Timing is Key

 

There you are, all hot and ready with a new custom heater in your hands and you look at the thing on the end of the barrel, a Sure Fire SOCOM muzzle brake, and it doesn't look right, the indexing indent thing isn't at the correct 6 'O Clock, the timing is all wrong. Dam, so whaddya do?

DIY? or drive to Fun Guns in Waco to get their armourer to sort the thing out. I chose the latter option, not least because I wanted to revisit Fun Guns, and what a fun gun shop it is! You walk in and there's some kind of low key Death Metal playing, rock on, and guess what.

The staff are friendly and not condescending. What?!? you ask, "Inna gun shop?!?" Yes, in this gun shop. So I looked the counter fella in the eye, all Spetznaz, and asked, "I say, old chap, the timing on this wretched SOCOM muzzle brake seems off, what? Can you fix it?"

Sure enough they did. On. The. Spot. For free. Wow, just exemplary service. Totally impressed and I tell you, go to FUN GUNS if you're in the vicinity. Caveat, I asked the helpful counter fella about ammo, what you charging, sort of thing. $14 for a pack of 20 5.56, more for green tip, apparently.

"Are you shooting indoor range," asked the amiable ammo vendor, "if not you may be able to get away with these (green tip etc @ 14 bucks). I looked at the stupidly overpriced bullets and resisted the impulse to say dam your impudence, "Hey man, I just shoot up the countryside and I'm gonna hold fire, 'preciate ya."

But the bullet thing's a small cavil, FUN GUNS is alright. Check 'em out if you're in the wasteland that is Waco. Obvs need some glass, Vortex? Can't or won't afford Night Force/Schmidt Bender :)

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Serfs Can't Have This

 

What can we say? The beauty of modern engineering.

What a charger!

RAP Adjustable, too.

Too bad it all sunk beneath the waves of Lake Whitney in a tragic kayak trip. Oh well, win some lose some. Maybe powerful magnets on the end of ropes will bring this custom bad boy up from the depths. In the meanwhile, the Ukraine's recovering from an onslaught of Bono/Edge, Justine Trudeau, Doc Jill, Pelosi and the hideous BoJo clown.

Yes, they're shell shocked. Let's see how this beast shoots.

Your Pal,

LSP

A Clean Gun Is A Happy Gun

Remember, if you don't clean the filthy beasts they don't work. To that end, here's a short inspirational video.

As you were, 

LSP

On The Road On The Gun

The rig hummed along, thank you very much after a fortune spent at the aptly named "shop," and all was well with rural Texas as I drove to visit a sick cowboy. We talked about liturgy and society at the ranch as well as the Holy Cross Fathers.

Their erstwhile supremo married a nun who'd got herself into trouble for witchcraft in Africa, Una Kroll. Una went on to champion womyn priests and died last year. I don't know if she remained married to the former monk. 

After anointing my friend I drove to Waco. "What you going there for?" he asked, hopefully recovering his spirits. "To get some things for my new gun," I replied, quick as you like and then some, "It's a 7.62 battle rifle."

Fun Guns on Franklin supplied the deficit along with the extra bonus of late '70s music on the store jukebox. Go ahead, shop for AR15 barrels, Magpul accessories and all things weaponry while listening to the Clash.

"I say," I asked a youthful shop assistant, "Are you the only deadly assault rifle store in town that plays Machine Gun Etiquette and God Save The Queen on some kind of loop?" The pleasant young man looked embarrassed, made a needless excuse and took all my money. Thanks a lot, Malcolm  so-called McLaren.

Wallet several pounds lighter I headed for home and a kid who wants to enlist. He's at the gym now working out and he'll have to if he's going to lift the new rifle. So will I.

Gun rights,

LSP

Nuance

Everyone knows that this blog is about nuance, about finely weighed principles of cause and effect, theoria and praxis in the life of the mind as it plays out in the public square. Heck, it's like First Things but with pictures of Lena Dunham, Mantids, space aliens and Justsin Welby cruising the pawns.

So that's why we're bringing you Dom Garrigou Lagrange on the sin of intellectual pride:

So filled with their own learning, which has cost them so much, that their souls are saturated with it and no longer open to receive the superior light that would come from God in prayer.

