One that "got away"

Some where in NC is a 5" N frame 25-5 with a lanyard on the bottom of the frame. It has a blue job that was done by Bowden and a trigger that was touched by the angels..

I was working for S&W out of NC and my buddy had the same position in FL.
We were the only two RSM's that were "gun guys", everyone else had a take it or leave it, it's just a job type attitude.
When either of us were at the factory, lunch times were spent scouring the old parts of the building that were not being used. There was a plethora of storage closets and rooms with stacks of old desks and cabinets.
We did find lots of cool stuff, one of the best finds was a set of two 5" 45 cal barrels in the white in a desk drawer.
My cohort from FL had acquired two 1950 target frames with lanyard loops a few months before.
We left the parts with the best revolver smith in the pro center to assemble them.
Target trigger, Target hammer, Gold bead front, WO rear.
Once done they went to Bodwen for the Blue job, 6 months total and we had them along with an invoice, 260.00.
After the hatchet job the NRA did on S&W in 2000, the lies and outright BS cost 360+1 people their jobs. I was the +1
I was lucky as I had spent about half my paycheck each month of the different times I worked for smith in buying S&Ws at my cost. I managed to live pretty well for a couple years without a job, but it did mean that I sold that beauty.

So, if you bought a 5" N frame 45LC from Mace sporting goods back when they were in their old location,,,,,, now you know,,,,,,,,,,the rest of the story.

PS,,,, if any one knows who this beautiful creature lives with now, have them tell it that I am sorry she had to be adopted out, I hope she resides in a nice, warm safe with lots of friends, with the comforting smell of Hoppes #9 wafting thru the air and a wipe down every now and then to keep her deep blue untarnished!

If you have ever worked in a gun shop

Then you will have to identify with this comic strip.

I started in 1972, at 11 years old, sweeping one out in trade for AA 12 gauge hulls to reload.

Been in one from there on most of my life since.

This guy hit's the nail on the head until we get into the "Rom Com", but hopefully, he will have more of the shop in the future.

http://ftf-comics.com/?comic=so-it-begins

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TimDum Style Gunfighting, Advanced Class

I want to welcome all my returning students.

It gladdens my heart to see all the bright and shiny faces all in their places!

Tonight's class will be on Advanced gunfighting skills.

I have sat through many, many 

( lets just say a ungodly amount)

of hours in classrooms and under hot tin range roofs to garner this knowledge.

It should take you .....about 5 minutes tonight.

Everyone ready? Pencils up, have you gone to the potty?

Great, let's get going.

Step 1; Cover and Concealment

This is a form of concealment, they cant see you, but they can shoot you

another form

 

This is cover, it can't be shot through.

(unless they have a very big gun)

Stay behind cover when you can.

Step 2; Drawing from a holster.

Buy a holster, put gun in it, take it out.

 Enough said.

Now we move on the some very advanced shooting, in most classes, you would have to be on your third course or so and be 1500.00 or more into ammo and course costs.

(Look at all the money I am saving you!)

The Double Tap

( now days, this was not a superninjaHSLDTOTS enough name, so it is now called the controlled pair)

(Not to be confused with the holster picture in step 2)

Draw gun from holster, point open end at bad guy,

 pull trigger twice.

If you really want to be an "operator" you can try the very super advanced,

HAMMER

(Not this guy)

 

Stay with me here, this one is hard.

Draw gun from holster, point at bad guy, pull trigger two times, real fast.

Have you been able to process all that so far?

Just one more thing to go over

Reloading your gun

Are you ready, it's hard to grasp all at once

OK, here we go,,,

When your gun is out of bullets, put more in.

I know this was a lot to cover on one class, but you were up to it.

Congratulations, you my now shift the tassels to the other side of your tactical beret.

You are now a High speed, Low Drag Tactical Operator, you are the Tip of the Spear, 

the Sharpened Edge of the Sword and all that other crap.

You may now wear a ball cap with velcro and those 500.00 pullovers made of fleece 

and the real cool sunglasses.

 Next Week

Super advanced knife fighting

You must bring a note from your congressman and a letter from the local preist stating that you have never been convected of moral turpitude or mopey to take this class.

