We're going to be talking about open carry - which is a subject that I personally can't believe we haven't featured yet. Joining us tomorrow night on our open carry show will be Meleanie Hain, the Pennsylvania soccer mom and open carry advocate who had her carry permit revoked, then returned after open carrying at her child's soccer game.
As usual, you can listen live and join the discussion at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts at 9pm Eastern time. During the top half of the show, Breda and I will be chatting with Ms. Hain, and then we'll open up the phone lines at (347) 539-5436 for your call ins and questions. We're definitely looking forward to this tomorrow night - Open carry is an issue in the pro-gun community about which people are incredibly passionate, and it should spark some great discussion. Be part of the discussion tomorrow night at 9pm at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Gun Nuts Radio: 2008 is over!
Sorry for the crunchy audio on last night's show. However, if you managed to stick it out, you would have a heard a pretty fun show, including a call in from the old man from Family Guy.
As usual, you can also click here (or the other embedded player) to download your own copy of the .mp3 file of the show.
As usual, you can also click here (or the other embedded player) to download your own copy of the .mp3 file of the show.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Gun Nuts Radio: Hello, 2009!
At this juncture, I can't believe that Gun Nuts Radio is as old as it is. A crazy idea conceived at the 2008 NRA Annual Meetings has taken on such a life and vibrancy that I am often humbled by the fact that people tune in live at 9pm Eastern time every Tuesday to listen to Breda and me.
Tonight's show will be another light show - the last show of 2008 will contain a look back at our favorite moments of '08, and what we're looking forward to in 2009. As usual, we'll want your feedback and comments as we go through the show. Join us live in the chat at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts, or call in and share your opinions live on the air at (347) 539-5436. That's live, tonight at 9pm Eastern time!
Tonight's show will be another light show - the last show of 2008 will contain a look back at our favorite moments of '08, and what we're looking forward to in 2009. As usual, we'll want your feedback and comments as we go through the show. Join us live in the chat at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts, or call in and share your opinions live on the air at (347) 539-5436. That's live, tonight at 9pm Eastern time!
New Year's Resolution from NSSF
Here is one New Year's Resolution that I can heartily endorse:
I am 100% on board with that, and I'd like to challenge you to take it a step further. Don't just introduce a newbie to the shooting sports. Introductions are great, and they help us all, but I personally want to see it go past that. Introduce someone to the shooting sports, and then nurture them. Take that introduction to the fun and rewarding environment of shooting and do everything you can to grow it into a passion in that other person. For 2009, don't just make people into new gun owners, but make them into gun nuts.
It's that the time of year for taking stock of things, and making resolutions--those promises we make to ourselves about important goals to accomplish in the coming year. Whether your list is long or short, we at NSSF ask you to add one more simple promise--to introduce someone in 2009 to target shooting or hunting. Inviting either a newcomer or a former participant to go shooting or hunting is a simple act, yet one that research continues to show is the most successful way to get people started or reactivated in our sports. "If each of us in the hunting and shooting community followed through on a promise to issue such an invitation and actually took someone shooting, the effects would be exponential and profound, not only to our industry but for wildlife, habit and the protection of our rights as gun owners,"said Steve Sanetti, president of NSSF. "I can assure you that such a promise is on my New Year's list of resolutions, and I ask that everyone in our community do the same." An easy and fun way to issue that invitation is through NSSF's electronic invitation cards at www.stepoutside.org. At last count, some 60 a day were being sent. Consider adding yourself to that number. And that promise to your list. You have 365 days to keep it.
I am 100% on board with that, and I'd like to challenge you to take it a step further. Don't just introduce a newbie to the shooting sports. Introductions are great, and they help us all, but I personally want to see it go past that. Introduce someone to the shooting sports, and then nurture them. Take that introduction to the fun and rewarding environment of shooting and do everything you can to grow it into a passion in that other person. For 2009, don't just make people into new gun owners, but make them into gun nuts.
