The Gun is Not a Pet

Guns aren't pets to be looked at, stroked and patted on the head, even if you do love them. No, they're tools, machines built with a purpose and made to be used. With that in mind, a friend came over from Dallas and we drove out to the range with a truckload of guns.

A Pet

First things first, see if my pal's Remington semi .22 was dialed in. It wasn't but the scope was soon put to rights. The Ruger American was right on and the more I shoot it the more I like it. Handy little bolter.

Some Guns

An old Winchester pump .22 did just fine too, handily taking down some steel plates and a small silhouette at 100 yards. I like that gun, and there was nothing wrong with an AR, either. Well done, Spikes Tactical, Fortis, Ballistic Advantage and Primary Arms. Put the dot on the target and off you go.

Dial it In

And then there's Glock. Some people scorn them, "they're rubbish." I disagree, a right workhorse of a pistol and all business. Breathe, squeeze the trigger, take down the plate, or whatever. For some reason I shot better at 30 yards than I did at 15. Weird, but true.

Some Old Guy With a Gun(s)

We finished off by blasting a plastic water container down the range with a single shot Boita (?) .20 gauge. Big fun.

So now you know. Happy Presidents Day.

LSP

Happy Mondays!

Here's a cheery thought to brighten up your day:

Via ZeroHedge -- The political class has completely disrupted the American structure of production, made American workers uncompetitive, snuffed the life out of entrepreneurs, and burdened the entire nation with a debt obligation the size of Jupiter. The US economy is not the strongest and most durable in the world — it is an unskilled thirty-two-year-old waiter crashing at his parent’s place and trying to pay down an $80,000 international relations degree.

That makes me want to go out and shoot pistols, but then again I don't need much tempting.

Gun Rights,

LSP 

Shoot The Turkey

It's a sad fact of life that in this vale of tears we have enemies. My enemy is an ancient steel turkey and I took some time off from visiting the sick to take care of unfinished business.

We faced off at 100 yards, just me, the metal bird and a Ruger American .22. To be honest, I had an ulterior motive. Viz. To improve the recent abysmal standard of my off-hand shooting. So I shot away and while my marksmanship was nothing to write home about, it wasn't too bad either. Take that, turkey.

After a string of satisfying plinks as the .22 rounds hit the bird, I shifted to clays at 50, 75 and 100 yards. A bit more of a challenge than the turk and it's neat to see them shatter when you hit them. A couple of aggressive tin cans found themselves in trouble too. Breath, squeeze the trigger and watch the can fly up in the air. Neat.

Shoot over, I headed back to the Compound and the prospect of large steaks for dinner. There's nothing quite like doing your best to break personal stereotypes, I always think.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Annual Meeting

One of the great benefits of being an Anglican in North America is that you get to have Annual Parish Meetings. I have two, doubling the benefit, and at today's meeting a churchman turned up with venison sausage. Rifle to table and thank you very much.

You see, there's a lot to be said for annual meetings in the country.

God bless,

LSP

#Blackfacematters

Here is our presidential frontrunner.

Some say she is unfit for office.

That is all.

Your Pal,

LSP

It's Bushcraft Wednesday!

Surviving in the wild can be dangerous, which is why it's important to be properly equipped with the right tools for the job.

Over the years I've found this teaching video inspirational, so I'm posting it again in the hope that you, too, find it helpful.

Be prepared!

Your Old Pal,

LSP

A New Year, A New Gun

One of the ways I like to ring in the New Year is by getting a new gun, so I went to Gebo's and bought a wood stocked Ruger American, chambered for . 22LR. Why?

Why, LSP?

Because I wanted a bolt action, wood and steel replacement for my ancient JC Higgins .22, and Ruger's offering seemed right. Excellent fit and finish for the money and, if it's anything like my Ruger American .17 HMR, far more accurate than I am.

Nice Bit of Tang, Note The Buck

The rifle features a tang safety, a flush 10 round rotary magazine, compatible with the ubiquitous 10/22, and iron sights. The folding-leaf rear sight is the same as the 10/22, but the front sight's an improvement, a green Williams fiber optic.

Go Green

The stock's checkered and shaped per its synthetic twin, and you either like it or you don't. I think it looks sharp, and the rifle certainly feels right in the shoulder.

Check

At $359, I don't think you can get a better new, off-the-shelf deal, and you can see its specs here. But how does it shoot? I'll find out tomorrow.

Gun rights,

LSP

Flying Home

In what seemed like no time at all my stay in Calgary was over, and there I was, being driven by a Sikh to the airport with a bright sun rising over snow covered fields. Well, maybe not fields, more like vacant land that no one had built on. 