The owners and instructors of this website are not responsible for any accidents, loss of limbs or other body parts,  loss of appetite,  increased weight gain, 

blue vision or dreams of my pretty ponies.

If you find yourself shooting for more than 4 hours, consult your local gun shop.

 

 

Till Tomorrow

Stay Thirsty my Friends.

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TimDum style Gun Fighting in seven steps.

As the nights grow longer and the air colder, I feel the need to start writing again.

So, for my first entree too you , I want to teach you gun fighting and knife fighting.

Believe me when I say I have spent a lot of money in the past going to schools and seminars

so I could learn all these things.

30 years of learning and teaching has allowed me to condense all of my vast knowledge into a course that is easy to understand and perfect for the current crop of ADD addled people .

We are going to start with

Gun Fighting.

This is a 101 class, basic 

More advanced to follow.

Let's begin.

Step 1; Buy a gun

 

Step 2; Read the little book thing that comes in the guns box.

Step 3; Figure out how to load the gun, put the cartridges in it. 

Step 4; Find out what end the bullets come out, 

this is usually the one with a hole in it.

mark this end with a piece of bright tape so you don't make mistakes. 

Step 5; Point end with tape at bad guy

Step 6; Pull trigger 

( the book in the box will show you what this is)

until bad guy stops doing 

what it was you wanted him to stop doing.

Step 7; Call 911

 ( look it up in the phone book or call directory assistance if you don't know the number).

Congratulations,  you just graduated the 

TimDum School of basic gun fighting!

You can now send your check for $19.95 payable to me for your diploma.

You will receive it promptly in 6-8 weeks after your check clears. 

Your advanced course starts tomorrow. 

Please review this basic course as many times as you need, there is no additional cost or obligation.

Courses to follow will teach you how to be "High Speed", "Low Drag", "Tip of the Spear", 

"Boots on the ground", Ninja" and many more.

Thank you for attending the TimDum School of Gun and Knife Fighting, please tell you friends.

All instructors at the TimDum academy are fully licensed by the state of insanity.

By reading this statement you agree to hold harmless the writer of this blog for any accidents, acts of god, unwanted pregnancies or transmission of any viral infections.

Till tomorrow,

Stay Thirsty my Friends.

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Security and the internet

Security for your toys and other things in life

We all can't have a super hero hanging around the house, so we need to watch out for ourselves.

I have been perusing the internet the past few days, reading lots of Gun forums and
have noticed some things I wanted to talk about.

It seems like we all  love to show off our collections online.

Over the last couple days I have viewed some incredible collections of
 Firearms, High end collectible knives and airsoft guns.

They are all on open forums, hooked to a screen name.

That screen name nine times out of ten has a profile connected to it with the hometown of the poster.

Sometimes even the persons real name is also available.

Now lets say you post up a collection of Vrosapale pistols, you are very proud that you have scoured the world to find all models of this unique piece.

A few weeks later you post that you are on your way to the Vrosapale collectors convention half way across the county and you will be off the forums for 5 days.
You revel in your Twitter updates about your most recent find at the show, or what a jerk that last guy you dealt with was.

What have you just done?

Have you just told someone that you have valuable items and you will be gone from .to.?

What do you think?

I know you have a gun safe, but don't you think in two days time someone can't get into it, most of the time using tools from your own shop?

What about the other things showing in the pictures, computer systems, flat screens and all the cool movie collectibles in your "man room"?

Do you think bad people don't read Glocktalk, AR15.com or ASR?

I bring this up because years (way too many) ago I was doing the gun show circuit in FL, 51 weekends a year, driving from one end of the state to another, setting up on on Fri, break down and home Sun night.

We had a time when a small group would come to the show on Sunday, tag a dealer that had a nice display and then wait around till close down and loadout and follow him home.
Sometimes they hit as soon as the dealer got home or to his shop, sometimes waiting till the next day if it was a collector who worked during the week.

One dealer got killed and a few got hurt and they didn't stop until they screwed up and  got caught.

Now it's 2013, we have Google maps, Google name search, find anyone for 8 dollars and tons of other neat ways to locate an address.

Am I too paranoid? (can you be today?)

I learned to keep every thing collectible or rare at an off-site storage location. That and insurance keeps it away from myself and loved ones

.

