Category: Guns

So…. I found this mag at the gun show today….

 

Yep.  A 22 round drum mag for my Bersa Thunder 380.  ProMag discontinued these things years ago, and I never thought I’d actually find one.

I’m a sick man.

Dennis at Dragon Leatherworks hosted the Second Annual East Tennessee Blogger Shoot this past weekend.  I’ll try to do a proper write-up of it soon, but I wanted to make sure to mention a couple things.

I actually went with the desire to shoot a little .32acp derringer and a Ruger LCR in .357mag.  Both of which I knew were going to be there.

My desire was to fire them and get the desire to buy them out of my system.  “The more you know about guns, the less you want a derringer,” and “no, you really don’t want a .357 snubby, just get the .38 and save some money” are statements I’ve heard many, many times.

Actually firing them has not done this.

Shooting the derringer just made me giggle and have a desire to keep feeding it.

The LCR with full power .357mag?  “I cast FIREBALL!”

I probably need help.

So, apparently, everyone is talking about TN’s governor signing a bill into law that would make silencers legal here.

You’d think I’d be excited over this, but… meh.

The thing is that silencers were already legal here.

The previous state law stated that silencers were illegal, unless you were in compliance with the NFA.  Yes, it was an affirmative defense instead of “yup, it’s legal,” so, in theory, a cop could arrest you for owning a silencer, book you, and then you get to show a judge the paperwork, and he then lets you free.  To the best of my knowledge, this has never happened.  Pretty sure that just about all interactions have basically been “you got paperwork for that?” “Yup, right here!” “cool, thanks.”

The only positive I see is that, if the Fed actually passes the Hearing Protection Act, there will be no ambiguity over how TN would handle possession of silencers.  Of course, that’s a bill that hasn’t actually seen movement in the Senate since before Trump actually took office…

By the way, some news reports have stated that machine guns and short barreled rifles are illegal here.  Same thing applies to them.  If you have proof that you have your tax stamp, you’re cool.

For the past couple years, my go to IWB holster has been an AlienGear CloakTuck 2.0 holster.  It’s a rather affordable hybrid holster that has a plastic shell attached to more flexible backing.  The most common material used for this kind of backing is leather (and that is what the original AlienGear holster uses), but AlienGear decided that it could make a more comfortable holster by using multiple materials.

The 2.0’s backing actually uses 3 different materials.  The gun rests against a thin leather layer, which lays on top of a sheet of plastic for rigidity, and then a layer of neoprene against your body.  These three layers are sewn together, with nuts embedded in the backing to mount the shell and belt clips.

This backing worked fairly well, until the plastic broke.  By the nature of the holster, there are two flex points on the holster, and the plastic appears to have cracked on those lines.  You can clearly see the crease on the left side at the logo in the picture below.  There is a similar crease on the right side.

As I found out the hard way, the leather and neoprene layers are strong enough that the holster still functioned.  Honestly, if it wasn’t for some close inspection of the holster after noticing a considerable amount of flopping while attached to pants I wasn’t currently wearing, I’m not sure when I would have noticed.  The cracks did not affect the retention of the pistol, but I was concerned about the long term strength of the holster after those two cracks appeared.

Remembering that AlienGear has a lifetime warranty, I contacted them about my options.  They quickly informed me that they would replace the backing with another 2.0 backing for free, or, for $12, they would send me a 3.0 backing.  Given that I had already experienced this issue with the 2.0 holster, and they no longer make that holster, I decided to go with the newer design.  They informed me that they should be able to shipped the backing in two or three days.  I actually received notification that the backing had been shipped later that day.

Fast forward a couple days, and the new backing plus extra hardware arrived in the mail.  As you can see, they’ve made a few modifications with the new version.

They have replaced the leather layer with a rubber material.  They also chose to go with removable propeller nuts to mount the belt clips.  The rubber may be more durable, but I’m not sure.  I do like the change in the mounting hardware, as random posts sticking up and not being used annoys me.

Oh, they also changed the backing where the neoprene covers the permanently fixed hardware.  My 2.0 backing did show some rust where it was exposed to my sweat.  I know that some folks have complained about this.

The new backing did come with all new hardware, but all the old hardware can be used on the new backing.  The only difference is the requirement of the included propeller nuts that I mentioned earlier.

So… here are my thoughts so far.

It is, as advertised, a very comfortable holster out of the box.  The neoprene helps in two ways.  First is the obvious sweat shield that it provides.  The second is the fact that neoprene grips your shirt/body.  I’ve had issues with leather IWB holsters causing my pants to fall down because they’re slick on the body side.

