You know what time it is?

That's right, it's fun show time! Let's sing the Fun Show Song!

Flintlocks and Flop-tops
And Number Three Russians
Black-powder Mausers
From jackbooted Prussians,
Shiny Smith PC's from limited runs
These are a few of my favorite guns.
Socketed bay'nets
On Zulu War rifles,
Engraved, iv'ried Lugers
That make quite an eyeful
Mosin tomato stakes sold by the ton
These are a few of my favorite guns.
Rusty top-breaks!
Smallbore Schuetzens!
And all of Browning's spawn
I just keep on browsing my favorite guns
Until all my money's gone.

I'll put a spare AR, some knives, and a couple Smiths out, along with some odds and ends, but mostly it's an excuse to sit and people-watch...
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Next Test Gun...

When the .45GAP Glock 37 galumphs across the finish line in a week or two, I'm going to put a couple cases through either the Gen 3 Glock 32 or Glock 20. Both have a hundred rounds of factory FMJ through them, and each has had exactly one FTF. We'll start the clock fresh when we start shooting, though, whichever gun it is.

Meanwhile, now that the P250C has earned a rest, we'll continue looking at "Guns For People Who Only Have About $400 But Don't Have The Sense To Buy A Used Glock." This installment will feature the latest iteration of that Turkish Walther P99 clone, the Canik TP9 V2.

Brand new, unfired, has no idea what's about to happen.

Bought this one while I was working full-time at IAC with the intention of shooting it for the amusement of the internet. It's a little crude, but we'll see how it does...
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...aaaand done.

Back to Indy Arms Company yesterday morning for the final rounds through the P250C .380 test. Two boxes of Federal RTP 95gr FMJ were procured...

...and fired without any malfunctions of any type to report.

That's 2002 rounds fired since the gun was last cleaned or lubricated, with one failure to go completely into battery (#447) and one failure to fire (#1578). Watch this space for the wrap-up post and announcement of the next pistol I'm going to shoot a bunch and neglect.
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Strategerizing...

We need to get out ahead of the game here and start thinking about who'll look good with one hand on a Bible and the other up in the air when President Trump gets dragged out of the Oval Office in a straitjacket after the coup, foaming at the mouth that the military wouldn't follow his orders to attack some ridiculous target.
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Overheard in the Office...

RX: "Jerry Lewis is ninety!"

Me: "Jerry Lewis is still alive?"

Elections have consequences.

The Eagle Creek Park Pistol Range, oft referred to on these pages as "Iggle Crick", is an anomaly in big-city 21st Century America: A publicly-owned shooting range right in the middle of town. (Well, a little north and west of the middle of town, but still inside the I-465 perimeter.)

Or I should say it was an anomaly, because the new Democrat mayor of the Circle City has decided to get in a few gratuitous shots of the "vae victus" sort. I'll let my friend, pro-RKBA lawyer and radio talk show host Guy Relford explain:

As a result, it came as quite a surprise when the city informed TFT just last week that Indy Parks was terminating its contract with TFT and that the city would not allow Eagle Creek Pistol Range to open to the public for the 2016 season. (The current contract runs until March 2017.)

The city did not provide any rational basis for its decision to terminate TFT's contract and close the range to the public, other than a vague reference to concerns over “liability” (despite TFT’s perfect safety record) and a concern about a possible “mass shooting” at the range. I have to say that I actually laughed at the “mass shooting” comment, because a public pistol range - with multiple armed and trained range safety officers along with several armed members of the public – is obviously the very antithesis of a “gun free zone” likely to be targeted by an active shooter.

The number of the Mayor's Action Center Hotline is (317) 327-4622 for any residents of Indianapolis who would like to call and politely inquire as to why the city decided to shut down one of the few venues where citizens of even limited means could go to safely practice their firearms handling under supervised conditions.
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About finished up.

I took the P250C to Indy Arms Co. on Monday morning and ran another hundred rounds of Federal RTP .380 through the little gun.

There were no malfunctions of any type to report.

That's 1902 rounds fired since the gun was last cleaned or lubricated, with one failure to go completely into battery (#447) and one failure to fire (#1578). 98 rounds to go.
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Loss.

RIP, TLG

My day dawned with some pretty dismal news.

I owe Todd so much, and not just the obvious stuff, like teaching me how to handle a pistol with a basic degree of competence. From encouraging emails to internet debates to turning me on to Archer which is the best show on television ever so don't even argue...

Seriously, f$ck cancer. Right in the ear.

Save the Ears!

They fine me if I don’t put a muffler on my car and fine me if I do put one on my gun. Is my hearing important or what? Make up y’all’s minds!
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Zeppelin model...

