent people are just that. They are just plane violent people looking for something, anything, to light their fuses. They look for outward sources to blame for their inward shortcomings. They are small people to be acting like this. They just need to eat one of my Happy Muhammad sandwiches, have a coke, and sit down and shut up. The whole middle east is full of batshit crazy people and the crazies have taken over. Instigation from Syria, Iran, and a nutjob cleric in Lebanon... its real easy to deal with this, people. You find the instigators and you arrest them and try them in court. The people throwing the bricks... you arrest them. If it's a mob doing it... you go in with your riot shield and clubs and pepper spray... and you stop it. I'm not seeing a lot of effort in stopping it, and that's indication of a greater problem.
Monday: 2-6-06:
We are getting ready to go to SHOT Show... My wife is busy packing and taking care of the details for me, while I am putting the Show's work together. There is a lot to do and see and people I have to talk too. Answers have to be found and questions have to be asked. We all know that the Prancing Pony (and I don't mean a Ford Mustang) has been sold to the Glue Factory... We know that they are only interested in the Military side of the business. So what is to become of the Civilian side of the company? The 1911's, the Pythons, and the Peacemakers? Right now, I don't know. Speculation abounds so I am going to get it right from the horse's, or in this case, Pony's mouth. Sorry about that. Winchester's fall from grace needs to be discussed as well. Looking at the plate, I can see that I'm going to the all you can eat buffet and I'm going to have to loosen the belt a notch or two. Then there are the actual food buffet's and well... I'm looking forward to those as well. The guy's from FBMG are going to be there, Tim the Publisher of Concealed Carry Magazine is going to be there... our friend from Athens is attending, and so are many other folks that I am looking forward to seeing. Lots of new things to check out and see, all the new guns, the new knives, and all the other new things that I never knew that I wanted so badly. It's going to be great. Speaking of guns, the review of the Wilson Combat SDS is completed. It has been sent. And I'm looking forward to seeing what my next review will be on. I've a number of guns lined up, and its just a matter of which shows up first. With this review done, that means I need to check my great stack of gun reviews, and see which is due to be posted on MadOgre.com. But I'll do that after SHOT. There are too many things that I've got to take care of first. Question for anyone living in Miami. How far is Little Havana from the beach and what is the best joint down there to get good Cuban food? My book is still progressing nicely and after I get back from SHOT, I'll be plugging away at it again full speed. Reading about Cuban food is torture. There is no place to get that sort of food out here in Utah. Hopefully Vegas will have something. And THAT is something I am greatly looking forward too. I'm going to have to take a trip out to Miami one of these days. Couple things I want to talk about... First off, The Border. The Mexican Military is threatening Texas Law Enforcement agents and family members. Personal threats of violence and death. It's time to stop fucking around with Mexico. Long Past Time Mister President. How can you keep us safe from Terrorists, when you can't even keep us safe from Mexico? Three Words for Texas: REMEMBER THE ALAMO. You guys know what to do. Don't wait around for Dubya to do anything. You are Texans for God's sake. Put your hat on and Cowboy Up. Second thing: TERM LIMITS. One of the major threats to our country is complacency. We are content to have the same rat bastards swilling at the trough on top of capitol hill year after year and every election is seems the worst offenders always, always, make it for another round. You all know the names... You hear them every damned day. Just like you did years ago. Same people. We have got to establish Term Limits. Getting Elected as a Senator is not the same thing as being chosen to be the next Pope or Dali Lama... it's not a life time post. 4 year terms, 2 terms, that's it. At least that is how it should be. Bush should order term limits, and if Bush doesn't have the stones for it, the next president (Oh please, Lord, not Hillary!) should. The next president should campaign on that. The Supreme Court should order it. Something. Anything... because the rat bastards sure wont vote for it. The only thing that they can all agree on is two things. 