Not bad, eh? In the future, when we win this war, every Harvard professor will have that tattooed on their forehead.

Nuance.

LSP

Shoot Your Guns

Some people have ONE gun, others have several, but whatever the case, the song remains the same. If you're going to be any good with firearms you have to actually shoot them, as opposed to staring at them fondly as they stand gleaming in their racks.

Thieves

That was brought home to me a little while ago, after a dismal offhand performance against some steel plates. The expression, "couldn't spot a thieving hippy on the hustle in Austin from 10 paces" totally applied, embarrassingly. So I set out to change that, with a Glock 21, an AR 15 and a Ruger American .22.

After a brisk warm up against an unfortunate silhouette, the plates were swinging at 50 and 75 yards. Well done, Ruger. 

Here's a Handy Chart

I left the rifle zeroed at 50 yards; just dial it up a fraction under 5.5" for 100 yards. And note how the Ruger American takes the ubiquitous 10/22 30 round magazine. Good job, team.

The AR did fine, too, and made handy work of an empty value pack of .223. It has a Primary Arms 1x6 scope on it, which I'm tempted to upgrade. Perhaps with a Vortex Strike Eagle.

Then there's Glock. Some people don't like Glocks and call them "rubbish." Well, the Glock 21 isn't a Colt Python and it can't send the mighty .357 Magnum through your enemy's engine block, but still, I'm not complaining. That pistol is all business.

Shoot over, head for home.

Gun Rights,

LSP

Go Shooting, in Texas

It's all very well to have firearms and some say that CHL holders have a duty to carry, but what's the use of that if you can't hit the side of a barn door with your weapon? With this in mind, I headed out to a friend's farm for some target practice.

First off, I wanted to see if a Glock 21 was effective against a cow skull. Guess what, it was. A small green paper eco-terrorist didn't do much better, either. Take that, green terr, and idolatrous heathen cow skull.

Then I clambered up on top of a derelict piece of agricultural machinery with an AR, and shot eco-terr #2. My groups, such as they were, were falling low right, which I blame on sloppy trigger pull and the sight's zero.

Don't Use This as a Helmet, Jackass

I shot better against an old metal bucket, curiously, but obviously need to put in some more range time to tighten things up.

Word to the wise. Don't use a zinc bucket as a helmet, it's not going to protect you, and the same goes for cow skulls. Sure, strap one on in the hope of terrifying your enemy, but don't be surprised when it fails to stop a bullet.

I love getting out in the clean country air and shooting.

Gun rights,

LSP

Black Monday!

The markets were tanking, so I went for a shoot with GWB. The guns were black, although my pal took his 30-06, Winchester Model 70 Featherweight, which is wood and steel. 

Market Forces

He wanted to sight it in before going on a shooting safari in Africa. I've asked him to send me a monkey.

Get in the X Ring

Winchester dialed in, it was time for some battle rifle action. I shot at the 100 yard bench and the ARs seemed on and well capable of Minute of Crashing Dow (MCD).

Man Down in the War on Weather

The pistols worked too, as witnessed by a handily swinging steel plate. But here's the thing, we're in a war against the weather, as well as market forces and their bankster backers. This took its toll. 

Your Old Friend

It's raining now. I thank God for that.

LSP

I Went For A Shoot

I took a couple of ARs out for a spin today with one of the team. It was raining, which is Texas' new normal, but that didn't stop us putting rounds down range. It was good to hear the sound of the guns cracking out across the countryside.

So that was a good shoot, unlike the one in Charleston. Some say that the killer is satanic and I think, for what it's worth, that if he isn't he might as well be. The relatives of the victims, on the other hand, are clearly Christian.

It's no small thing to say you forgive the person who killed people you love.

God bless,

LSP

And Then There Were Two

Once there was only one gas-driven monster in my armory, a lowly CMMG carbine. Now there are two of the little beasts, and I took them both out for a spin today. 

A Lead Sled proved they shot rather better than I do, which was pleasing, and the new AR was a lot of fun to shoot off-hand. Very fast and smooth, and I'm looking forward to trying out its Primary Arms 1x6 scope at distance. 