Go look!
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Good and hard.

Donald Trump is not a threat to democracy, @NYmag; he's its apotheosis.

Study your Mencken. https://t.co/pYU6SXtgzP

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) March 14, 2016

On the other hand, it was probably a bit early in the morning here in Trumplandia for five-syllable words.
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Tab Clearing...

• Getting better even while restricted to a maximum security, lowest common denominator indoor range.


• Glock Pistols - What Breaks and How to Fix It.


• Party On, Dudes! Or will we leave this lame party and look for one that's more relevant?

Malfunction.

Moved the clocks forward to range time today. Brought the Glock 37 and 100 rounds of American Eagle 185gr FMJ.

 Ran Dot Torture clean for the first time with the 37.

 First malfunction with the 37, too. A regular day for firsts.

 It was a weird one.

Last fifty rounds were just dirt-shootin' at 7 yards.

The Glock 37 has now fired 1,610 rounds since it was last cleaned or lubed, with one failure to feed on round #1,589, and one parts breakage. 390 rounds to go.
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Range Day.

Went to MCF&G yesterday morning with Mike Grasso to do some shooting, both of the gun and camera kind, for an article he'd penned.

T-shirt on USPSA target obscures your actual target, which is the edge-on 2x4 behind it.

"Hey, you can't see the bullet holes!"

Only hits on the 2x4 count.

If you have someplace where you can just stick the 2x4 in the ground, target setup is much easier. We used a portable target stand from Brown Dog Tactical, but if you're on an indoor range, you could just trace the outline of the 2x4 down the center of the backside of any suitably opaque target.

Later that afternoon, I ran over to Indy Arms Co. and popped off another box of fifty American Eagle 185gr FMJ through the Glock 37. I was working on some strong-hand-only and weak-hand-only stuff, mostly.

Ugh. More work is obviously needed.

The gun ran fine all day, with no malfunctions of any type to report.

The Glock 37 has now fired 1510 rounds since it was last cleaned or lubed, with one parts breakage. 490 rounds to go.
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...and the glass.

The lens arrived today from KEH Camera Brokers. I was pretty giddy opening the box...

What a wonderful piece of machinery this old camera is. Everything is gears and springs and clockwork.

The body looks to date to 1939 and the lens to 1955. Leica built the collapsible Elmar 50mm f/3.5 until 1959, and they're common as dirt.

It's a tiny camera, especially with the lens collapsed. It'll fit in the same "document pocket" I use for my Nikon P7000 with ease.

Can't wait to load a test roll and see what happens!
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Scrounged...

Scrounging through the attic turned up a couple more boxes of .380 shells. The USA white box turned out to be full of someone's reloads, and I only use factory new ammo in the 2k round thing so as to maintain some level of consistency. This meant that I had fifty rounds of Magtech ball to play with. If you only have fifty rounds of ammo to take to the range, what's the best way to spend them?

Dot Torture!

Cleaned it, barely. That one on Dot 5 (the strong-hand-only dot) just barely broke the scoring ring. On the other hand, I am way proud of that raggedy little hole on Dot 8, the weak-hand-only dot.

The gun ran fine, with no malfunctions of any type to report.

That's 1802 rounds fired since the gun was last cleaned or lubricated, with one failure to go completely into battery (#447) and one failure to fire (#1578). 198 rounds to go.
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Duuuude...

For those of you who haven't experienced the delights of DTW (Detroit Metro Airport), here's the trippy tunnel between concourse A & B...

Do you want physicists? Because that's how you get physicists.

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, like the sphincters of a thousand safety nannies all slamming shut at once. pic.twitter.com/MiNS0gT3no

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) March 9, 2016

Huh.

So, I knew who Robert Capa was, but how had I not heard of Gerda Taro?
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Overheard in the Hallway...

RX: "So, it's not just a 'stick shift camera'; it's actually like an old car where you have to adjust the mixture and advance on the fly, too."

Yes, the user interface on the Leica III is pretty foreign if you're used to cameras with swing-open backs. It's positively eldritch if you're used to auto-winding film cameras where all you have to do is make sure the tip of the leader is aligned with the orange marker when you swing the back closed.



Yeah, and Robert Capa did that in a shell crater. At night. Under mortar fire. Suck it up, buttercup.

While it's possible to ham-handedly put a thumb through the shutter of a conventional 35mm film SLR while loading it, you have to be exceptionally maladroit to do this. On the other hand, loading an old Barnack Leica wrong will very likely wrinkle the shutter curtain, and then you're hosed to the tune of a few hundred bucks.

Whee!
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