1, they get a raise every damn year. And 2, they get as many years as they can. Third Item: Congressional Leakage. It's as bad and as smelly as Anal Leakage because both come from the same place... dribbling assholes. Congressmen are purposely leaking Classified Information that hinder National Security. If it wasn't for Congress, we would have had Bin Laden by now. How can I say that? Because we were tracking his bloody Sat-Phone. A Congressmen on CSPAN sat we were tracking Sat-Phones... and boom. All the Sat-Phones went dead. Congress should shut the hell up and take legal action against loose lipped “staphers”. Loose Lips Sink Ships... and they bring down airliners too. In matters of National Security, I don't think Journalists have a right to keep sources name's secret. If you spill Classified info – you should be held accountable. And if not the reporter individually, then the Media Outlet as a whole. CBS screwed up – then CBS pays the fine or gets shut down. That's it. No playing around. You had best watch yourselves. Politics has an end and Security has to become important somewhere. Fairness Doctrine is back on the table. The Liberal Idiots know they can't beat Rush Limbaugh in the market of Talk Radio, so they want to either edge him out or shut him out by bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. Excuse me, but they already have NPR don't they? They have a whole nationwide network and they can't compete with one syndicated talk show? They tried to launch Air America Radio... and that's worked out well for them. Not. This isn't about fairness... it's called free market. It's called consumers voting with their checkbooks. Liberals are on a huge downslide... propping up the minority opinion is as asinine as it is to make everyone listed to Collin Quinn's Christmas Album. We don't want to hear it. That's why Al Franken is stealing money and begging while Rush flies around in a private jet. Who's the Big Fat Idiot now, Al? The Liberals say they are Pro-Choice? As long as its THEIR choice. They want to choose what you listen too, who you listen too, where you spend your money, and... I'm not even going to go into the sex issues. I just don't have the blood pressure for it. It's about the First Amendment. Freedom of Speech. They can “Speech” it up all they want. They have the major networks, CNN, all the Print Media, NPR... and what do we have? Fox and AM Talk Radio. I think when it comes to numbers, the Libs have more. What they don't like about this set up though, is that people are listening to us and they are no longer drinking the Liberal Cool-Aid.
Wed: 2-1-06: Bush's State of the Union: I didn't hear it, only read a little of it. He mentioned that he wants to strengthen the USA's economic leadership in the world. I'm just wondering how that is going to happen with America's Technological Brain Drain going on. Tech jobs, and manufacturing jobs are shipping out to other countries... other than 5.56MM bullets, these things are the USA's biggest export. This new economy has made the conditions favorable to US companies to do as much as they can outside of the US. Some companies are going to Canada. Some to Mexico. And tons are going to India. Who's India's best buddies? China and Russia. That's right, the two countries that want to see the USA kicked in the nads more than anyone else. Even more than France, even more than Iran and North Korea. Now this is a surprise. I could have a heart attack and die from this surprise. I suspect that this is going to be the start of a huge market correction for Google's massively overvalued stock. Our customers: System came in to the shop today... work sheet had just three words written on it. “Just ternd off”. Never have 3 simple one syllable words described a person so completely. This is on the heels of “Internet Stuff Take Off” which up till now has been the King of Comments. We are now keeping track of things like this. Oh, he misspelled his own city too. These are my customers. They often entertain me. Last night when I checked my mail, I found something interesting in it. Well, interesting at least to me. It was from Budweiser. Now a good upstanding Mormon boy like me getting something from Budweiser... this isn't something I was expecting. It was an invitation for the Budweiser Outdoors celebration thing happening after SHOT on the 10th. Mormon boy invited to party with Budweiser. Ahem. Yes, I'll be there. I thought it was funny. So these huge profits by the oil companies - thanks to some serious price gouging... the Government's reaction? “Windfall Profits Tax”. Neat. How about “LOWER THE FREAKING PRICE OF UNLEADED YOU FARKING ASSHOLES!”? I guess the US Government and I differ on a few things. Sorry the blogging as been slim. My book is coming along and is at that point that the story takes off in a life of its own. I can't explain it, but if you are a writer, you understand. The main characters in my book are on their way to Miami Florida, and just for fun they are going to just happen to bump into a group of guys from *******. This will eventually take them to the shores of Cuba where they rescue some folks and bring them back to the US where they are taken in by the Cuban community in Florida. This is to give the “Viva Chi!” crowd a big middle finger. I'm not a fan of Castro, and well, let's just say that the ******* hombres have a lot of good points. If you want more information on that, wait for my book to hit Amazon.
CHECK ARCHIVES FOR OLDER CONTENT
Donate ogre at madogre dot com via PayPal to support MadOgre.com, or God will kill a kitten. All donations pay for hosting, Mt. Dew, and Ammunition. Copyright G H Hill 1999-2012 Graphic Artwork by Martin White
|
“I keep two magnums in my desk drawer. One is a gun that I keep loaded. The other is a bottle and it keeps me loaded.” "The opinions of Ogre at
MadOgre.com are explosive. Read with caution." - Washington Post "You make me laugh. You piss me off. You even make me agree with you. You're a
Blog-God!" - Horde Member
|
|
|
