Hell hath frozeneth overeth.....

The Des Moines Register has published a CCW article that did not go straight to the Brady Bunch for scare quotes. Would have been funnier if they had a quote from one of the hardcase sheriffs that necessitated the modernization of our carry law. They did get the usual dig about wanting range time included in the permitting process. My tinfoil hat sensors are tingling a little, but for now I will accept that one article isn't a total ideological poo fest.
ETA-This was above the fold page one news.

Yes. That is blueberry.

Dad is working his way thru the flavors . Not like I'm going to drink Daley, I mean Coke.

Airgun range time....

I picked up an Umarex M&P air gun last weekend. Mostly for practice, and fun, of course. Plus the range closes for holiday break, so I'll need something to shoot.

Like these sorry cans, or that mangy pumpkin. The box is actually sitting on a roll away trash can, with plywood behind it to deflect the BB's down. I have two containers, I'll need to make two traps to set on them.

The trigger on the pistol is not an exact copy of the M&P, but it is close. The take up is stiffer, but the break is not as bad as the real thing. I actually hit a little right and up if in a hurry with it. The mag is sturdy, made of metal. It is a pain in the butt to load, and I hope the clip that holds the top bb in does not wear out. No blowback action, but the barrel moves forward to load the bb (hence the stiffer trigger), then drops back to fire the round.
At 5 yards, I could slow fire under an inch unsupported. Or practice moving and shooting. And shooting while moving. That may come in handy; there is a USPSA match Sunday. Not that two times trying it make me great, far from it. But I can hit a can more often than not, that is worth something. Something small.

12 degrees outside? Range time!

Decided it was time to play in the snow. Okay, the 1 inch of snow. Ran the M&Pxs in the cold. Sure, it's not -10, but what the heck. Think I had one fail to feed anything with the M&P9, with the nasty Remington 250 count special box. Tap rack bang, so might be time to clean some mags. Or my gloved hand touched the slide release. It just turned 1k today, with 1 cleaning at 250 and minor wipedowns/patches through the bore being the extent of the maintenance it has received. The 357 with the 40 barrel fired its carry ammo that sat in the truck all week. And some of the Fed elcheapo 100 rounders. Nothing to write home about there; no mess ups.

My M&P40c rang the 15 yard large target with every carry round in the magazine. And the next mag of el cheapo hit too. I wonder if the fact that I had been IWB carrying it right up until I shot it made the difference there? The other guns were cold, often cold enough to need gloves on when loading the mags. Thank you thick callouses.

Once I or the guns warmed up, I tried transitions between targets, didn't do perfect, but nothing to be totally ashamed by. By my poor standards, anyway. And I bought something that may help with my shooting. That will be for another post.

Occupy DM steal from the poor give to themselves .

65 year old man evicted. So the local ows crowd decides to help themselves to his stuff. Nice work 47%.

Nice opinion you got there.....

Glad someone is defending your right to have it. Love the tired military industrial complex line. So many other government/industrial complexes exist today. Sounds like the professor is pissed that the College Republicans (oh, the humanity) are the ones collecting money to make care packages for soldiers. Probably pissed no one sends him a care package for teaching the unwashed masses in Ames (shudder) Iowa.

How can I send a care package to the guys at Gitmo*? Our guys, not the opfor. I'm thinking a bible, airline bottle of Jack, and some pork jerky would be a start. Or Tactical bacon...... That puts me on a list for even thinking about it.


*Aw, is that still there? Golly, that was one of the hopey changey things that actually was brought up in the campaign of '08.

So I'm hanging out at the gun counter...

Stopped at Sportsman's Warehouse to, well, waste time on a family free Friday. They still had one Black Friday Umarex Colt Rail Gun. Me really likey, but not in the cards this year. While I'm drooling over it (yeah, I'm weird) I got to listen to some interesting conversations......

Counter guy answers phone. "Yeah, we have a 12 gauge with with scope for under $300(?)." Pause. "Well, we are low on slugs, opener is tomorrow. And you will need to sight it in.......Really..." Click.
To me and the couple next to me- "He wanted to go deer hunting for the first time in his life tomorrow, wanted a gun with a scope, and was going to sight in in tonight (7 pm)!"
Cop (dispatcher, I think) standing next to me- "What range is he shooting at; I'd like to go there."
Me- "The no passing zone by my house all the other tools shoot at...."

I'm still fingering the Umarex, Cop's hubby (CH) wanders off to find ammo for the Judge she is buying. You know where this is going. Comes back once to ask, "What does ACP mean?" Gets the answer, comes back with a box of .45 Auto. Counter guy doesn't say squat. I wait, make jokes about the deer hunter guy, finally.....

Me- "So, is that box of ammo for the Judge?"

CH-"Yeah, that other stuff was ACP so it wouldn't work."

Me- "Umm, you need .45 Long Colt."

CH, to counter guy, not trusting me, "Does this take .45 LC?"

Counter guy, finally looking at his box of ammo, "Oh, yeah, you need the .45 LC we keep (hide) over there."

CH- "Boy, that stuff is expensive."

Me- "!"
My true reaction- buy the LCR, Bodyguard, or SP101 they have on sale then. Quit telling your wife it will be easy, you don't have to aim, all the stupid cliches all rolled into one. Wow, I only thought those were ghost stories people told on the internet.

What the heck, I only chip in when I like a gun. No need get someone pissy over pistol choices. Or worse, screw up a sale and get chased away from the gun counter. I'm to the point a couple of the guys (and one girl) just start handing me the new, cool stuff as soon as they see me.....

Not an ammo sale, but.....

Safety glasses are half price this week at Menard's. And they left the gloves on sale even though it is 10 degrees out this morning .
I'm happiest that I can breathe without cold medicine. I hate those wonderful holiday bugs that knock you down. The gunshow last weekend may have had awesome deals, but I was in no state of mind to brave the ridiculous crowds. From what I saw browsing some of the cheaper guys large crowd pricing was in full effect .

Yep, I live in Iowa...

Listening to the traffic report for the trip home. It includes a cow loose near my house. Wow, I did not know that was worth calling in on, let alone making the traffic report. Glad I live in a little county. Polk, you know, where the capital, Des Moines, is located.

So Canada is becoming less PC?

Canada may reverse their "your mean" (yes, I'm spelling it wrong on purpose) "hate speech" laws? That is unpossible! Those whiners earned their special right to be offended years ago. Any random person may, gasp, say something that doesn't conform to the 'correct' world view. How will the Canadian government stifle their citizens now? They are stopping the pointless long gun registration debacle too. Will this freedom spread to the other ends of the empire, like Oz or, gasp, England itself? /sarc

Quick wild prediction.....

HR822 will pass the Senate and be signed by the President only if Mitt Romney is the nominee. The sad part is that it would differentiate Obama from Mitt, half cocked gun schemes excluded. The funniest part would be watching the media newspeak transform from 'derp, gunses are ebil' to 'Look at this champion of our right to self defense we have in our President.' Bonus points if they amend it to force Illinois to join the Union. Triple points if they use words 'see Amendments 2 and 14' somewhere in the bill, instead of relying on the old, hackneyed commerce clause.

Phone post (obligatory)

So I got a droid. Well, el cheapo plan midrange Samsung exhibit 2. If it sucks, it will turn into something else.