Hippo Birdie Two Me.

Yay! I had a birthday yesterday... I think. Couldn't tell you for sure since I slept thru most of it and had to be at work for the rest of it. Further study of this phenomenon maybe required.

My 2 cents.

For what its worth.

   Doing my rounds of the blogosphere and noticed several posts about your first gun purchase. Every one of them I read were full of useful information that shouldn't be discounted. But. I noticed, in particular, that nearly all of them steer you away from the lightweight snubbie revolvers with the usual; poor sights, recoil, etc. All valid reasons. However I noticed there wasn't much in the department as to the fleshing out of those details. I will attempt to do this. Probably poorly.

   For starters, snubbies do recoil, a lot, I own exactly 1 for a reason, it isn't fun to shoot unless you are a recoil junkie and this is for a 5-shot .38 spl. Even with the porting the muzzle flip and palm bruising is more violent than anything else I've shot and that includes my Dad's .44 magnum. To put it simply, it hurts to shoot. I know I'll hear it (if anyone outside the usual suspects chooses to respond, if at all). "Aww does the itty-bitty gun hurt your wittle hands?" Short answer, yes. Beyond that, well, my "wittle" hands could be described as hams in some parts of this country and I'm not little unless you are around guys that make André the Giant look like common folk. At any rate I keep my snubbie for one reason, it's a spurless hammer, stainless steel and it fits in a pocket, no muss no fuss. Also being a revolver there is little to no chance of a jam, and no chance of a FTF or FTE (failure to feed and failure to eject respectively).

   Second to the recoil is the sight radius, or lack there-of, if you prefer. Mine has a total of 3 and 5/8ths inches of it, vs my next smallest pistol which is 5 inches, in this case, size matters. The longer the sight radius the more accurate you can be. Because at longer distances any variation in the sight alignment is more noticeable and easier to correct. The reason I'm comfortable carrying a firearm that is lacking in comfort and accuracy is that I know its abilities and limitations. It is designed as a close range piece, not much over speaking distance. (Find out your abilities and know your limits). The snub is the next logical step in the evolution of the belly gun so to speak. (Formerly 2-shot pistols lumped under the common "Derringer" class). Which were designed to be hidden by a belt buckle and employed at card table distance (about 4.5 - 5 ft) or less, usually less. Hence the term "belly gun", its not only where you carried it, its also where you stuck the muzzle on your target. It serves that purpose well. Having 5 shots vs 2 also gives you extra firepower and more firepower never hurt unless you are the one facing it. Another reason I'm comfortable with carrying it is that I know what I can do with it under stress. I practice. Your mileage will vary. However, the key with any firearm is P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E. I don't as much as I should, but enough to remain confident in knowing what my skills are and more importantly, are not.

   In closing, a snubbie in my opinion is the wrong platform to learn on. It doesn't let you figure out your abilities and limits for yourself, it tells you, painfully. It is a purchase best left til you have garnered some skill and knowledge with various other firearms so you know what it is and is not capable of. Forget what you have seen on TV too, most of it isn't real. What parts are real, are performed by people that don't do much else beyond send lead down range for a living. As an aside, I know people both personally and on the internet that are superb shots with small revolvers and sub compact semi-autos. This is because they shoot them, a lot, and already know what they are doing as well as what to expect.

Food for thought. High blood pressure edition.

Just finished listening to The Squirrel Report from Friday. I had a thought after listening to everyone describe the cars now vs the cars we had.

   My first car was a 1987 Mercury Lynx with an A/T and a 1.9L, 4-cyl engine. Now granted the 4-banger is a pretty economic engine in itself but the fact they are touting newer cars as some of the most fuel efficient ever is utter crap, the only way most of the ones that still burn gas get that way is by using plastic and carbon fiber as the primary structural components. However...This, on the other hand:

Pic found HERE.*

   This pile of rolling scrap metal got ~30 MPG highway and no less than 25 MPG city, with over 200,000 miles on it. With a drive train that wasn't designed to last past 100k. I know you're gonna say, "Well duh." Simple description on how I drove that car: I drove it like I stole it. At the time what I spent on it was less than a week's pay. If I tore it up, no big loss, I buy another one with the next check. I drove that car hard for almost 3 years before it finally started having more mechanical issues than it was worth to get fixed. Beyond that it had a metal body, not something you're gonna find on pretty much anything that claims to be uber efficient these days, not in this class anyway.

