CavArms and I

I'll preface with that Marine thing that I've often been accused of overdoing.  I'm loyal to friends and I never forget when someone has done me a good turn.  Too loyal?  Not sure but hey, go back to the Marine thing.  It's how we're wired.

I've read a bit of vitriol directed at the former owner of CavArms and his prosecution by the BATFE.  These documents are readily available online and I've read through them.  I don't think he didn't make some errors that were not easily avoidable.  I do get that.  However, I'm still of the camp that the man should not have been stripped of all 2nd Amendment rights because of business paperwork.  Happily, he kept on keeping on and now has another business.  He also refers to himself as a "US resident" and that makes perfect sense to me.  Forever unable to pick up a gun to defend himself or his family.  Literally, forever.  Do you feel safer?

  Anyway, in 2007 I took a .230 grain .45ACP to the elbow in a negligent discharge.  My life was forever changed.  My finances took a deep, deep dive.  I was in a cast and sling off and on for nearly three years.  At a financial low point, I put my custom Nighthawk 1911 up for sale because I needed the money badly after losing 40% of my salary and having to pay for my own insurance.

Shawn Nealon,  a man I've never met in person; saw my ad trying to sell my Nighthawk.  To my great surprise, he responded publicly and said something along the lines of :

Dude, don't sell your guns!  I'll donate a rifle to you so that you can raffle it off and keep the proceeds for your expenses from the shooting.

I didn't take the rifle though I probably should have because I'm still suffering financially from this incident.  If this shooting had happened today, I'd probably start a fund to pay my bills.  But that's not my point.  My point is that Shawn Nealon is an estimable human being who probably would have offered the same thing to one of his now detractors if they were in a similar situation.  I really don't have the words of thanks that I should but I have no problem throwing this incident in the faces of those that talk shit about Shawn.  Is my argument completely logical?  Nope.  Were the detractors there offering me help?  Nope.  Do you think a guy like this deserves to be punished the rest of his life?

Even after I refused the offer of a rifle, Shawn insisted on giving me a CavArms AR15 lower receiver.  It was shipped following all applicable laws to my FFL.  He sent me a complete lower to "aid in my recovery" and let me tell you, that lower is danged indestructible.

Dean R Koontz in Twilight Eyes put it better than I.

Humanity ain't always what's pretty. Some of the worst killers are

pretty. Humanity ain't always what sounds nice and falls smooth on the

ear, 'cause any pitchman can charm a snake, but some pitchmen ain't too

humane. A person shows humanity when he's there you need him, when be

takes you in, when he has a genuine kind word, when he makes you feel

not alone, when he makes your fight his fight. That's what humanity

is, if you want to know. And-if we had a little more of it in this

world, maybe we could get ourselves out of the handbasket we're in ...

or at least stop carrying that handbasket straight to Hell, the way we

have been for so long.

-an anonymous carnival pitchman

Anyway, if you agree with anything I've said, please consider Shawn's new business for your medical needs.  He'll ship quickly and he's honest.  He'd also have your back in a pinch and I know that from experience.  He's camping this week so don't throw an online tantrum if you don't hear from him right away.

A slide lock reload and befriending a pro 2nd Amendment commercial artist

  I was first taught how to preposition your strong side thumb on the slide release by Todd Green during his Aim Fast Hit Fast class that I took (highly recommended!).  Basically, just pre stage your thumb on the slide release while grabbing that extra mag because you're reloading from a weapon with its slide locked back.  As you insert the mag, the force of the mag going home works to force the slide release up against that thumb that is resting on it (with light pressure) and BAM! the slide goes home on the loaded mag, weapon is in Condition One, and you're getting back on target.


  I met new friend Pop Mahn through a mutual friend as few months ago.  Pop Mahn was ready to do something unheard of as an artist that portrays guns and people using them and......see how the guns are used properly that he will be portraying in his art.  Lacking someone competent, poor Pop ended up with me and took the below pictures of me demonstrating a slide lock reload in order to have as a reference.

  By the way, buy some of Pop's stuff already!

• He did the artwork for Spyboy
• Some Masters of the Universe
• Executive Assistant
• Gears of War 04

  Any perceived errors are my fault and no fault of anyone that trained me.  I do know about me hunching my shoulders and my fairly comical facial expressions :)  Keep in mind that I was speaking about what I was doing as I did it.

