Category: Guns and Gear

Izmash Files for Bankruptcy

Here is some surprising news brought to us by the Firearms Blog. Izmash, the produces of the Saiga rifles and shotguns, has filed for bankruptcy.

I guess if you want a Saiga shotgun or a rifle (great AK-47s after conversion) you should get one now. It’s rather sad to see an arms company that’s been around since 1807 die off now.

New 1911 with Amazing New Features

Wow I just went over to The Firearms Blog where I saw a picture of what appears to be a brand new 1911 with some amazing features. Here is the picture:

Nothing a few interesting things? Well first the gun doesn’t have an ejection port. This may seem strange but this 1911 seems to be advanced enough to not actually shoot the bullet and eject the casing but shoot the bullet and casing out together. I’m not sure if this is a new caliber or bullet design but it certainly will make recovering your brass a bitch.

This gun also appears to have some kind of double trigger system. I’m unsure what this is supposed to do although I theorize it’s a method of getting around the ATF ban on machine guns. If a gun fires two or more rounds per trigger pull it’s a machine gun. Meanwhile if you have two triggers lines up together you can pull one and fire the first round. After that the front trigger will move back to press into the rear one firing another round with one trigger squeeze. This is obviously a self defense gun as this will assist the user in performing double taps.

This is certainly going to be an interesting gun when it’s officially introduced. I’m surprised it was covered in a campus newspaper actually. I’m guessing some students there helped develop it.

Ruger LCP Range Report

Well I finally had two things at the same time, time to hit the range, and .380 auto ammunition for my new Ruger LCP. Although I’ve had the gun for a few weeks I’ve not been able to actually shoot it.

I loaded up some rounds using 4.1 grains of Universal Clays powder and 95 grain Montana Gold jacked hollow points (before anybody comments I know a .380 won’t reliably expand JHP rounds, but being their center of gravity is back more JHPs are slightly more accurate than full metal jacketed rounds).

First off I want to say the gun is a perfect little piece. It fits in almost any pocket (although I won’t be carrying it until my pocket holster arrives). It’s very light even when loaded with 6 + 1 rounds of ammunition and conceals better than any other gun I’ve seen.

The Ruger LCP, like most small and light guns, kicks hard. Firing the gun can be painful after a while. The webbing on my right hand hurt quite a bit after roughly 30 rounds so I switched to left handed shooting for the remaining 20 rounds I loaded up. For a mouse gun the LCP is pretty accurate. I was able to peg steel plates from approximately 20 feet without too much trouble. If I’m dealing with ranges beyond that I’ll hopefully be able to use my primary carry gun.

The only thing about the LCP I really didn’t like when firing it was how far and erratically is flung the brass. I was shooting under a covered pistol range section. The roof was approximately 15 to 20 feet and several of the brass casing landed up on there. Other cases went flying 10 feet to the right and angles ranging from 45 degrees to right behind me. Since I load my own ammunition I like to keep the cases and that’s hard with this gun.

Working the slide is pretty simple. Several small semi-automatic pistols I’ve uses had very stiff slides. The LCP’s isn’t very stiff and can be easily manipulated with two hands. Due to the fact the LCP has little in the way of sights there isn’t much to catch it on in order to rack the slide with one hand though. Speaking of sights I wish Ruger would have made them just a hair larger. As they sit right now the sights are all but useless and I didn’t get a crimson trace laser for it (being I had enough trouble just finding the bloody gun). At short ranges this isn’t that big of an issue though since the sights are more than adequate for hitting human sized targets.

The gun came with a small extension for the, one and only included, magazine. I ended up using it simple because I couldn’t get a good grip on the gun without it. With the extension I was able to comfortably hold the gun with all but my pinky finger. I do wish Ruger would have included a second magazine so I could practice reloading it (I order a couple others but they certainly do charge an arm and leg for such a small magazine). I will say the magazine does indeed drop free when you press the release button. And while I’m on the subject of reloading do note that the LCP does not automatically hold the slide open when your magazine is empty so you do need to count rounds with this gun.

Overall I was impressed with the gun. It’s exactly what I was looking for in that it’s a small pistol that is easily placed into a pocket. I don’t see any features that make me want to recommend the LCP over any other .380 auto mouse gun on the market but for the price you really can’t complain much. If you want a mouse gun certainly take a look at one.

Reloading Tip for Shiny Brass

Today I’m cleaning a whole pile of brass that I haven’t been able to get to as of late. Often people ask about how to properly clean their brass casings. There are many different ways of doing things.

First you have a choice in media. The media is what is used to physically clean up the brass. Most reloading equipment providers sell media made from ground corn cob and walnut. I’ve only used corn cob media so far and it’s been working well for me but I hear more people swear by walnut media. But if you want to save some money take a trip to the pet store and pick up some fine walnut based bedding. It’s pretty much the same stuff as tumbler walnut media and does the exact same job for less.