It does suck that we can no longer have the "Trophy" rooms of yesteryear.

(even if you never have posted a picture, how about the bug guy, meter reader, the guy who trims your trees.

Do you think they might have looked in the window and passed on how cool your cave was?)

From AOL article, 

 Some insurance companies are catching on. Legal & General Insurance in New England says Facebook and Twitter users could be hit with higher homeowner's insurance premiums. Why? All that blabbing about activities away from home means they face a higher risk of burglary.

The company thinks burglars are actually "shopping" for victims on social media sites, looking not only for an indication you're not at home, but also photos of your home and valuables. That cute picture of your son hugging the dog? A burglar is looking in the background, eyeing your big-screen TV and new stereo system.

And it's not just adults. Teenagers are even more likely to post personal information, so Legal & General has warned that parents who aren't even online themselves could face higher homeowner's insurance premiums if their children are online.

So, a month after I post, others catch on, welcome to the party, Pal 

Even though I have a overlapping video system with my next door neighbors, a alarm system, Two big dogs and a neighbor on one side who's a Reserve police officer and has a home office where he works that overlooks my house and on the other side is a just retired Navy DEVGRP 20 year man who has nothing better to do than sit on his back porch and shoot guns most of the day (and night, for the past damn week!)

 I still want to keep the good stuff locked up.

I hate that when I want to review a gun or get ready to go to a gun match or a airsoft game that I have to lay in another 40 mins to go by and pick up what I need, but I would hate to have a shootout at my house or even worse  to come home and find what I had worked 40 years for ransacked and off at some pawn shop.

My stuff is pretty safe and yes, I have gone overboard but it gives me piece of mind that I have done all I can, if I get hit now, that's what insurance is for.

Just some random thoughts that came into my head and I wanted to share them, and because I am old and it's my Blog, I did, Nah nah neey po po

I am losing it

Please share your thoughts on this in the comments.

See you tomorrow

Till then, Check 6

This was originally posted on my airsoft blog a few years ago, I have seen so many pictures on facebook the last few days of gun collections I though it needed to be said again.

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You have to love hate.

You have to love hate.

I had to share a find I just made, and an oldie but a goodie from the annals of the internet.

here's a letter that had been floating around for years, 

and the explanation as to why he wrote it by the author, Enjoy

HK

 Because you suck. And we hate you.

An open letter to the gun community from HK’s marketing department: 

 In a world of compromises, some people put the bullets in the magazine backwards…But it doesn’t matter, because our gun is on the cover of the Rainbow Six video games. Look how cool that SEAL coming out of the water looks… If you buy a $2,000 SOCOM, you will be that cool of an operator too. And chicks will dig you.

At HK, we stuck a piston on an AR15, just like a bunch of other companies have done, dating back to about 1969. However ours is better, because we refuse to sell it to civilians. Because you suck, 
and we hate you.

Our XM8 is the greatest rifle ever developed. It may melt, and it doesn’t fit any accessories known to man, but that is your fault. If you were a real operator, you would love it. Once again, look at Rainbow Six, that G36 sure is cool isn’t it? Yeah, you know you want one.And by the way, check out our new HK45. We decided that humans don’t need to release the magazine with their thumbs. If you were a really manly Teutonic operator, you would be able to reach the controls. Plus we’ve fired 100,000,000 rounds through one with zero malfunctions, and that was while it was buried in a lake of molten lava, on the moon. If you don’t believe us, it is because you aren’t a real operator.

By the way, our cheap, mass-produced, stamped sheet metal guns like the G3 and MP5 are the bestest things ever, and totally worth asinine scalpers prices, but note that cheap, mass-produced, stamped sheet metal guns from other countries are commie garbage. Not that it matters, because you’re civilians, so we won’t sell them to you anyway. Because you suck, and we hate you, but we know you’ll be back. We can beat you down like a trailer park wife, but you’ll come back, you always do.

Buy our stuff.

Sincerely,

HK Marketing Department  
HK. Because you suck.  And we hate you. 

I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m not the biggest fan of H und K.  I posted that letter on THR a long time ago as a joke, but it sure did manage to tick a lot of people off.  Ironically, the tag line, HK.  Because you suck.  And we hate you, has been popping up in various places ever since. 

