Category: Guns and Gear

Because You Need More Crap to Mount on Your AR

You’ve already attached an EOTech, Surefire light, green laser sight, red laser sight, backup iron sights, a vertical foregrip, a mount of your iPhone, and even a bayonet to your rifle so you ask yourself what more could you possibly want? How about a HD video camera to record all that awesome you do while at the range practicing your tactics?

A copy called Tachyon has announced a 720p helmet camera that also has the ability to mount to a rifle rail. Now you can shoot a movie both figuratively and literally. “Yo dawg we heard you like to shoot so we put a camera on your rifle so you can shoot while you shoot.”

Also notice the rifle they have it mount on in the picture… yup an M1A. I wonder what the heat tolerance of that camera is.

Firearm Safety Rules

I’m sure almost everybody reading this site know the four rules of firearm safety. In case you don’t they are:

  1. All guns are always loaded (until you establish whether they are or not).
  2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. Keep your gun pointed in a safe direction at all times: on the range, at home, loading, or unloading.
  3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target (and you are ready to shoot).
  4. Be sure of your target. Know what it is, what is in line with it and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you haven’t positively identified.

This four rules are not to be questions because they were delivered down from Jeff Cooper himself. Alan over at SnarkyBytes is questioning the word of God Jeff Cooper.

He certainly has a point if the rules are to be treated as absolutes and always followed. I say this because it’s impossible to follow rule one while cleaning many firearms. In order to disassemble my Glock I have to pull the trigger. This violates rule one as I’m pulling the trigger in my domicile and thus not treating the gun as if it were loaded. Dry fire practice is the same thing.

It’s a good read and Alan makes a valid argument. Go over and read it.

Child Proofing My SOCOM 16

After the three gun competition yesterday I’ve decided I need to child proof my M1A SOCOM 16. Why? Because unlike most intelligent creatures on the planet I apparently have not learned to associate burning and pain with not doing something.

Case in point, after the final rifle stage I did the stupid thing I often find myself doing, grabbing the rail attached to the barrel of my rifle. Unlike a hand guard attached rail, the barrel attached rail on the SOCOM 16 seems to exist only to move heat to an easily contactable surface so the user can burn their hand. As this is the 157th time I’ve made this mistake I think it’s about time that rail comes off and a standard hand guard goes on. Heck it’s not like I can really utilize that rail anyways as I’ve always been concerned anything I attached to it would be completely cooked after a few magazines.

I also think it’s high time to replace that fat front sight with something that doesn’t completely cover a 10 inch target at 100 yards.

Hitler is Going to be Really Unhappy

First Hitler finds out the price of the ACR is much higher than he was originally quoted and now he’s going to find out that the expensive gun is being recalled:

During routine testing, Bushmaster discovered a design flaw which could result in multiple rounds firing continuously when the trigger is pulled. This unexpected firing of multiple rounds creates a potentially dangerous situation.

Yes the gun can go full auto under certain conditions which will certainly put you in the dog house with the Bureau of Fun Regulation (better known at the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives).

CNBC Does a Hit Piece of Remington

Yet another piece of news I missed during my time in Texas has bubbled up to my attention. The Firearm Blog reports that CNBC did a hit piece of the Remington Model 700 series.

CNBC’s report claims the Remington Model 700 can fire without the trigger being pulled and that flaw has resulted in injuries and deaths. Of course as The Firearm Blog points out pre-1982 Model 700s were known to have that particular flaw (although if there were injuries and deaths involved I don’t know, just make it a point to not walk in front of any firearm and you can avoid that potential cause of injury/death). As the CNBC report mentions this flaw going back 60 years I believe they are digging up an old story, claiming it’s new, and ignoring the fact that the problem was fixed in 1982.

I also have to agree with a point made on The Firearm Blog. In this day and age there isn’t a single issue a firearm can have that won’t go across the entire Internet. Just look at the Ruger LCP when it came out, every issue on the planet was brought up on almost every firearm message board on the planet. The Remington Model 700 is incredibly popular with hunters, military, and police. If there was a major flaw in the gun it would be well known.

Of course CNBC isn’t exactly known for using facts and they’ve always had a major anti-gun slant as far back as I can remember. Hopefully this hit piece doesn’t cause too much trouble for Remington.

Smith and Wesson Body Guard 380

One thing I love about gun shows is the vast number of different firearms on display. While strolling around the recent show at the State Fair Education Building I came across a Smith and Wesson Body Guard 380. The Body Guard 380 is Smith and Wesson’s answer to small pocket pistols such as the Ruger LCP. Being I find the LCP very convenient at times I’m always looking at other pocket pistols to compare against it. Although I don’t have trigger time behind the Body Guard 380 I did notice one fatal flaw in my opinion. The manual safety is not easy to disengage.

I can’t imagine being able to draw the gun and disengage the tiny little safety under stress. I think the problem lurks in the combination of facts that the safety is kind of stiff and very small. It doesn’t stick out much from the gun meaning you don’t have a whole lot of area to work with when trying to flip it.

Glock Generation Four Sub-Compact

I’ve learned via Every Day, No Days Off that the Glock 4th generation sub-compact pistols should be coming out sometime soon. He is a scan of an advertisement on his site which shows the sub-compact Glocks will have the same interchangeable backstraps of their larger brethren.

I’m still waiting for the new Glocks in .45. Although I have no desire to rid myself of my 30SF I would like a Gen4 21SF. The 21SF is the gun I use to shoot USPSA and sadly mine happens to have the ambidextrous magazine release. I say sadly because the ambi mag releases on Glock pistols are known for not dropping magazines reliably. This is where somebody will stated Glock magazines aren’t “drop-free.” Frankly I don’t give a damn. My Gen4 17 and 30SF both drop magazines free and the only reason Glock released fully lined magazines is so they would drop free and thus appease the American consumers. In USPSA not having drop-free magazines costs time and I’m not a fan of that. Additionally it would be nice to have the larger magazine release button on my competition pistol.