Call me Ahab

posted by Caleb on Jul 24

I have leveled up in the gunnie world today. In addition to the extra hit points, I now have a bunch of skill points allotted to “Craft Ammo”. That’s right, i have finally joined the ranks of the reloaders.

Which of course is the purpose of this post, i need suggestions for good loads for .45 Colt that roughly approximate the ballistics of the original loads. A 250 grain bullet at about 800 fps would be great for a lot of applications, with the added benefit of not blowing up any of my cartridge conversion revolvers.  I decided to just start with .45 Colt for a couple of reasons, foremost of those being that I have a ton of brass sitting around that I’ve collected in that caliber.  The 2nd reason is that even though I don’t shoot a lot of .45 Colt, the 100 or so rounds a month that I go through in that caliber easily makes it one of the most expensive things that I shoot, since a box of 50 goes for about $30-$35, which means that I can spend upwards of 70 bucks on ammo for just 100 rounds.  Even if I get the cost down to $15 a box, it’s still going to cut my cost of shooting in half, which means more shooting for me.

I also need/want advice on powder - I know next to nothing about selecting a powder for reloads.  I had heard that Trail Boss was good, but honestly I don’t really know all that much about powders and reloading.

Any and all advice is helpful.  Oh yeah, and I need a mallet.

posted by Caleb on Jul 24

Check out www.actionairgun.com - it’s an interesting hybrid of USPSA and the e-postal matches that are popular with bloggers. One of the neat things about it to me is that it culminates in an actual championship match that is held live.

Aside from the obvious potential to use this as a training tool for people who already shoot action sports, I really dig the idea of using this to get people like my wife hooked on action shooting.

I’ll be following the development of Action Airgun closely.

posted by Caleb on Jul 21

Circa 2008, it seems.

The origin of the phrase “keep your powder dry” comes from the era of muzzleloading blackpowder weapons, where damp powder was often much more than just an annoyance, it could lead to a painful death at the hands of Indians or large carnivorous mammals.

My co-host Squeaks seems to have encountered the modern day equivalent of  keeping your powder dry, which would seem to be the much less elegant phrase “don’t overoil the chambers of your carry gun and then leave ammo in there because the shit will corrode and foul your revolver”.  For the record, this is why I recommend the Bore-Snake (hur-hur) to people, especially revolver shooters.  I use the Snake not only the barrel, but after I patch the chambers, I’ll run them through with the Snake to get any lingering grit out, plus the Bore-Snake removes any excess oil that I might have left in the gun.

As much as I hate to sound like a product placement guy, if the zombies did rise, I would grab a Bore Snake to go along with my survival guns, because a dirty gun is almost useless to me.

posted by Caleb on Jul 10

This is pretty cool, actually - using a submachine gun to create modern art.

I do not often like modern art, but I actually enjoyed the finished product that Sebastian’s friend produced; there was something visually appealing about the contrast between the plates and the dents formed into said plate by the impact of the rounds.

posted by Caleb on Jul 10

My birthday is the 12th, and in honor of such a joyous occasion, Mrs. Ahab has gifted me with a truly wonderous gift - I get to overspend the gun budget.

Now, that may seem frivolous to you, but I understand the importance of a budget (or more accurately, I fear my wife’s wrath), especially where my hobby is concerned, as I have been known in the past to go a little crazy with gun stuff.

I had mentioned that I was looking at either a Glock 34/35 or a Taurus Judge, and oddly enough I ended up with neither. See the below picture for the grand total of my birthday swag.

What you see there is a Glock 24 (the discontinued competition model), a spare magazine for the Glock, 150 rounds of .40 S&W for the Glock, and a cheap holster and magazine case for the Glock. That’s my birthday present. What also fortuitously came today were the fruits of me selling a gun, namely my 2nd Beretta Jetfire, with a spare magazine, two holsters, and a pistol rug; not only that my shipment of 147gr 9mm HPs for my Beretta 92D came yesterday as well.

Yesterday was an awesome day for gun stuff.  I’m obviously excited about the Glock, as it gives me a single platform to shoot for USPSA, Bowling Pins, and GSSF - the only sport I can’t really shoot it in is IDPA, since the Glock is ported and wouldn’t fit in their “box” anyway.

The Beretta is allegedly going to be my wife’s carry gun when she gets around to filling out her permit paperwork and all of that jazz, she liked mine and thought it was “cute”.  Even if she doesn’t carry it, I have no problem having a second version of the gun I carry the most often - it never hurts to have a spare.

So if you add up all the cool stuff I received, you could probably say that this was a very good birthday, and it hasn’t even officially happened yet.

posted by Caleb on Jul 7

Best picture ever.

Chinese Tactical Team using Segeways as the latest and greatest tactical accessory.

I cannot image that would provide a very stable firing platform, but then again I never thought it would be a good idea to saddle up my scooter and see how well it soaks up the recoil from a 9mm.

posted by Caleb on Jul 2

This week’s podcast is up!  Visit http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts to stream the latest episode, or download it by clicking on this link.

 

 Gun Nuts: DC vs. Heller [44:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We covered DC vs. Heller, some of the San Francisco gun case, as well a little news round-up, info on the ParaUSA blogger contest, and we put the (small) spotlight on a new blog, Home on the Range.

