Thanks, Obama!

By any metric you care to use, the Obama years have been salad days for American gun culture. CCW permits exploded, gun sales keep spiking, multiple states have gone to Constitutional Carry, the number of FFLs has increased by 25%...

That's a hell of a legacy.
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YEAHHH HEPTARCHY!

Imagines dyslexic redneck waving "'MERCIA!" flag.
Can't stop giggling.
It's weird in my head sometimes.

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) May 17, 2016

The Eight Hundred Club

Went shooting at Indy Arms Co. with Bobbi yesterday morning. I brought the Glock 32 and some of Lucky Gunner's .357SIG. I used a fifty round box of Remington 125gr FMJ and a fifty round box of Winchester 125gr FMJ, plus an extra twenty rounds of the Winchester because having my round counts end in "80" was bugging me.

I fired the 70 rounds of Winchester at the chest area of the B21 target. Round number 54 of the day (#734 of the test) was a failure-to-feed malfunction that was cleared by a sharp rap on the magazine floorplate. On round number 68 of the day (#748 of the test) the slide did not go all the way back into battery.

I have ordered 11-coil magazine springs and a 20# IMSI flat wire recoil spring from Lone Wolf just to do some tinkering around.

 The first magazine of the Remington was fired at the head zone of the target from a distance of fifteen yards. The red "sight picture" indicates my aim point at that range. I think the sights on this 32 might be off.

I then brought the target back in to seven yards and finished off the box of Remington. There were no further malfunctions.

That makes 800 total rounds fired since the firearm was last cleaned or lubricated, with four failures to go completely into battery (#63, #78, #126, #748) and four failures to feed (#221, #224, #282, #734). 1,200 rounds left to go.
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QotD: Infinite Regression Edition

I know they say to never read the comments, but this time it was worth it:

"This is like the fourth time I've said this, but every single week of this election manages to be dumber than the one before. How is this mathematically possible?"

I know those feels, my friend.
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To misquote the great warrior-poet Belushi...

"I hate Indiana Nazis."

I wonder if Dylan and Chloe realize that would actually be illegal in the country whose flag they're holding?
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Painfully earnest...

The humor-challenged otaku at Public Domain Super Heroes didn't like my suggestion for a more PC name for Mark Twain's "Injun Joe".

Tab Clearing...

• The hit dog yelps?


• He greatly advanced the state of pistolcraft. He also said some dumb things.


• The end of the GOP?

Just enough hotter, apparently.

So today was the date with the chronograph for the TulAmmo and PPU full metal jacket stuff. How much hotter does a round have to be than the Blazer Brass 115gr to ensure reliable functioning in this C9-A1? If you'll remember, the CCI load averaged 1097fps for a string of ten rounds, with the slowest being a decidedly subsonic 1055.

First, the Prvi Partizan...

PPU 124gr FMJ
LO: 1031
HI: 1090
AV: 1067
ES: 58.38
SD: 16.03

Slower than the Blazer Brass, but not by much, and with a heavier bullet, these rounds functioned the weapon just dandily.

And then the TulAmmo...

TulAmmo 115gr FMJ
LO: 1116
HI: 1201
AV: 1163
ES: 85.42
SD: 24.75

So, a pretty wide velocity spread, but the slowest was as fast as the fastest Blazer Brass, and the fastest TulAmmo round was a good bit faster than that.

It wasn't all sunshine and buttercups, though...
 

Russian primers are notoriously harder than woodpecker lips and striker-fired guns sometimes have issues popping them reliably. Round number 42 of the day (#472 of the test) didn't go off on the first time around, but when reloaded into the mag and cycled into the chamber again, it ignited normally. That goes against the gun, then.

This makes 530 rounds fired through the Steyr C9-A1 without cleaning or lubing, with two failures-to-fire (#8, #472), three failures to extract (#234, #266, #276), and one failure to go completely into battery (#116). 1,470 rounds left to go.
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Rain, rain, go away...

Hopefully the rains will stop long enough to clear out the raised beds in the front and back yards this week. Flowers would be nice, and maybe some herbs and a pepper plant or two. The frost warning yesterday morning was jarring. Good thing we didn't have any tomato starts going.
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Bigger booms are better booms...

So I ordered some ammo that I suspected would be warmer than 115gr Blazer Brass to see if that had any effect on reliability. Judging from the ejection patterns, I wasn't wrong about the TulAmmo and PPU being hotter than the CCI plinking loading.