I told the driver it was very beautiful. He wisely agreed and even more wisely pointed out that it was "very cold," which it was. Speaking of wisdom, please, airport security in the US and elsewhere, stop mistaking Sikhs for radical religion of peace Jihadists. They're not Muslims, you clowns, quite the reverse.

So what was Calgary like? As usual, I found the people friendly and the city a pleasure to visit, with a number of plus points: it's cowboy hat friendly, you can get your hair cut in a gun shop, cheese and bread are very good, as are many of the restaurants. There's a neat Armoury, complete with a Sherman tank and a Bren Gun Carrier, and the town has a fine regimental tradition. 

I like to think, too, that Calgary has some of its frontier spirit. Perhaps that's because of fierce winter weather and proximity to the Rockies. Mountains and snow evoke the frontier, after all, and the town was on the literal frontier not that long ago, at the turn of the last century. Maybe there's something of that in the air of the place.

How Canada's prosperous "cow town" weathers the storm of falling oil prices remains to be seen, and experts are recommending that the city diversifies its economy into guns and ammo. Hot tip, that's one market which appears to be rising.

One Air Alaska (good airline with complimentary wine and beer) flight over, I landed in Seattle, where everyone was wearing shorts and humming Smells Like Teen Spirit. It was very different to Calgary or, for that matter, Texas.

Gun rights,

LSP

Tears of a Clown

Our Commander in Chief, Barack Obama, is in tears. No, not for the US soldier that was killed in Marjah, Afghanistan, but over gun control.

"And by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago every day," said the rainbow unicorn, apparently forgetting Chicago's strict gun laws.

Spot the Smirk

"No matter how many times people try to twist my words around, I taught constitutional law, I know a little bit about this. I get it," proclaimed the great legal scholar of our time, who rules by Executive Order.

Commander in Chief

“Fort Hood, Binghamton, Aurora, Oak Creek, Newtown, the Navy Yard, Santa Barbara, Charleston, San Bernardino. Too many,” emoted our weeping leader. Too many what? No gun zones?

What a crocodile tear mountebank, and remember this. Everything that lib clowns like Obama propose, produce the exact opposite of their intended result.

As the Dow crashes, gun stocks surge.

LSP

Happy New Year!

To make the New Years celebrations more of a celebration I went to the wine store and bought some of the right stuff. They had a good selection, if pricey, compared to the US.

A Typical Canadian Shop

When I paid the bill I used a piece of plastic without a chip in it, which confused the young baby-faced wine salesperson. "No chip, eh?" he asked, warily. "No," I replied, "We don't have those at the 1st Inconvenience Bank of Texas. We're a bit backward that way." The saleschild looked at me and said, "That's not the only way, over there, eh?"

I grinned and gave him a cheery, "Oh yeah. Except for gun rights, we're ahead of the pack there. Happy New Year, man."

A Bison Head

And with that, I wish you all a happy, blessed and joyous New Year.

Cheers,

LSP

#BlackGunsMatter

At least they do if you know how to shoot them. With that in mind, I went down to the range with a couple of black guns and an eye towards some remedial target practice.

A natural gas pipeline is being put through the fields behind the range's berm and it felt strange to see a bit of country I'd enjoyed being torn up. Everything seemed smaller, somehow.

I clambered over the earthworks to speak with one of the pipeliners, who was sitting in a Ranger, and asked if it was OK to shoot. He said sure, as long as I shot away from the work. "Hell! I've already been shot once already!" he said, holding up his left hand, which was missing all its fingers except the thumb, and a bit of that was gone too. 

"Man!" I exclaimed, promising to shoot safely, and asked where the pipeline was going. "From Whitney to Teague," said my new friend, and I told him that was "quite a thing," which it is.

Conversation over, I blazed away at some improvised targets, going for speed with the .45 and accuracy with the carbine. I have to say, the more I shoot the Glock 21 the more I like it; that pistol's right on the money. The AR worked well too, a proper little blaster.

Shoot over, I drove into the golden void like a warrior, on the edge of time.

Gun rights,

LSP

Run Hide Tell. Excuse Me?

UK police have released active shooter/terror advice, instructing potential victims to Run, Hide and Tell. That way you can keep being a victim until the police arrive.

It's an interesting take on the accepted rule, which goes like this. Run, Hide, Fight. In Texas, for example, the run to cover might be quick, followed by an equally quick armed response. In England, where everyone's safer because they're not allowed to defend themselves, you'd have to improvise.