Shooting to slide lock and reaching for spare mag (carried in the brilliant Kytex mag carrier) that is concealed and carried at about 8:30

Orienting weapon so that I can both keep my eyes on the target and see the magwell.  Preparing to drop the mag.

Mag is falling, my hand with the reload is coming up to meet the weapon.

Still bringing that mag up.  Note that I am NOT bringing my eyes to the weapon but rather bring the weapon up into my field of view.  The weapon is angled to aid the magazine dropping out and for ease of reloads.

Almost there......  Strong hand thumb is on top of that slide release.

Magazine is loaded, slide had gone forward, weapon is "loaded" (dry gun for demonstration purposes), weak hand is reacquiring the grip, weapon is being driven forward.

Done and back on target with a reloaded weapon!

And they say open carry people are attention seekers......

  Sometimes I browse the local section of opencarry.org.  Mainly when I'm feeling upbeat about the future and need brought back down to depressing reality or if I just need to see if there's a gathering of shitty SERPA holsters and Springfield XDs going on so that I can avoid it.  The below post really jumped out at me.  Not only does the guy basically admit he can't shoot but.....he open carried on his Segway to the grocery and then rode the Segway through the grocery store while open carrying.

  And they say open carrying by itself is attention seeking.... (I don't think ALL open carriers are attention seekers but there's definitely a problem in the "movement").

  Not only that, he managed to find a reason to carry his "open carry M14" (we can safely assume he thinks his M1A is an M14) into his optometrist's office because he "needed" new glasses for competition or something like that (you don't see a lot or...any open carry guys at competitions from my personal experience).  I'm sure he's just as proficient with his "M14" as he is with his Sig .45.

  Anyway, it's below and unedited.  Try not to hurt yourself with the face palm..........  Thanks, guy.  Thanks for making gun owners look like attention seeking loons with your "education" of the people.  This will REALLY help our gun rights.  I mean, it beats being proficient, training, going to matches.  and not acting like an attention seeking teenage girl, right?

I have taken in the last six months to carrying a SIG .45. I have a long way to go to be good with it, but I'm within safety parameters.

This evening, I rode my Segway from the house, through the neighborhood, to the Greenbriar shopping center, and rode the Segway into the Giant store to pick up some groceries.

Clearly I was out of the ordinary with the Segway . . . operated as politely as it possibly could, always deferring to anyone going in my direction.

By the way, there is a most gun-friendly optometrist next to Giant -- Nicholas Marotta and his wife at Greenbriar Optical. I once took my OC M-14 in there, because I needed a special lens to allow me to focus on the front sight. In the exam room, I held the rifle off-hand, sighting, while he held the letter card at the muzzle, and patiently did the "Is C better, or now D . . . C . . . or D?" bracketing of the correction. Now THAT is service.

Link to the original post lest folks think I'm making this up 

A discussion on the film Heat for 2014

Everybody's seen Heat, right?  RIGHT?!!!

So, how would you personalize the weapons to the characters for 2014?  Such as Tim Sizemore's character Michael Cheritto in HEAT who packed a FAL in the first scene.  I'm thinking that his 2014 choice would be a SCAR-17.......

Vincent Hanna's FNC could be traded for a KAC PDW.

Anyway, looking forward to the discussion.  Here or on forums.

More on the Colt buying LWRC rumor

Discussion at ARF

An 80% AR15 lower that doesn't require an FFL transfer

Beautiful!

Where did we go wrong?

Texas State Troopers switching to S&W M&P 9mm

  Source.  They're switching over from a .357 SIG Sig-Sauer.  I cannot tell you if this was influenced by our discussion at Pistol-Forum regarding law enforcement agencies switching back to 9mm for ammunition costs and longer pistol service life :)

  One can only wonder what data might emerge regarding whether or not the 9mm M&P's well documented accuracy problems past 15 yards has been fixed by S&W.

Terminal Lance hits the big screen

  So, there's this online humor and cartoon web site about the Marine Corps called Terminal Lance.  The author was a "Terminal Lance" or Lance Corporal (E3) that never picked up Corporal (E4).

  Anyway, especially for we grunts; Terminal Lance is funny but sometimes hits pretty close to home on all of the utter bullshit Marines put up with.  Dependapotamuses, haircuts (Marines have to have the sides of their heads shaved every week), and just silly, asinine games played by the leadership are what author of the cartoon hits upon.

  Anyway, young Marines new to the Corps sometimes get a little silly with the Marine Corps oriented tattoos and Terminal Lance decided to have a little fun with that.