Sure, they’re decently reliable, decently accurate guns, but they’re massively overpriced and overrated by legions of fan boys.  One of the most frustrating things about dealing with gun people on the interweb is that folks tend to pick a brand, and then base some of their self-esteem on that brand.  Kind of like rabid sports fans who feel the need to burn cars if their team wins, or loses, or they just felt like burning stuff.   Say something negative about that team to one of those rabid fans, and you’re probably going to get beat up.  Likewise, if you say anything negative about the Teutonic superiority of HK, people get mad at you. 

Well, I love hate mail, so here goes. 

For each of their wunder guns, you can get something else that costs a lot less, and works better, and has ergonomics designed by people that actually shoot.   HK came about when some Nazis fled to Spain and built the Cetme.  But Cetme doesn’t sound very tough, does it?  So they went back to Germany and became H and K, and if you call it H and K, fan boys will get mad, and insist that it is HK, because manly Teutonic operators and Navy SEALs don’t have time to say the word And.  So HK rose to prominence by building the G3, which is what the Germans call the Cetme.

Now the G3 is a decent rifle.  It is a cheap, stamped sheet metal, battle rifle.  It has terrible ergonomics, with a hard to use safety, (and this is coming from a guy with gorilla hands), and difficult to use charging handle.  It is reliable, because of the roller locking bolt that destroys your brass, and recoils worse than other competing .308 rifles.  The FAL smokes the G3, and the only reason the G3 exists is because the Germans were too proud to pay royalties to those uppity Belgians. 

The G3 can be really accurate, if you weld a bunch of metal to the sides of it, stick on a nice barrel, and jack the price up $10,000.  And no, that’s not a typo.  The PSG1 is absurdly priced, and the cheaper version, the MSG90 is proof that if make anything absurdly heavy enough, it can be accurate. 

There is a collapsible stock available, which is awesome, if you like getting hit in the face with a piece of rebar, which is what their $400 stock feels like when you shoot it.  Germans must be tougher than we are or something.

Other stamped, sheet metal guns exist, but HK fan boys mock those as commie garbage.  See, if you build a cheap gun, but it is from Germany, then it is superior, but if you build a stamped gun in the eastern block (a hundred miles from Germany) then it is commie garbage. 

But what brought HK to international fame and the cover of Dick Marcinko books (for example, Rogue Force Delta Green Team 7 Ninja Force Alpha II:  The beginning)  was the G3s little brother, the MP5.  Take a G3, shrink it, and chamber it in 9mm.  At the time, CQB doctrine was to use 9mm subguns.  Now the MP5 is a neat little gun.  I have two.  They work well, and if compared to the other subguns of the day, like the Uzi or the Mac, then the MP5 was a lot easier to use, easier to hit with, and was decently reliable. 

The MP5 became famous when the SAS used them to kick the living hell out of some bad guys at the Iranian embassy.  This was marketing gold, and HK rode the wave.  Pretty soon everybody wanted an MP5.  It was what all the cool kids were using.  Soon every video game and action movie was filled with HK stuff.  HK may have overrated guns, but they’ve got the best marketing department in the gun business, and they milked that fee cow until it was dry. 

But the MP5 isn’t as great as people make them out to be.  They still malfunction.  (if you’re favorite gun hasn’t malfed, you haven’t shot it enough).  The mags are hard to insert on a closed bolt.  Safety still sucks.  Most versions don’t have a bolt hold open.  Honestly, if I had to get into a gunfight with a subgun, then I would rather have my PPsH. 

HK long guns were mostly unobtainable to US civilians, primarily because HK hates the civilian market.  If you don’t believe me, go talk to them at SHOT show, and watch them sneer at regular people.  They can’t help themselves.   But like all unobtainable things, like Ferraris, and super models, regular folks start to imagine these unobtainable things as perfection, when really they’re just an expensive car that spends most of its time in the shop, or a chick with mental problems and Bulimia.  That’s what happened with HK.  Their products took on this aura of coolness amongst the fans, that just isn’t real. 

For example, go to any thread on the internet where somebody brings up “What is the Best Rifle EVAR!”  and there is a poll.  On the poll will be some HK long guns that 99.85% of the gun owning public has never seen, let alone shot, but those guns will have the most votes, because the HK marketing department told you how awesome they are. 

