Bringing an Attitude to a Gunfight: In the middle of an armed robbery of
a Tulsa, Okla., grocery store by a man wearing a Batman mask, one
customer leaped into action, charging, wrestling and subduing the gunman
until police arrived...According to Tulsa police reports, when a
customer ducked behind a counter, Cleveland fired the gun, missing the
customer's head by mere inches. The gun then jammed, and that's when
Stutzman seized his opportunity...While other customers watched in fear,
Stutzman endured pistol whips from the gunman, suffering a badly bruised
jaw, scrapes and other injuries. As the battle moved through the
entryway and into the parking lot, other customers eventually came to
his aid, just seconds before squad cars arrived to apprehend the robber.
(I rank mental preparedness above choice of equipment but I suspect it
was not a revolver that jammed. It appears fortuitous that the robber
was not carrying a backup gun.)
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=71931
---
Virginia Shotgunners Threatened with Lead Lawsuit: A couple of guys'
hobby is being called a source of lead contamination by neighbors. About
five men have been using a piece of rural property in Isle of Wight as
an outdoor shooting range for clay targets. A neighbor complained. Now,
the sport shooters have learned, they'll need a permit to operate a
shooting range. A public hearing on the permit will be held 7 p.m.
Thursday at the Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors meeting at the
county courthouse complex, north of Windsor on U.S. Route 258...One
property owner has filed a notice of claim, which alerts the county to a
potential lawsuit, in case lead contamination becomes a problem...
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/southofjames/dp-local_iwshootingrange_0806aug06,0,1605353.story
---
From John Farnam:
4 Aug 08
When running 22-rimfire conversions, advice from Doc Gunn:
"CCI 40-grain lead, round-nosed ammunition is best. 22/LR conversions
require as much recoil energy as possible for consistent functioning,
and all-36 grain loads are lacking. And, 40-grainers from Federal and
Remington, though functional, are so dirty they gum-up the works in
short order.
CCI Mini-Mag 'Premium' is best."
Comment: 22/conversion, both after-market and OEM, have been spotty.
Shooting 22RF ammunition surely represents a savings over shooting even
ball, but it is not without its hazards, as we see.
/John
5 Aug 08
Comments on 22/LR conversions, from a friend with much experience. He
doesn't mince words:
"22/LR conversions for both 1911s and Glocks, manufactured by Ciener,
were utter failures with all ammunition, including recommended brands.
Among other difficulties, supplied magazines are too tight to fit into
Glock's magazine well. 'Customer Service' is nonexistent, and the
website and supplied documentation are so sparse and incomplete as to be
useless. Several patient attempts to reach a live person failed, and
their correspondence is insulting. No joy there!
Marvel's unit is not much better, despite friendly, helpful people at
the company. It will not feed reliably. They supplied several
magazines, but all had tippy followers that caused monotonous nosediving
of the first round. I gave up on them too.
Happily, the Advantage Arms conversion is great, but even it needs to be
kept clean, shot with a firm hold, and fed exclusively recommended
Remington Golden Bullet. Advantage Arms customer service is wonderful
- articulate, polite, and competent/informed people. My copy is now
well beyond 2K rounds and still running fine with all ten supplied
magazines It also takes standard, and aftermarket, Glock sights - a
very good thing!"
Comment: Advantage Arms is the way to!
/John
(Back when revolvers ruled the roost, gunwriters routinely advised
would-be handgunners to start out with a .22 revolver, fired
single-action, then move on to double-action, then move up to a .38 or
357 revolver. In this scheme one would ideally use "companion guns,"
such as a K-frame S&W .22 and a K-frame S&W .38. For those who preferred
autoloaders, Colt offered the Ace conversion for its 1911 but it was
never very popular. The major arguments for these sub-caliber "trainers"
are reduced recoil, usually of greater concern for the beginning
shooter, and reduced ammunition costs, a growing concern in recent
years. For devotees of the 1911, Ruger's 22/45 offers the same grip
angle and controls, probably at greater reliability than a sub-caliber
conversion but in a package that will not fit the same holster. On the
other hand, many common pistols, including Glock models, are currently
available in Airsoft versions. I own a pair of KWA Airsoft G-19's,
purchased from
http://www.21stcenturyairsoft.com/products/KWA_Gas_Pistols, primarily so
that I can conduct low-light training indoors.)
5 Aug 08
Garand:
At an Urban Rifle/Shotgun Course in MI last weekend, we had two Ruger
Mini-14s, several AR-15s (M4s) , a Kalashnikov, an MI Carbine, and a
Garand. All ran fine, aside from an occasional hiccup.