Here's some tactical tips from the DHS, that we have to assume "Jeh" Johnson hasn't got around to censoring:

Step three (Fight):

"If this person gets to you, fight with everything that you have."

"Use any and everything at your disposal.

"If you get into that position where you have to fight, if you can use a chair, your shoe, anything you can use to protect yourself, go ahead and use that.

"Know that police can take ten minutes to arrive, and there's so much you can do in that window. The life you save may not only be your own, but those of others."

I hope that's helpful. But in the meanwhile, formerly Great Britain, ISIS laughs. I'm off for a pistol shoot, like a free man.

Beat the Jihad,

LSP 

Should You Carry a Gun in Your Rig?

Short answer, yes, though in Texas a handgun has to be concealed. But I'll tell you a true story by way of illustration. 

Grandma LSP was driving with Great Grandma LSP, in Plainview, West Texas, during the '20s oil boom. They were wild times and an outlaw figured he could rob the two women. He thought differently when Great Grandma LSP produced a revolver from the glove box.

Plainview in the 1880s?

That was the '20s and this is now. Have we become more, or less lawful since then?  And if you're carjacked by Justin Welby, or some other bad actor, would you be more, or less safe if you're armed? The NWO libs insist that you'll be safer if you aren't and that the police will protect you.

That wouldn't have worked for those two women in Plainview in the '20s and guess what, it wouldn't work now. And I'll go further than that and say that one of the hallmarks of a free society is the ability of its citizens to defend themselves.

Go ahead and say otherwise, but know that not only are you on the side of Hillary Clinton, the NYT and "Huffpo," but also Hitler.

Gun rights.

LSP

What is Donald Trump doing to media reality?

Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing, Jon Rappoport nails it.

Via Adrienne's Corner -- It seems like a long time ago that one of the biggest networks in the world put Trump in a throne before a national audience every week—where he said over and over again, “You’re fired, you’re fired, you’re fired.” Is it really that surprising he can do the same thing now and find a huge audience?

The network, NBC, was Dr. Frankenstein. They brought Trump to life, and then he broke away, turned around, and attacked his masters.

It just so happens millions of people also want to attack NBC and the other networks and major news sources in this country for their wall-to-wall lies, their arrogant sense of entitlement, their insider clubby presumptions, their sold-out alliance with government and corporations, and their refusal to listen to the concerns of every-day Americans.

The curiously orange billionaire celebrity is surging in the polls. I'd say Rappoport goes some way towards explaining that phenomenon.

Cheers,

LSP 

Bushcraft Wednesday!

Maybe you're so focused on the potential for World war III breaking out in Syria, or the Race For Raqqa, that you've forgotten about bushcraft.

Time to end that amnesia. Part of surviving in the wild means surviving in the wild. So here's a helpful video to drum that point home.

Uzi.

LSP

Out On Patrol

I patrolled down to Montes Mexican Diner, keeping a keen eye out for Daesh terrorists. They could be anywhere.

Takfiri safe house?

Is that Daesh, hiding under a pile of trash?

And what about here?

Perhaps you see a dumpster. I see a hardened defensive position. Clear.

A snake. Good thing I'm armed. With a Glock.

Think twice before you walk down this road. Situational awareness is key.

The patrol ended without incident, apart from a tasty helping of Huevos Rancheros, and this time ISIS stayed under cover. Smart move, guys. But seriously, people are saying that CHL holders have a duty to carry. That might not be such a bad idea.

In the meanwhile, the real war, the War on Weather, continues, with a fine drizzle of rainy attrition. Like being back in the Old Country.

Gun rights.

LSP

Safe Space

As you were. 

Carry on.

LSP

The March of the Lees

What do you do, on a chill November night in rain drenched Texas, where we're badly losing the War on Weather? Start on a new Lee Enfield project, of course.

For me, that means coming to grips with an old No. 4 Mk.1, which started off life as a battle rifle in 1943 and was brought back to the US, where it was sporterized. I bought it from a friend a few years ago and haven't used it much. So what's going to happen to this gun? First things first, take off the wood.

Then admire your rifle as it sits on the bench, complete with 10 round magazine, rear micro sight and silky smooth action. All the better for rapid firing the venerable .303 Brit. Next step, get a new stock, perhaps from Boyd's, shorten and re-crown the barrel, then fit a forward mounted rail. The idea being to create a handy truck/scout rifle.

Typical Texas Scene, Apart From Absence of Lee Enfields

Now some people are critical of Jeff Cooper's concept and with good reason, but if you have an old rifle sitting around that could meet the criteria, well, why not put it to good use? 

Shoot the Lee,

LSP