Monday, December 29, 2008
.40 Smith & Wesson Minor Loads
I've been messing around a bit lately with .40 S&W loads that take the edge off of the recoil in my Para 16-40 Limited. While not unpleasant, a full house 180 grain round from the .40 generates a decent amount of "snap" in the gun, driving the front sight off of target and slowing down the speed of follow-up shots. Unfortunately, not having a reloading press has somewhat hampered my ability to "roll my own", so I've been shopping around and buying all kinds of different .40 S&W ammo.
Just recently, I hit paydirt with a "minor" .40. While shopping around on Frangible bullets, I got a wild hair on my fanny and decided to order a bunch of their 125 grain .40 S&W ammo, made by Wagner Accu-Swage. Normally, frangible .40 S&W ammo would run quite a bit a box, but because Wagner makes this load on once fired brass, it's actually cheaper than buying .40 S&W ammo at retail cost from Gander Mountain and two of my local gun stores.
The rounds themselves are (as mentioned) a 125 grain .40 bullet at around 1100 fps. That means that they're perfect for my purposes, as they meet the power factor necessary for ESP and SSP divisions in IDPA. They're obviously not hot enough for Major in USPSA, but for IDPA and Steel they're looking real good.
Of course, all of this means nothing if they don't shoot, so I took them out to the range, along with a couple of boxes of factory .40 S&W from Augila to see what I could see. The first thing I did was fire a 10 round magazine of the Augila, to establish a base line for recoil impulse (sharp) and accuracy (average). Then I fired a 10 round magazine of the Accuswage rounds as a comparison. I immediately noticed a much lighter recoil impulse on the 125 grain frangible rounds - the closest comparison would be to shooting an average 9mm load. All the 125 grain rounds cycled cleanly through the gun, and were extremely fast on the follow up shots. To see just how fast, I hauled out my CED 7000 timer and recorded my splits for 5 two-shot strings with the factory 180 grain rounds, and then 5 more with the 125 grain stuff. I was shooting controlled pairs, which means two shots with two sight pictures. My average split with the 180 grain stuff was about 0.27 seconds, compared to the 125 grain rounds which had an average split time of .20 seconds. Seven hundredths of a second may not seem like a lot, but over the course of a say, 200 round match, those seven hundredths of a second translate into 7 seconds, which can be the difference between first place and 8th place.
As far as accuracy goes - the rounds were definitely accurate. I did need to adjust my sights one click to the right after that, though.
I can enthusiastically recommend the Accuswage rounds for someone who's looking to shoot a .40 in IDPA for ESP or SSP, or in USPSA for Production. They move the .40 S&W's recoil impulse down around 9mm in terms of fast follow up shots, and with a 10 round magazine cap you can keep pace with those 9mm guys and their bullet hoses. It would also make a good load for steel, as again the light recoil makes it faster. Plus with a frangible round, you have the added benefit of "splash" - the bullet breaks up on the target and leaves an almost paintball like black mark on the target, easily identifying your hits.
Just recently, I hit paydirt with a "minor" .40. While shopping around on Frangible bullets, I got a wild hair on my fanny and decided to order a bunch of their 125 grain .40 S&W ammo, made by Wagner Accu-Swage. Normally, frangible .40 S&W ammo would run quite a bit a box, but because Wagner makes this load on once fired brass, it's actually cheaper than buying .40 S&W ammo at retail cost from Gander Mountain and two of my local gun stores.
The rounds themselves are (as mentioned) a 125 grain .40 bullet at around 1100 fps. That means that they're perfect for my purposes, as they meet the power factor necessary for ESP and SSP divisions in IDPA. They're obviously not hot enough for Major in USPSA, but for IDPA and Steel they're looking real good.
Of course, all of this means nothing if they don't shoot, so I took them out to the range, along with a couple of boxes of factory .40 S&W from Augila to see what I could see. The first thing I did was fire a 10 round magazine of the Augila, to establish a base line for recoil impulse (sharp) and accuracy (average). Then I fired a 10 round magazine of the Accuswage rounds as a comparison. I immediately noticed a much lighter recoil impulse on the 125 grain frangible rounds - the closest comparison would be to shooting an average 9mm load. All the 125 grain rounds cycled cleanly through the gun, and were extremely fast on the follow up shots. To see just how fast, I hauled out my CED 7000 timer and recorded my splits for 5 two-shot strings with the factory 180 grain rounds, and then 5 more with the 125 grain stuff. I was shooting controlled pairs, which means two shots with two sight pictures. My average split with the 180 grain stuff was about 0.27 seconds, compared to the 125 grain rounds which had an average split time of .20 seconds. Seven hundredths of a second may not seem like a lot, but over the course of a say, 200 round match, those seven hundredths of a second translate into 7 seconds, which can be the difference between first place and 8th place.
