Black Gun May Day Mayhem!

It was a beautiful sunny morning in Texas, crisp and bright, so I thought I'd better make good use of time and head down to the range with a collection of black guns. Don't get me wrong, I like wood and steel, I prefer it even, but these were the guns I wanted to shoot today.

5.56

So I did. The AR's performed flawlessly, which pleased me, because I had a hand in building them. It's always good when something you've worked to create works well. The rifle variant is well-capable of MOA awesomeness, which is exactly what I was hoping for. The Ruger American .17HMR shot well too, producing the best group of the day, 3 rounds in the same hole. Then it was pistol time.

.17 HMR

I'll be honest. I wasn't too pleased with my pistol performance during LL's visit, and I wanted to fix that. "I know," I thought to myself, cleverly, "If I get a Blackhawk Serpa holster, I'll shoot my .45 like a pro." 

Whatever

The Serpa's a good holster, no doubt about it, it holds your sidearm in a vise-like, mechanical grip, and has a smooth trigger finger release. The paddle system hugs your hip too; it isn't going anywhere. Get a Serpa, just be sure to properly index your trigger finger as you draw your weapon from the holster, otherwise you might shoot your foot off. Bad result.

Serpa

But, did the holster make me a better shot? No. It didn't, and I had to shoot off a box of cheap Federal ammo at 25 yards before I got in the swing of things. 

Message to market. Neat kit is no substitute for rounds down range. There's a moral in that, if you care to draw it.

Typical Texas Range Scene

Have a great May Day evening and remember, May is Mary's month.

God bless,

LSP

Church & Guns

After I said the 1st Mass of Sunday, a member of the congregation asked me to bless his new gun. Some clergypersons would have been upset by that because they think guns are evil. I don't think they are, obviously, and was only too pleased to bless this gun, which was a WWII M1 carbine, like the ones that were used to fight the fanatical Japanese in the Pacific. 

The theme continued after the 2nd Mass of the day, when another congregant asked me to go out to his compound and bless his guns. I agreed, of course, and asked if he was still building guns on the AR platform. He assured me that he was and I asked how much they cost.

"How much do they cost, you know, ballpark."

"That depends, but around 1900."

"If only I had that kind of cash."

"Hey, don't worry. I'll sort you out."

Lee Enfield Jungle Carbine, Nairobi

Let's see what "don't worry" really means, but whatever the case, I'm clearly developing a firearms ministry. My homily on the powerful typology at work in Elisha raising a dead boy to life seemed to have rather less traction.

There's a moral in that, somewhere. In the meanwhile, a friend has sent in a photo of a Jungle Carbine, still in use, at Nairobi's National Park.

All hail Karen Blixen,

LSP