  And....fast forward to the new Schwarzenegger flick called Sabotage.  In it, there's a dude sporting the tatt.  You can't make shit like this up.

  Anyway, if you dug this story and Terminal Lance's work, buy his book, and help put a combat vet through college!

A combat vet Ranger buddy looked at a firearms training class

From Suarez International....

I went to the class description of the class he wanted to go to.  The man Gabe himself was the instructor, and there was, I kid you not, a picture of a dude running pointing a Steyr AUG one handed.  No shit.   I would actually pay to do that, but I would want explosions behind me and doves flying everywhere. And it would have to be in slow motion.

Sighted by me today in Virginia

Long slide Glock 41 .45ACP

  Just about here.....  Finally, a "Practical/Tactical Glock .45 ACP ala the Glock 34 and 35.  The Model 42 will be in .380, quite possible single stack.  A longslide 10mm would probably sell but no rumors on that.

A few comments on recent popular, new gun lubes

    This is your default reminder that lube really doesn't matter so long as your weapon IS lubed.  Weapons can run dirty and they can run wet with lube but they don't run well dirty and dry.  Nearly any lube will work and ANY lube is better than none.  If out of lube, drizzle some oil off of the dipstick of your vehicle.  Yes, motor oil works FINE.  Also, spring maintenance is more important than choice of lube.  Change out your springs regularly according to the manufacturer's recommendations.  Being that my primary training carbine is a 5.45x39mm AR15 that only sees corrosive ammo, lube choice DOES matter on that platform as the bolt is pitted from my openly admitted neglect in not cleaning it right after shooting corrosive ammo.

  I used Froglube at the Failure2Stop 2 carbine class.  It was cold.  Neither my 5.45x39mm AR15 nor the 5.56mm Sabre/Bravo Company AR I had to switch to (didn't bring enough 5.45 ammo) had a problem shooting in sub freezing temps and the snow.  The Froglube doesn't work that well with the corrosive salts in the Soviet surplus 5.45 ammo I was using though.  A lighter lube works better for this in my opinion.

  Good friend Kevin Boland gave me a bottle of FireClean.  I tried it on my Glocks and 5.45 AR15. Works GREAT.  No smell, doesn't run too much.  Highly recommended.  I like it much better than Froglube.  Buy in confidence.

  Finally, I heard about Rand CLP from ToddG and bought some on a lark from Amazon.  I decided to try it on a Victorinox Swiss Tool that I've had since I was a young infantryman in the Marine Corps in the late 90's.  This tool is great in that it is high quality and never corrodes.  One of the most rust proof pieces of gear that I've ever seen.  Needs longer and thinner pliers though.  That and it's alway been nearly impossible to open the tools on it.  Even after soaking in BreakFree CLP.  I'm not a weak guy but I often had to grab another tool just to use this darned thing.  However, I hit it lightly with Rand CLP and now, it's a different tool than the one I bought over 15 years ago.  I can open every tool easily and with one finger.  I had read of Kyle Lamb saying that he saw this stuff creep upward on a carbine he lubed with it and I gotta say, I believe that now.  I look forward to trying this stuff on my lube test bed, my 5.45 AR15 with corrosive ammo.

Coupla of Surefire light deals

First off, the Surefire x300 500 lumens weapons light.  Roughly half off.  The gold standard in WMLs (Weapons Mounted Lights).   Heck, I'm happy with my 200 lumen X300 :)

Secondly, the 500 lumens M600 in tan.  A more study light than the X300 if you shoot more than a couple of carbine classes a year.

Chris Cheng of Top Shot comes out of the closet

As related on his blog.  GOOD.  FINE.  Now can conservatives and conservative gun owners shut the hell up about social issues?  It really doesn't take a huge mental leap to realize that the right to keep and bear arms is a human right just as is Chris's right to be a gay American.

I am glad we have another ambassador for the Second Amendment that isn't fat, old, and white.  Whether people admit or not, we need people of every type to represent us.

However........Chris, this article was really, really BAD.  Come on, man :)

Remember the rumor on Colt buying LWRC?

  Rumor has it that Colt is doing it for the manufacturing space......

  That might explain why Colt has abandoned plans for a factory in Florida.

My theory on shooting videos posted online

  The less free a local/state/country is, the worse the shooting and tactics.

  Observe these from California:

R.I.P.

Interesting commentary on this event from a South African here.