Be sure to check out next week’s show, when we’ll (hopefully) have the details of the winners for the ParaUSA/Blackwater shoot, as well as a special shooting industry guest!

posted by Caleb on Jul 1

Stolen from Bane:

 I wanted to mention something about guns that wasn’t about gun control. The cherubs and seraphim tell me that a major American ammunition manufacturer is getting ready to pop, so to speak, a high performance .380 round tailored specifically for the little Ruger LCP. Well why not? With sales still grinding through the stratosphere, the little LCP has redefined “pocket pistol” and given the long dis’sed .380 a quick poke in the butt. Mine is the very definiiton of “reliable” and it’s now generally stoked with Cor-Bon DPXs.

As a very big fan of the .380 ACP, I can only say that this is awesome.  A .380 round optimized for short barrels like those on the Kel-Tyke and the Ruger LCP would probably sell like freakin’ hotcakes, and I would probably buy a .380 just so I could have an excuse to run the round.

posted by Caleb on Jun 30

The monthly pin shoot at Marion County Fish and Game was a blast, as usual.  I brought my Taurus Tracker in .357, which I shot like crap with, and my Walther P22.  It turned out that I only shot one real bracket with the .357, as for the second bracket one of the regulars asked me if I’d like to try his Smith & Wesson 945, which is the Performance Center 1911.  I have to tell you, shooting a $2k pistol was painful experience, but I did for you, my dear readers.

Here’s a pretty awesome picture from the shoot - the gun has opened up and you can see the empty casing in the air, and the bullet has just hit the left most pin.  Click to embiggenate.

Even though this video is titled “Part 2″ it’s actually the first video with me shooting the 945; had a pretty good time shooting it.

The second video is a lot of fun - as you can see, I had fallen behind on the actual pins because I dropped a couple of shots.  I made up the time on the reload, which lead to us having quite the photo finish.  I give a little Tiger Woods-style fist pump right there at the end; and if you slow the playback down you can see how closely together our pins hit the the ground.

However, I saved the best video for last.  Here’s my buddy Greg, who normally shoots a Beretta 92 in 9mm, trying out a guy’s S&W double action .45 Colt.  He has a little bit of trouble with it, but the video is so great I had to post it.  Everyone is yelling and hollering, which made what was already a fun round even more interesting.

I didn’t get any video of the .22 round this week, and even more sadly I didn’t get video of what we did after the pinheads match.  We had some time to kill, so the ROs let people just kind of “have at it” at the little pinheads with whatever caliber they wanted.  Let me tell you, a pinhead flies when you hit it with a .357 magnum round.

The next pins match is July 26, and there is a Friday night steel match on July 11.  If I have my new Glock 35 by the 11th, I’ll make a solid effort to be there for the match.

As usual, the pin shoot was a great time - it really is one of the most fun things you can do with a pistol.

posted by Caleb on Jun 26

Everyone who is cool is talking about holsters right now; I have decided to drop my two cents into the communal pool.

I deal with an annoying situation when I carry, namely the fact that as a not-exactly-large guy, I have to choose my holsters very carefully when I’m carrying anything larger than a pocket pistol.  I’m not exactly brand loyal, which is a nice way of saying that I have a drawer full of holsters that I’ve tried and ultimately discarded for being uncomfortable/impractical or just plain bad.

As a self-described metro-tactical person, my holster selection is further confounded by my choice of clothing.  Assuming for the moment that I’m not carrying a pocket gun like my Beretta .25 ACP, my preferred method of carry is an inside the waistband holster.  For me, that’s been an ideal solution, as it allows me to usually carry a full-sized handgun without having to strap a giant holster on to my not giant frame.

When I carry outside the waistband, it is really a mixed bag, although I tend to use a lot of Galco holsters as I like their construction and durability.  But I’ll also go plastic fantastic sometimes with my holster, as the Blackhawk designs often allow the fastest access to the gun from concealment.

Tam is absolutely right about holsters - you need to put as much thought into your rig as you do into the carry gun itself.  Because I’ve taken the time to develop my carry guns, to carefully chose which holsters work best for which carry situations, I’ve reached a point where I can be pretty safe to guess which new rigs will and won’t work for me.

But the key to getting to that level is carry your gun a lot.  A lot of people buy a new blaster with a crappy holster and then leave the gun in the sock drawer because “it’s too heavy” or something, not realizing that it’s probably your holster that’s causing the problem.

The most often overlooked component of your carry set-up isn’t your holster though - it’s your belt.  Because the holster rides on the belt, a crappy, saggy belt will go a long way towards reducing the efficiency of any holster that you use.  Galco and other companies actually make purposely designed belts for carry, which are often reinforced with plastic linings inside the belt.  The problem with those is that sometimes they’re not exactly stylish, but that’s okay.  For a man or a woman, any thick, stiff belt will be a good choice.  One of my favorite gun belts is quite “hip” (or whatever the kids are saying) as it’s thick leather with two roles of metal rings reinforcing it.  I can carry my Beretta 92D and two spare magazines on this belt like it’s not even there.

Even though I’ve already said it two or three times, you need to try a lot of holsters before you find “the one” that works.  Just because your first holster/belt combo didn’t work isn’t a reason to toss the gun, it’s just a reason to find a new holster and belt combo.  Then someday you can be like me and have a drawer full of holsters you never wear.