Retention is good.  With the screws, you can adjust the retention to your liking.  The screws can back out over time, but a dab of blue Locktite will solve that.  I prefer this over rivets that I’ve seen in other holsters of this type.

I’ve worn the holster with the 3.0 backing for a couple days, and I can tell that it is stiffer than the previous version.  Still comfortable, but I can tell that that steel insert is there.  As for its durability compared to the 2.0 backing?  We’ll see.

If you’re reading this blog, you probably already know the usual arguments about registry.  A friend of mine just brought up a scenario that I had never thought of.

He has an older friend that is unfortunately in the hospital with one of those issues that a lot of folks don’t come home from (hope that’s not the case here, but…).  Life has apparently treated his buddy pretty well, and he’s been able to afford some machine guns.  This is where it gets sticky.  Some folks have apparently attempted to rob his buddy’s house a couple times.  My friend is the only one that the guy and his family trusts/knows that has the ability to properly lock up the guns away from the now vacant house.

From the admittedly small amount we know about the NFA registry, this may not be exactly legal.  When getting your NFA tax stamp, you can either register by your lonesome, or set up a trust.  If you get the stamp directly tied to you, you’re the only one that can possess the item.  No loaning it out, etc.  If you set up a trust, anyone that is named on the trust can possess it.  Unfortunately, I don’t know which this gentleman did, but, if it was a trust, my friend was not named and there’s a decent chance that the guy will die before the ATF gets back to him about adding a name to the trust.  Not to mention that the third robbery attempt may succeed.

If there wasn’t a registry, it would be a simple case of “oh, I can hold onto that for you.  With the registry?  Things get a lot trickier.

(By the way, no.  This isn’t me.  It really is a friend of mine.  I won’t tell you his name.  On the other hand, if you have a tip other than “find a lawyer,” I’ll be happy to pass it along.)

Some random gun porn for your holiday weekend.  This is from me visiting a buddy and us deciding that it was going to be a pocket gun day at the range.

I promise that there will be actual content soon.

Haven’t shot it yet, but I’ve been gathering parts for this for the last few months and it’s finally range ready:

Hopefully I’ll be able to take it out on Friday.

Front to back parts list

YHM Phantom Stainless 7.62 QD Suppressor (Discontinued by manufacturer)

YHM Phantom 30 cal QD Muzzle Brake YHM-3302-MB-24A

AR10 Crush Washer –I am being told this is a terrible, horrible, no good very bad idea.

Brownells 24″ 6.5 Grendel Barrel and Bolt combo

M-LOK Aluminium rail section

UTG Picatinny Bipod
YHM Low Profile Gas Block YHM-9383

YHM Rifle Length Gas Tube YHM-BL04

C-Products 10 Round 6.5 Grendel Magazine

Aero Precision M4E1 Upper Receiver and 15″ M-LOK Handguard

Palmetto State Armory Bolt Carrier and Firing Pin (the 5.56 bolt is now a spare)

Rock River Lower Receiver

Rock River Takedown Pin, Pivot Pin, and Safety

Geissele Hi-Speed National Match – Match Rifle Trigger – Small Pin

Ergo Grip AR15/M16 Ambidextrous Tactical Deluxe Grip With Palm Shelf Black

Primary Arms 4-14x44mm FFP 30mm scope with RGRID reticle

Burris PEPR 30mm scope mount

Butler Creek Scope Cover – Eye size 19

Butler Creek Scope Cover – Objective size 31

PRI Gasbuster Charging Handle

LUTH-AR MBA-1 stock kit

[Since a number of folks shared this post I made on Facebook, I feel like I should repost it here]

If you’re wondering why pro-gun folks are so mean and do everything that they can to stop “common sense” measures like assault weapons bans*, look no further than Massachusetts. They’ve had an AWB that mirrored the Clinton era federal AWB on the books basically since the federal one expired.

The state AG recently decided to officially interpret that law radically different than anyone in the 20 years of its existence has done so. To the point that she’s basically declared any semi-auto rifle or pistol to be illegal in her state. The good news is that she promises to not go after anyone that owned said items before she made this declaration. Of course, this isn’t her saying “oh, that one’s legal,” it’s her saying “we won’t prosecute.”

So… without a single piece of legislation being passed, thousands of people woke up to discover that they now possess items that very well could get them hit with a felony charge.

Yeah… that’s reason to trust the other side.

*there’s lots of reasons that AWBs are stupid on their own merits, but that’s not the point here.