My student with the Garand is a larger-than-average male with much gun
experience. He is an experienced supervisor with a large police
department and has attended numerous Courses, with us and other
well-known instructors, and he is a suburb marksman and Operator.
This is not the first time we've seen him with his Garand (a long-ago
birthday gift from his parents). He lives within the city limits of
Chicago, and thus a Garand is one of the few genuinely capable military
rifles that is legally ownable by those so unfortunate. Willfully naive
and gun-stupid, City officials classify the Garand as a "relic," and,
unlike "black" rifles, it is thus mostly unregulated.
The Garand is a bruiser! It is the biggest, heaviest, most powerful
military rifle ever issued to soldiers anywhere, before or since. When
you bring a copy to one of our Courses, it will beat you up far more,
and faster, than will lighter, more modern, rifles.
My student did fine for the first five-hundred rounds, but then fatigue
set in, and he started pitching shots. Re-stoking it with eight-round
clips became arduous and slow.
In any event, after five-hundred rounds, my student finally had enough!
He could barely hold it steady. His shoulders (both- we require students
to shoot from both left and right shoulders) were sore, and his thumbs
were beat-up from constant reloading.
We substituted a Krebs Kalashnikov in 7.62X39, and he finished the
Course, including passing his Practical Test, in good order. This
Kalashnikov, like all of Mark Krebs' rifles, ran superbly.
The lesson here is that all of us have limits! And, when you find
yourself in "divide overflow," you need to make whatever changes are
necessary and promptly get back into the fight! No matter what you do,
it won't be perfect, but your mind has to be constantly looking for ways
to win! However, the more experience you have with a wide spectrum of
guns, the more comfortable and confident you'll be with whatever you
find yourself armed with.
The Garand is a wonderful rifle, as is, for that matter, the '03
Springfield! I own several of each, as does every self-respecting
American! But, when run hard, it will ware you down a good deal quicker
than will a DSA/FAL, PTR-91, or even an SA/M-1A, much less an RA/XCR,
M4, SIG/556, Kalashnikov, or Kahr/M1 Carbine.
That Garand is, I'm sure, guarding my student's house as I write this.
However, he now has experience with other, equally wonderful, rifles
that are a good deal lighter and handier, at least in our
domestic/defensive environment. When the moment of truth comes, he'll
emerge victorious, no matter what he is shooting. I've no doubt!
In World History, weapons come, but they never really go. They are all
still with us! Over eons, there have been many, and each has a
definitive set of skills associated with it. As time marches on, much of
that knowledge has regrettably been lost. We none-the-less have great
respect for all of them, and honor the mighty warriors who wielded them
with such eminent skill and courage, as we are their spiritual
descendants. Many of us are literal descendants!
However, in our time we have our own dreadful challenges, and they are
ominously rushing upon us! We adore our past, but we don't live in it!
Cogito, ergo armatum sum
"I think! Therefore, I am armed!"
/John
(Let's sort the issues here: The M1 Rifle or Garand is a formidable but
less than perfect autoloading rifle that fires a full-power .30-06
cartridge. While anyone who is not in excellent physical condition will
tire from a day of arduous training with a heavy rifle or shotgun, it is
mostly the recoil of a full-power cartridge that makes that training
abusive after too many rounds; in a lighter rifle, the same cartridge
would be more punishing. While I would not be averse to having a student
fire a few hundred rounds of .223 in a day of training, I would not
dream of having a student fire as many 12-gauge shotgun slugs in a
similar time frame. An M1 Rifle may not be a poor choice for the defense
of rural property, where the nearest neighbors are at least a few
hundred yards away; in most scenarios its projectile may offer more
penetration than desired in an urban setting. John prefaces this report
with the observation that local law limits what rifles his student may
own. As long as the issue is not one of detachable magazines, an M1
Carbine may be a better choice for urban use, so long as one does not
anticipate needing to hit beyond a city block and one does not
anticipate needing to shoot into vehicles. While original GI Carbines
are now costly, they may offer the legal advantage of being classified
as a Curio & Relic, which exempts them from many [but not all] state and
local restrictions on "assault weapons." Getting back to the issue of
rounds fired in training, it's hard to envision a gunfight in which a
rifleman would fire more than 500 rounds in one day. My former teaching
partner structured courses around an 11-hour training day. For most
students, this is excessive and by the end of such a day the ratio of
noise to hits rises as the student becomes exhausted.)
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