Over the hundred rounds, there were no malfunctions of any type to report.

This makes 430 rounds fired through the Steyr C9-A1 without cleaning or lubing, with one failure-to-fire (#8), three failures to extract (#234, #266, #276), and one failure to go completely into battery (#116). 1,570 rounds left to go.
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A training deal for a good cause...

HEBREW HOGGER 2016:  Training and Pork-Raiser

WHEN?   JULY 31, 2016  8AM to 5PM.  Registration begins at 7:30AM!

WHERE?  4607 Sloan Rd, Nashville, TN 37209

WHY?  This is a tactical training conference to raise funds to help save the Oinkin’ Acres Farmstead, owned by US Army veteran, medic, Tactical Response Instructor, Paul-E-Palooza Cadre Member and Legendary Hebrew Hogger, Eli Miller.  In early 2016, Eli was involved in a lawful self-defense situation and his legal defense has caused enormous financial distress. All funds raised will go to saving the Farmstead.  In addition to the training, Eli will have available for purchase a variety of his prize-winning, heirloom pork products!  Support the Farmstead in the most delicious, bacon-y way possible.

WHO WILL BE PRESENTING?

Dr. Sherman A. House (The People’s Dentist and Revolver Science)

Dr. William Aprill (Aprill Risk Consulting)

Claude Werner (The Tactical Professor)

Mark Luell (Growing Up Guns)

Dana McLendon  (McLendon & Milligan, Attorneys at Law)

James Yeager (Tactical Response)

Paul Sharp (Sharp Defense)

WHAT?  Topics covered will include self preservation, criminal psychology, emergency medical skills, edged weapons, security and more.

COST? $100  LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE, SO REGISTER NOW

HOW?  Email Conference Administrators therealdoctorhouse0021@gmail.com for registration information, and liability release waiver.

PLEASE SHARE THIS ON YOUR BLOG, FACEBOOK PAGE, INSTAGRAM, AND TWITTER PAGES.  THANK YOU!

$100 for that training lineup is a steal, and the proceeds go to a good cause.
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It's a metaphor for the rest of the world.

There's a lot of running around and emoting while producing very little (in the way of points) and constantly wondering why America doesn't care more.

If it's Sunday, it's Meet The Press...unless those taint-snorting pretentious Euro wannabes at 30 Rock think I'd rather be watching Limies run around in short pants than yell at senators like grownups do on Sunday mornings.

Thanks NBC, you have thoroughly ganked my plans for a relaxing Sunday morning in bed. I guess I'll go get donuts and maybe go do some shooting at Indy Arms Co.
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Super Mega Chrono Nerd Post

Six different .357SIG loads from Lucky Gunner had their date with the chronograph yesterday. The MCF&G range was still swampy in places, but there were more dry spots than wet ones in the bays. You wanted to watch where you walked in sneakers, though.

First, the full metal jacket practice ammo from the major domestic manufacturers:

Remington 125gr MC
LO: 1338
HI: 1369
AV: 1355
ES: 30.73
SD: 8.88

American Eagle 125gr FMJ
LO: 1326
HI: 1361
AV: 1344
ES: 35.66
SD: 12.80

Winchester 125gr FMJ
LO: 1335
HI: 1358
AV: 1349
ES: 22.62
SD: 7.14

As you can see, they're as alike as three peas in a pod, ballistics-wise, and all of them steamier by a hundred feet per second than the Speer Lawman FMJ I tested a week or so ago. Given the extra bright muzzle flash, I would have supposed the Remington to be noticeably faster than the others, but it was not to be.

I have to note that the consistency displayed by all three loadings bordered on freakish, with the Remington being especially a surprise. I may have to run another string from that lot number just because...

For defense ammo, I tried two pretty conventional .357SIG loadings from Winchester and Federal, and a wild card from Hornady. Remember that the .357SIG is, in design intention at least, a one-trick pony: It's intended to emulate the 125gr .357 Magnum rounds that had such a mythical rep for "stopping power" in law enforcement circles in the Eighties and Nineties. Putting Hornady's deep-penetrating 147gr bullet, normally operating at subsonic velocities from a 9mm pistol, atop the bottlenecked .357SIG case is unusual.