Read up about the XM8 on most gun boards.  According to the interweb, the XM8 is the finest combat implement of all time.  In actuality it is a plastic AR18, that tends to melt, break, and is universally loathed by the Army staff that had to test it.  It takes bizarre attachments, so no US accessories will work.  They took the G36, which is basically a blah rifle, used by a handful of countries that don’t ever actually shoot people, and uglied it up so that it looks like the demented lovechild of Bloaty the Pizza Hog and a Super-Soaker.

Or the HK416. According to the internet, the HK416 is the best gun EVER!  It is called THE AWESOME.  Lightning bolts of coolness fly from the gun and smite your enemies with Teutonic fury!  However you can’t have one, because you’re a civilian, ergo, you suck.  And HK hates you.

The 416 is basically an AR with a gas piston, which has been done by like ten companies now, but somehow the HK is better, because it was on Future Weapons, and HK won’t sell it to civilians.  In fact, a couple of 416s slipped out into civilian hands, and HK freaked out about it.  There is no legal reason that 416 uppers can’t be sold, but HK despises regular people, and the idea of you having their long guns offends them.

You can get civilian HK long guns, once in a while, when HK feels like it, but they’re usually hyper-neutered and over priced.  Hell, the last ones were actually grey, because you know, black is too dangerous, or something.

HK’s new subgun is the UMP.  They tend to break.  One of our local PDs traded all of theirs in after they broke all the stocks.  Cool idea, because everybody loves .45, but bad execution.

HK’s flagship pistols, the USP line, are decent polymer handguns.  They are extremely reliable, that is the plus side.  On the down side, their triggers universally suck, but they don’t have to.  HK likes to use a square peg in a round hole, (literally) that makes the trigger pull a lot heavier and grittier than it needs to be.  Why?  Beats the heck out of me.  The USP series should be reliable, they’re enormous. 

The most annoying thing about the HK pistols is how they cost almost twice as much as every other polymer handgun on the market.  Somehow being made in Germany means the USP series is worth $800-$1000, when all of the polymer guns made within a thousand miles are $400-$600.  Only most of those guns tend to have better triggers, are just as reliable, and are usually more accurate.

Then there is the Mk23.  Which is huge, accurate, reliable, (which it damn well better be, since it is the size and weight of a Mini-14) costs as much as a used car, huge, and is universally despised by the SF that it is issued to.  Talk to anyone that is in an SF unit.  The Mk23s they’ve been issued sit unused in arms room.  Did I mention that it is HUGE?  But that’s okay, because the HK fan boys will explain that it is an OFFENSIVE handgun.   (scratches head) whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.  

They are reliable, but so is a $125 Makarov.  Only the Mak has a better trigger.

I have two guys that I work with that have been to the HK armorer’s school.  If you think I’m biased, you should talk to them.  They especially love working with the Germans.  One fellow was yelled at because he had two magazines clamped together on his MP5, because “NEIN!  That is not the H und K way!”  Even though he had bought the mag clamp from HK.  When you ask why the original MP5 doesn’t have a last shot bolt hold open, they’ll yell at you and say, “NEIN! Why would you want your enemy to know your gun is empty!”  Hell, Hans, I just want to know when my gun is empty!

One friend of mine took his personal MP5, and cut an extra notch into the collapsible stock, so it would be shorter for when he was wearing his armor, and also it removed the nasty wobble that all HK collapsible stocks have.  It is an easy fix, and a no-brainer that the HK should have been doing for years.  Fritz at the armorer’s school damn near had an aneurysm when he saw this blasphemy against his ineffectual German gods.  

Look, gun owning public, just because you saw it on Future Weapons, or read about it on the internet, doesn’t make it true.  For the love of John Moses Browning, before you formulate super strong opinions about a weapon, you should have at least shot the damn thing first.

 Do I have anything positive to say about HK?  Yes, the sneer of disdain they give you at SHOT is priceless and entertaining. 

The author has written a few books I highly recommend for a great winter read, I unfortunately read them in one night each,  if I start anything good, I devour it and never save for later. Bad habit I guess.

http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/

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The Gift, a short

Wow, nothing really to do with guns, but an incredible Video
The Gift from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.