Consistency

Insty had a post last week which linked to both an article about the importance of shooting with consistent accuracy, and the MantisX training system.

Yes to the first, and WTF to the second.  ($150?)

I am way too much of a Cheap Bastard to use a sophisticated thing like the MantisX.  Instead, I use a much simpler (and much cheaper) system:

Feel free to copy.  It works at any distance.

Sanity Returns

…at least, finally, to the price of ammo.  From Eric at AmmoMan comes this offering:

Y’all can do the calculations on the other calibers — I don’t have any guns chambered for ’em — but the per-round (non-rebate) prices are:

  • Federal .45 ACP 230gr:  35c
  • CCI .22 LR 40gr: 6.4c
  • Blazer 9mm 115gr FMJ (not pictured):  19c

That’s more like it.  I can now suggest culling vermin with .22 ammo as the “7-cent solution” and not the “25-cent solution”, as during the Obama Years [shudder].

During the Happy Times (2001 – 2008), I urged everyone to buy ammo because those prices wouldn’t last.  I thought that the cost of ammo would go up if we elected a RatBastard Democrat to the presidency, but what I did not predict was that under CommiePres Obama, the huge sales pressure on the “popular” rifle calibers (5.56mm and 7.62x39mm) would cause serious shortages in the other  calibers as manufacturers retooled to meet the demand.  Hence the rationing of, say, .22 LR at places like Wal-Mart and Academy, and the complete disappearance of various calibers at local gun stores.

So let us learn from history, as we conservatives like to do, and buy ammo by the truckload during these, the Happy Times II.  That way, when the next Commie asshole president starts talking about “how much ammunition does a person need?” en route to setting purchase limits, we can say,  “Fuck you.”

Watch your Inbox — I’m on almost all the ammo sellers’ mailing lists, and you should be too — and take advantage of the low prices when they’re promoted.  (And try, where possible, to buy American — remember, asshole Commie politicians will always ban ammo imports when they can, so let’s try to keep our guys in business.)

As much as I like to promote National Ammo Day on November 19th each year, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to do so this year, only to be told:  “Shut up, Kim.  I have enough ammo stored for two generations already.”

Make me and Baby Vulcan proud.

So Much For Background Checks

Like everyone here I was saddened to read of the mass shooting that happened in Illinois last week.  Dude got laid off, pulled a gun and started shooting, killing six and wounding several more, including cops.  I was expecting to have ILGov Fatboi Pritzker immediately start calling for more stringent gun control laws etc., and was wondering what was taking him so long.  Here’s probably why the delay:

The chief also released new details about Martin’s criminal background and the weapon in the shooting.
Martin should have been legally barred from purchasing a gun due to his felony record. He had a 1995 conviction for aggravated assault for stabbing a woman in Marshall County, Mississippi.
However, in January 2014, Martin applied for and was issued an Illinois Firearm Owners Identification (FOI) card, which is required to own or purchase a gun in Illinois.
On March 6 2014, Martin applied to purchase a handgun at a licensed dealer in Aurora. Five days later, he took possession of a Smith & Wesson .40 caliber revolver, the same type of gun described as the weapon in Sunday’s shooting.
On March 16 2014, Martin applied for a Concealed Carry permit in an unknown location. He was fingerprinted during the background check, and his prior felony conviction came to light during the background check.
At the discovery, Martin’s CCW application was rejected, and his FOI card was revoked. He apparently retained possession of the handgun, however.
Ziman was unable to explain why the felony conviction did not prevent Martin from obtaining a FOI card in the first place, merely saying it was possible that it would not have been discovered until the more rigorous CCW check.

So much for the much-vaunted background checks we’re always hearing about.  Illinois screwed up, and six people died because of it.  I would hope that the murdered people’s families initiate a class-action lawsuit for negligence against the state, because a law unenforced isn’t a law.  Of course, Illinois is bankrupt because they’re paying off (or not even paying) excessively-high entitlements to former government workers, so the lawsuit might be a waste of time.  And needless to say, the gnomes at the IL State Police (representing “police power”, see below) won’t be fired for negligence because unions.

One last thing about the choirboy’s gun:  S&W doesn’t make a revolver chambered in .40 S&W, so it must have been a semi-automatic pistol  (Clueless Journalism 101).


State of Illinois constitution, Article I, Section 22:
“Subject only to the police power, the right of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Quote Of The Day

From Jim Wilson, talking (as we have been doing here for a week or so — and as has this article) about defensive chamberings:

The purpose of a firearm in the hands of a defensive shooter is not to kill an attacker. The purpose of the defensive handgun is to stop an attack and to stop it as soon as is humanly possible. What they seem to not understand is that these small calibers, while perfectly capable of causing death, may cause death hours, sometimes days, after the person has been shot.

And that’s it, right there.  In other words, “stopping power” is the sine qua non of defensive shooting.

Quote Of The Day

From Bearing Arms:

[T]he idea of passing a law that won’t likely be enforced through most of the state strikes me as completely stupid.
Then again, this is gun control we’re talking about, so stupid is a given.

From my experience most police departments in New Mexico (the “African” state, as Doc Russia calls it) don’t bother enforcing a whole bunch of laws, not just this bullshit.

Not A Report

In the wake of last Saturday’s post about cheap carry guns, Reader Terry S. sent me this article, entitled “The Most Dangerous Handgun On The Planet?”  (talking about the Ruger SR40c).

I must be getting older and crankier [no shit] but I am getting sick of articles like this, which basically regurgitate the manufacturer’s spec sheet and throw in a little Wikipedia history on some part of the deal.  (In this case, the short history of the .40 S&W cartridge, linked back to the Miami Shootout.  Yeah, whatever — who cares? because we all know about that infamous stand-off between undergunned FBI agents and a couple of better-armed goblins.)

So what does this article tell us?  Nothing.  (Don’t even get me started on the breathless hyperbole of the headline, which is pure clickbait.) Here are a couple issues I would have addressed.

Sure, the .40 is more powerful than the 9mm Europellet.  How does that translate into a compact pistol like the SR40c?  My own experience with the .40 S&W has not been that pleasant:  the sharp snap! of the .40’s recoil makes target reacquisition slower, and the recoil affects my accuracy quite substantially — and this in a large-framed Beretta 92FS.  And I’m not alone in this:  several shooters have reported the same issues, and there are reports of female cops and agents having controllability problems when qualifying / requalifying with their weapons chambered in the .40 S&W.  So how does the SR40c handle the recoil?

Is this pistol better than, say, the diminutive Glock 27, with which the Ruger compact surely must compete?

The article does compare a few features (e.g. having an external safety — unusual in such guns), but those are peripheral issues.  Is the SR40c more reliable?  Can it feed a variety of different ammo brands and types (which the G27 seems to be able to do)?  Is it as rugged as the Glock or the mini-Springfield XD Mod 2?

(I have to tell you, I kinda prefer the Ruger’s looks:  that smoothed-down slide and grip just shouts “comfort” and “easy-draw” — but the article didn’t even give us that.)

Now I have to grant you that The National Interest  is most assuredly not a gun magazine, but that just means that in future I’ll be less likely to look at their gun articles if they’re going to be superficial puff pieces like this one,

And as for the silly headline:  does the Ruger even look  as dangerous as this SIG SG553P?

(My question:  is the SIG really a pistol, or just a chopped-down pistol-caliber carbine?  But that’s a topic for another day.)