Hornady 147gr XTP
LO: 1169
HI: 1203
AV: 1188
ES: 34.18
SD: 11.78

Winchester Elite 125gr PDX1
LO: 1326
HI: 1369
AV: 1346
ES: 42.90
SD: 14.00

Federal Tactical 125gr HST
LO: 1339
HI: 1380
AV: 1356
ES: 40.62
SD: 13.63

As you can see, the XTP is well and truly supersonic when launched from the 4" Glock 32 and should probably come close to matching the claimed box-flap velocity of 1225fps out of a 4.5" Glock 31 barrel. What this does to terminal performance awaits the arrival of some jello to discover.

Because I can't math so good, after firing the sixty rounds for the chronograph strings, I finished the remaining forty rounds in the Remington box and then fired a dozen more rounds of Winchester, giving me a total of 112 rounds for the morning instead of the 102 I'd meant to fire. There were no malfunctions of any type to report.

That makes 680 total rounds fired since the firearm was last cleaned or lubricated, with three failures to go completely into battery (#63, #78, #126) and three failures to feed (#221, #224, #282). 1,320 rounds left to go.
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pfffft!

Another hundred rounds of .357SIG from Lucky Gunner at the range yesterday, Federal American Eagle 125gr FMJ and Remington 125gr FMJ.

I hadn't yet tried the American Eagle, and I was interested to see how the inexpensive (relatively, at least) target ammo from the company that invented .357 SIG fared.

Quite well, as it turned out. There was only one jarring note to the range trip, and it came from the Remington stuff...

A primer loaded sideways that I somehow missed while loading mags went "pfffft!" when I pulled the trigger. Having flashbacks to godawful Turkish surplus 8mm Mauser, I instinctively benched the pistol and stepped into the next bay to start "One Mississippi, two Mississippi..." before I realized what must have happened and cleared the pistol. This was round #62 of the day.

As you can see, the Federal was largely kept in a 2" circle at seven yards, and without a terrible amount of effort. The Remington has holes all over the place, some of which were as a result of me trying to video the muzzle flash while shooting strong-hand-only (failed) and some of which were because I was tired and my hands were sweaty and my glasses were fogging and just whatever sort of excuse you want to blame.

That makes 568 total rounds fired with three failures to go completely into battery (#63, #78, #126) and three failures to feed (#221, #224, #282). 1,432 rounds left to go.
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When The Bubble Pops

Good post from Kevin at Misfires & Light Strikes:

"We’re in the midst of a huge gun-buying bubble right now, and have been for almost eight years. All bubbles burst. All of them, ever since the days of the Dutch buying tulips. What happens when the gun market cools off?"

Go read the whole thing.
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Automotif CXXV...

A sign that spring is well and truly underway here in SoBro: An '83-'85-vintage Series 3 Alfa Romeo Spider with the top dropped.
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Stop me before I pun again...

If Trump is elected I hope some WH staffer someday writes a scathing Barbara Olson-esque tell-all and calls it "Hell Toupee".

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) May 13, 2016

Round #62 today...

That was interesting. Sideways primer lit off, round didn't. #357sig #remington #oops

A photo posted by Tamara Keel (@tamarakeel) on May 12, 2016 at 9:08am PDT

Care Less

So, aspirin is derived from willow bark, a natural substance whose analgesic properties have been known for a long time, with some of the earliest recorded recommendations for its use coming from Hippocrates (or that chick in Clan of the Cave Bear, but she's fictional and doesn't count.)

But aspirin is also an anticoagulant and some folks are allergic to it and too much can cause ulcers and may contribute to kids' brains swelling up and stuff, and so acetaminophen was invented. Instead of those side effects, it just destroys your liver if you take too much over too short of a time or, apparently according to a recent study, destroys your ability to give a damn about the problems of others.

Liver-damaged zombie or hemophiliac ulcer patient in convulsions*... That'll put you right off reading the warning labels more, won't it?


*I am way exaggerating this for the yuks. Chill. Although I prefer aspirin to Tylenol myself.
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Still going...

A hundred rounds of .357SIG from Lucky Gunner came along to the range yesterday: fifty Winchester 125gr FMJ and fifty Remington 125gr FMJ.

Even on the well-lit indoor range, the Remington stuff made pretty epic fireballs from the Glock 32's four-inch barrel.

All one hundred rounds went off without a hitch, with no malfunctions of any type to report.

That makes 469 total rounds fired with three failures to go completely into battery (#63, #78, #126) and three failures to feed (#221, #224, #282). 1,531 rounds left to go.
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