   I coulda crashed that little 80's econobox into a newer econobox, other than the smart car, and still been able to drive it to the mechanic afterward. Provided of course ala smart cars, (that over-weight, plastic, waste of a shoebox) didn't have the 9-ton unobtainium roll cage it wouldn't even rate as a hood ornament. Which in turn might be good for the illusion of safety but makes the car weigh 3 times as much as that itty-bitty thing should. Which screws the fuel economy. Unlike my Lynx which was a uni-body with internal steel supports and weighed exactly 2,100lbs without the wheels and tires. Although it could hold 5 people rather than 2. Now... you little tofu-eating,  Gaia-fellating, PETA-petting, pinko-commie pricks, tell us again how the new cars are soooooooooo much better than the old ones? F**ktards.





*While not my car exactly, it is similar. Mine was the 2-door hatchback, with 14" steel rims rather than the standard 13" rims like this one. Mine also looked a lot rougher, same color though.

Past due for expression.

Wanted to say something I've felt for awhile. Pretty much since I started getting active with RKBA. After reading Robb's post I felt it was the right time to express it.

To all whom it may concern:

   I'm willing to fight and die to protect my rights, are you willing to die to try and take them? Or will you just send someone else to die in your place? Because I won't go silently into that good night!


Sincerely, 
JRebel

Quick Question.

Why would my 1911 be dinging the case mouth on every stinking cartridge?

I apologize for the picture quality, my phone only zooms at 1.2 mp or less not at 2.0 mp.

Anyway I highlighted the ding in the center case and you can see the ding in the case to the right. Any ideas and fixes would be welcome.

UPDATE: The port for this pistol is lowered and flared. The dinged brass is a new occurrence as I haven't seen brass from it like this before and the only recent mods have been external since I last fired it.

B.A.G.D.

Actually bought it a bit over a week ago but...

Remington 597 .22 LR. Nice little rifle and I have been wanting a semi-auto .22 for shits 'n' giggles. So, what did you buy with your tax refund?



So, they went ahead and did it.

  The "Prosecutor" (and I'm being generous by using that term for someone who follows public pressure rather than the law,) has charged George Zimmerman with 2nd degree murder. Lets take a look at that shall we? 2nd degree murder in FL requires there to be willful action, which is not present in this case from what I can tell. You can hear all that on the 911 call, Zimmerman neither ran after Martin or sought to lay in wait for him after he ran away. Martin however did come back and decided to commit assault by attacking Zimmerman and then got what he asked for, case closed. However when you are just charging someone to placate the bloodthirsty masses the reason doesn't matter as long as you look good doing it. Zimmerman goes and places his trust in the "Justice" system by turning himself in, that trust is misplaced. The so called justice system has already caved to the racist masses and charged him. What the media won't show is that he's already been convicted thanks to them and they can just sit back and report on the show trial they helped create. Which unfortunately means Mr. Zimmerman is screwed six ways from Sunday.

   Make no mistake this is the first shot in a war they wanted, whether anyone realizes it or not. I personally hope all the violent, racist pricks in the country are happy now. Mr. Zimmerman's future is destroyed simply because some little thug acted like a thug and got treated like a thug. But. Since his family couldn't be bothered to accept the FACT that Trayvon was a worthless thug we now have this convoluted mess and travesty of justice. They won't dare anger the masses now that they are placated by finding Mr. Zimmerman innocent of the charges. Using the simple expedient of not allowing anyone on the jury that thinks he's innocent. Think it can't happen? They just proved that it can. This trial was rigged as soon as the media started crying and wetting themselves about it. As well as when the racist pricks Jesse Jackson and all the rest started pontificating about it. You worthless weasels called this dance now you get to pay the band. This farce will not be forgotten.

   P.S. If everyone thinks you pricks are violent and bloodthirsty they haven't seen anything yet. Difference between us is; I can control myself until it's time to unleash the beast within, your horns were always showing. Marching and protesting won't stop what's coming. Sic, semper mortem malefactores.