This has a 1 MOA dot surrounded by a horseshoe, and bullet drop compensation out to 800 yards. The reticle also includes a fairly intuitive ranging system along with holds for wind. It's illuminated (red) but the markings are etched into the glass, so if your battery dies the scope still works. Is it a Trijicon? No, it's not, but the price is right and it works.

The carbine's more of a red dot barker, but that shot well too. At least one reader of this family blog has suggested I make it a truck gun. Maybe I will.

Are these ARs tactical? Yes, very. You can tell that by their pistol grips. Are they deadly assault rifles? I think it's obvious that they are. Do they enrage, terrify and disgust progleft libs, like a pork chop in Ramadan? Yes, they do, and that's a bonus. They're also a lot of fun and if you have to shoot something, they get the job done. So it's benefits all 'round.

Keep squeezing the trigger,

LSP

Get Out And Shoot

It was a beautiful morning, here in Texas, so I thought I'd better hurry up and head off to the range to see if the AR 15 lower receiver I built the other day actually worked.

First things first, I loaded Blue Tactical into the truck along with gun stuff and bought some ammo, 5.56, 62 grain, out of Turkey. It was cheap, and that appealed.

Did the lower work? It worked flawlessly, with no malfunctions over several hundred rounds. Very pleasing. But here's the thing, my red dot sight (RDS) was zeroed at 100 yards for 55 grain ammo, which meant it was off for 62 grain ammo.

If I'd been a smart shooter, I would have used my not-so-smart-phone to look up ballistic charts for the ammo I had in hand and zeroed accordingly. To help myself, you, and all the world, I've included a chart in this post to save everyone a lot time, money, and aggro. 

People like LL, who have forgotten more about shooting than I will ever know, may laugh at this. But hey, we learn by mistakes, unless you're the Church of England, or the Administration. In which case you don't.

I got on, in the end, after a lot of unnecessary messing around with my RDS. But the main thing is, the lower receiver worked perfectly. It'll go with my new upper, which should be ready in a day or two. I'm excited by that.

Blue Tactical was excited by the gunfire. So much so that he had to have a time-out in the bed of the truck. He liked that too.

Shoot straight,

LSP

The Feast of the Annunciation

Today's the Feast of the Annunciation, and we rejoice with Mary over the message of an angel, Gabriel, which leads to the Incarnation of the Word and the salvation of mankind.

With that thought in mind, I drove North on the Dallas Tollway to visit Front Sight Firearms. They have a good-looking online presence and I was hoping to pick up an Aero Precision, 7.62 lower receiver. Buy it there and then, I thought, and save yourself FFL transfer fees and hassle. I also like to see what I buy before I buy it; old fashioned, I know, but that's me.

It was weird, driving out to far, far North Dallas, and it's something I rarely do. Miles upon miles of corporate headquarters, nestled between behemoth malls, big box stores and endless subdivisions. All bisected by highways; tomorrow's world today.

But  not my world, so it was strange to see. Not necessarily bad, but alien. McKinney was more of the same, neat little strip-malls with frozen yogurt franchises, and roads that aren't potholed. Look right or left, and you can see the subdivisions. Do the houses have plastic siding? I didn't investigate.

However, I did check out the gun shop. Word to the wise, Front Sight isn't what it appears online. They didn't have my lower, in fact they scorned it, which is odd, and the bored, dismissive, gun nerd behind the counter couldn't even be bothered to engage in right-wing gun shop banter, much less sell me anything. So I bought a Magpul flip-up front sight and left the store.

Is there anything good about Front Sight's shopfront? There is. Their prices are alright, (unlike Ray's) and what they have on offer seems good quality. But there isn't much of it. Don't waste your time going there, unless you're in the area and want to see the suburban metrosprawl. That's my advice. But hey, check them out, maybe they have what you want.

A few hours later I was back in the country. That seemed more normal to me, and I liked it.

Have a blessed Feast of the Annunciation, and ask the Blessed Virgin Mary for her powerful intercession.

God bless,

LSP