Something that causes cursing:
having a pin punch jump and take a chunk out of your finger
Something else that causes cursing:
having that last blow bend the pin that was supposed to be driven into the hole.
On the plus side, I did manage to bend the pin back and get it driven into the gas block I was installing.
How bloody difficult can that be to remember? It seems to happen a lot that people (specifically “Only Ones”) have this tendency to take their pistols out of their holsters when they need to use the bathroom. This leads to the possibility of someone finding a nice shiny loaded weapon on the toilet.
Yep, it’s happened again. This time, at the Detroit Metro Airport. This time it was an air marshal who left his piece on the porcelain throne. Some random passenger found it, and decided to turn it over to the local law. No word in the story as to which side of the secured area it was on, but I’m hoping that it was on the unsecured side since there was also no mention of screening or mass panic.
last weekend, I was at Libertycon. Truly a great con, which was good, since I needed to blow off some steam. Maybe one of these years, I’ll get in with the cool crowd enough that I’ll get to go to the gun range with the Baen guys.
Anyways, I was playing Descent with some folks, when my buddy rolled this:
Notice something odd about the blue die? After taking a couple pictures, we checked, and there were no divots in the table that we could find.
This is up there with flipping a coin and having it land on its edge.
With all this talk about folks wanting to re-institute a high capacity magazine ban, I reacted in my normal way. I’ve just order a couple 17 round mags for my Bersa Thunder 9. Last time this came up, I bought a Springfield XDm 9mm compact because it held more rounds than the other guns I was looking at.
Some may call this childish.
I say childish would be ordering a 22 round drum magazine for my Bersa Thunder 380.
So far, I’ve avoided this temptation.
So… as I alluded to in the post I made yesterday, I have a problem. I believe that I’ve stated that WizardPC is an enabler of this problem (I’ve purchased a few guns off of him, and he’s been the indirect cause of a few other purchases). With that said, I ended up going with him to the gun show on Saturday.
I was pretty sure I was safe from making any purchases. I had just bought the Bersa .22 a couple weeks back, and didn’t really feel the need for something new. I’m always on the look out for an IBM M1 carbine, but the likely hood of running into one of those is low. I underestimated the dangers of gun shows.
I’ve always kicked around the idea of having a wheel gun beyond my Heritage Arms .22 SA revolver. I actually talked to some folks recently that I thought my next purchase was going to be a .38 special or .357mag, but couldn’t decide on the size/barrel length/etc. One of the thoughts that I’ve had was that it would be cool to pick up a revolver and a Marlin lever in .357. That would make me lean towards a single action. Then I ran across this:
It was literally at the last table at the show in a display box with some random stuff. I quickly noticed the price tag of $350, and had to investigate. I knew nothing about revolvers (heck, had to ask the good folks on #gunblogger_conspiracy where S&W stamped the model number), but I knew it was a good price considering what I had seen and it seemed in good condition. Some money and a hand shake latter, it was following me home.
It’s a Smith&Wesson Model 13 with a 4″ barrel. It’s chambered in .357 and is the 2nd revision, which means it’s within a couple years of being the same age as me. The previous owner decided to install some Pachmayr “Gripper” grips that really do a good job of comfortably fitting my hand.
Even though the weather was supposed to hit right at 100 degrees, I decided to hit the range and try it out. I stopped by Walmart, and picked up a box of WWB .38special semi-wadcutters and a box of Remington Express .357mag hollow points, and headed to the range. I warmed up with some rounds through my .22 SA revolver and then decided to pull the new guy out.
I started with .38special. It was very pleasant to shoot. It was also extremely accurate. Granted, I was shooting at 7 and 10 yards, but I was keyholing multiple groups and they were all going roughly where I wanted them to. Then I tried the .357. That was pain.
Of course, I must blame a good bit of my issue with the .357 rounds on the user. Before this, the only centerfire revolvers I had shot was the odd snubby launching .38special. I wasn’t quite ready for the jump in recoil from the .38 to .357. I was expecting something similar to the jump from 9mm to .40 or possibly .45. This was considerably more. To add to the issue, I managed to pinch the pad of my trigger finger between the trigger and trigger guard on one of the first shots of .357. This meant that my accuracy went all to hell the rest of the day. I have since talked to a couple of revolver guys who have assured me that my experience (other than the pinch) is normal and you do get used to it.
The action of this revolver is very smooth. The double action is sufficiently heavy without being obnoxious. The pull is also consistent enough that you can deliberately squeeze the trigger and choose when it breaks. The single action, on the other hand, is incredibly light. Coupled with the complete lack of slack, it meant that the gun would discharge almost instantly after I decided to squeeze the trigger at all. Between the two modes, I’m actually more accurate in double action mode than single due to how easily it discharges in single action mode. The sights are fixed, but seem to be dead on and wouldn’t need adjustment.