As far as accuracy goes - the rounds were definitely accurate. I did need to adjust my sights one click to the right after that, though.
I can enthusiastically recommend the Accuswage rounds for someone who's looking to shoot a .40 in IDPA for ESP or SSP, or in USPSA for Production. They move the .40 S&W's recoil impulse down around 9mm in terms of fast follow up shots, and with a 10 round magazine cap you can keep pace with those 9mm guys and their bullet hoses. It would also make a good load for steel, as again the light recoil makes it faster. Plus with a frangible round, you have the added benefit of "splash" - the bullet breaks up on the target and leaves an almost paintball like black mark on the target, easily identifying your hits.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
A Very Special Gun Nuts Christmas Special
How many more times do you think I could have legitimately said "special" in the title of this post? In all seriousness though, I have probably never laughed as much during the taping/airing of a show as I did on last night's Gun Nuts Christmas Special.
We had a great time - I talked about gifts from my father, the Traeger grill I got from my wife, guns, accessories, you name it. As usual, we had a raft of great callers, including a call in from the host of another show on BTR.
Honestly though, the best part about last night's show was when Breda talked about the velvet unicorn paintings she received as a kid, and then managed to start a conversation about her dice. You have to listen to the show to believe it. Next week, we're going to wrap up 2008, and take a look forward at what's coming in 2009. That means that we're going to need you, the listeners, to call in to the show next week. I want the board blowing up, because we're going to be taking suggestions from listeners on stories, and show ideas that you'd like to hear us cover. That's next tuesday at 9pm Eastern time.
We had a great time - I talked about gifts from my father, the Traeger grill I got from my wife, guns, accessories, you name it. As usual, we had a raft of great callers, including a call in from the host of another show on BTR.
Honestly though, the best part about last night's show was when Breda talked about the velvet unicorn paintings she received as a kid, and then managed to start a conversation about her dice. You have to listen to the show to believe it. Next week, we're going to wrap up 2008, and take a look forward at what's coming in 2009. That means that we're going to need you, the listeners, to call in to the show next week. I want the board blowing up, because we're going to be taking suggestions from listeners on stories, and show ideas that you'd like to hear us cover. That's next tuesday at 9pm Eastern time.
Monday, December 22, 2008
2008 Greatest Hits
From Call me Ahab, the flagship blog of Gun Nuts Media.
For each month, here are the posts that you, the readers, decided were the most popular. Based on page views:
January: Security Threatre
February: SHOT Spotlight Boberg XR9
March: "Don't Worry". (Silly image ftw)
April: Wintermute is Back
May: ATF Throwing Adventure Outdoors Under the Bus
June: Imagine Obama 08
July: Tactical Segeway
August: Compare and Contrast
September: A two time winner! Compare and Contrast
October: Three time winner! Compare and Contrast
November: Boycott HS Precision
December: Repeat - Boycott HS Precision!
Yearly Winner (most page views): Boycott HS Precision
Top five referrers for the year
Plenty more blogging to come in '08, and I'm looking forward to a huge 2009.
For each month, here are the posts that you, the readers, decided were the most popular. Based on page views:
January: Security Threatre
February: SHOT Spotlight Boberg XR9
March: "Don't Worry". (Silly image ftw)
April: Wintermute is Back
May: ATF Throwing Adventure Outdoors Under the Bus
June: Imagine Obama 08
July: Tactical Segeway
August: Compare and Contrast
September: A two time winner! Compare and Contrast
October: Three time winner! Compare and Contrast
November: Boycott HS Precision
December: Repeat - Boycott HS Precision!
Yearly Winner (most page views): Boycott HS Precision
Top five referrers for the year
Plenty more blogging to come in '08, and I'm looking forward to a huge 2009.
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