I did have two issues while at the range. The first was that the ejector somehow got on top of one of the .38 cases so that I had to manually yank it out. The second was that the ejector rod started to unscrew and make it difficult for me to pop out the cylinder to load/unload it. I suspect that the two issues are related and it’s nothing that a little Locktite can’t fix.
Now my issue is that I need to convince Naienko that I need to buy that Marlin .357…
…I think I resemble this YouTube vid:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpK6GcFwPKc&w=560&h=315]
I’ll have a related post up tomorrow, and no… it’s not that Garand I was talking about (guy never returned the email).
I’m looking at maybe buying a used Garand this weekend (local ad, too good to pass up). Anybody have any good pointers on what to look for? I know the stock is a little battered, so I’m not looking for a collector’s piece, and I do like to shoot my guns.
So, this past Friday, I was kind of depressed. I think it’s because my birthday was Saturday, and I didn’t have much planned because just about all my friends had already made plans to be out of town or with their families or moving family members from out of town. Seems to happen every year. Maybe if I actually tell people more than a week ahead of time, that might be different.
To rectify this, Naienko decided that we needed to go shopping… specifically at gun stores, electronics stores, and/or book stores. I tell ya, she abuses me terribly.
So, at one of the gun shops on the north side of town (I had recently been to most the ones on the south side), I spotted a couple Bersa Thunder 22s. I think I’ve mentioned that I love my two-tone Bersa Thunder 380 before. It just feels sight, looks damn cool, and I’m probably most accurate with either it or my XDm compact (strange, I know). Of course, there’s also the big plus that their pistols are on the inexpensive side while still being dependable. And… well… the SS version of the Thunder 22 followed me home.
The 22 is essentially the same gun as the 380 (and the Thunder 32). According to Bersa’s website, it’s about and ounce lighter and .2″ shorter, but the same length and thickness. I’m pretty sure that height and weight difference is in the slide, which is noticeably slimmer when put side by side with the 380 version. This means that, unlike many of the “big name” .22 copies of centerfire guns that have been shrunk a bit, the experience should be as close to the same as possible. The .22 also differs from the .380 by having bright orange dots painted on the sights instead of the usual white ones. Like the rest of the smaller Thunder series, the .22 comes with 1 magazine.
I did get a chance to shoot it on Sunday, and I think I’ll keep it. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the session this past Sunday (mostly “we need to blow off steam”), I didn’t get any good targets to really show how well the gun shoots. I will say that it was at least as accurate as I am and is a pleasure to shoot. The orange sights are much easier for me to pick up than the white ones. I remember reading years ago on the old BersaTalk forum (now apparently dead) that many folks go out and get similar color nail polish to paint over the white dots on the 380 for that reason, and I can see why. The much lighter .22 rounds mean that there’s none of the sharp recoil bite in the webbing of the hand that many folks complain about with the Bersa .380 and other small .380 pistols. The magazine also hold 10 rounds instead of the .380’s 7.
This is a fun little gun. I’ve seen some folks suggest people who are afraid of larger caliber guns. I’m not sure about that, but that’s more due to the idea of carrying a .22 for self defense. I think this would be a great gun to introduce folks to shooting with, since many .22 target pistols are configured significantly different from your standard carry pistol. I’m going to enjoy it since I’ve started carrying the 380, and .380 ammo is significantly more expensive than .22 (and it wasn’t that long ago that it was impossible to find).
So, this past weekend, I was at a local unsupervised state run range with a few friends to have some fun and blow off some steam. The range is set up with a 50 yard berm on the left, 100 in the center, and then a 25 on the right. We had set up on the left so we could use the 50 for the short range stuff, and one of the 100 yard targets for the bigger rifles.
I was watching one of the guys try my Henry GoldenBoy when I spotted someone walk down range to set up targets on the 25 yard berm! I immediately tap my buddy on the shoulder and let him know what was up and to cease fire. I ask my other buddies if they had hear the call to go cold, and they say they had not. I ask the group next to me, and they had not.
*sigh*
I walk over to the guy as he’s walking back to have a little “chat.” I kept it good natured and explained to him why he should check before wandering down range. Turned out he figured it wasn’t an issue since we were shooting a good deal to his left and we would have had to really screw up to shoot him. I agreed, but told him that I’m a bit paranoid about such things. He understood, and actually came up to us as he was packing up and thank us for not jumping all over him.
Just a reminder that good folks can do stupid stuff. Remember that people tend to be there to enjoy themselves. Safety is important, but so is having a good time. Of course, had he started shooting while I was down range, I may not have been so friendly with him.