Now the media alone won’t leave you with polished brass. To give your brass a shiny look you need some way of polishing it. Once again most reloading companies sell stuff called polishing compound. The idea is you throw some of this stuff in with the media and it will polish the brass. There is one down side though, if you don’t clean the polishing media off of your brass it will wreak havoc on your reloading dies. Polishing media is abrasive and hence it will destroy your dies after a while.

What I do is throw to used dryer sheets into the tumbler each time I tumble some brass. The cases come out looking just as good as they would with polishing compound, the dryer sheets absorb a lot of the dust, and I don’t have to pay anything extra since I’m just recycling dryer sheets I’ve used for launder (see that’s how green of a person I am, I recycle dryer sheets). After a couple of hours in the tumbler the brass will look great although the sheets will be colored a lead grey.

Anyways it’s something to try if you reload ammunition and don’t like messing with polishing compounds.

Sig P238 Recall Notice

I just saw this on the Firearm Blog. Sig is recalling p238 pistols due to faulty safety mechanisms…

http://www.sigsauer.com/customerservice/p238upgrade.aspx

This sums up the recall…

We have determined that a small number of P238 pistols may have safety levers that are not manufactured to factory specifications. Under certain conditions, it may be possible for the lever not to be completely engaged in the safe position. In this condition, the gun will not fire when the trigger is pulled. However, when the safety lever is moved to the off position, the hammer may fall, with the remote possibility that the gun could fire unintentionally, thus creating a risk of injury or death.

And here are the details on which P238s are being recalled…

If you have a SIG SAUER P238 with a serial number between DA000501 and DA003216, please cease use of the firearm immediately. Not all P238s within the identified serial number range are affected; therefore, it is imperative that you contact us via the UPGRADE HOT LINE at 1 (866) 446-1914. An operator will take your information and confirm if your firearm is required to be returned for Upgrading.

So if you have one take a look at the serial number.

Source: http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/07/31/p238-mandatory-safety-upgrade/

Vltor Weapon Systems Acquire Bren Ten Name

Good news courtesy of The Firearms Blog…

http://vltor.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/but-i-read-it-on-the-internet/

For those of you out of the loop Vltor has been working on a project they dubbed the Fortis Pistol. This was a recreation of the Bren Ten which was a pistol made for the newly introduced 10mm cartridge. Many companies have tried to bring back the Bren Ten and because of these failures there is a joke about the curse of the Bren Ten.

I’ll be honest here I’ve been watching the Bren Ten because I watched way too much Miami Vice back in the day. The Bren Ten was the gun carried by Sonny Crocket in the first few seasons (actually it was a modified Bren Ten). Anyways it looks like Vltor is taking this project very seriously which is good to see.

Source: http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/07/28/baby-the-bren-ten-is-back/

Mouse Guns

A couple weeks ago I came into possession of a Ruger LCP. Most of you have seen these by now it’s a tiny .380 automatic that holds 6+1 rounds. I finally found the casings and bullets to reload for it and will have a pocket holster here in a bit. But coming from a man who normally carries a Springfield XD Compact in .45 automatic I’ve been asked what I want with a mouse gun.

There are a couple reasons. The first and foremost is to have a back up gun. Most people have mentioned to me that a back up gun should be a snubby since they have a very low rate of failures. In general I agree with this idea. Snub nose revolvers are very light, small, and reliable. But they are also fatter than a semi-automatic pistol due to the cylinder. And this is where my problem with carrying a snubby resides, I can’t conceal it very well. I wanted my back up to fit into my pants pocket and not print. The LCP does this well. Furthermore the LCP is shaped in such a way that I can easily extract it from my pocket without it snagging on anything.

There is another advantage to having a gun that fits flawlessly in a pocket. If somebody wants my wallet and I happen to have my shirt tucked in over my in waste band holster I first have to pull my shirt up to gain access to my gun. This of course takes time, time which can cost me my life. Meanwhile reaching into my pocket seems like a natural motion since I could be getting my wallet. By the time it turns out I was getting my LCP the guy hopefully already had a couple rounds in him. This is a great advantage in my opinion since the chance of being mugged in a large city is pretty good.

Another advantage to semi-automatic pistols in my opinion is the profile of their reloading apparatus known as a magazine. While revolver speed loaders are cylindrical magazines are rectangular. Rectangular objects are easier to hide on your person since they present a flat side which doesn’t really print to anything noticeable. If somebody sees something cylindrical in your pocket they may think revolver while seeing something rectangular could be anything from a cellular phone to a wallet.

Finally I wanted a mouse gun so I had something to conceal at times when concealing a full sized pistol isn’t doable. For instance on a hot summer day it’s likely I’ll be in shorts and a t-shirt. Although I can conceal my full sized pistol in my normal shorts it certainly prints against my swim trunks. Meanwhile the little LCP drops right into the side pockets without any issue. Furthermore I don’t have as larger of a holster pressing against my skin making me sweat bullets.

Either way I love how the LCP fits my pocket and hand. Now that I have some ammunition components I can test it out this weekend and see how it shoots.

Montana Gold

For those of you having a hard time finding bullets for reloading (as I have been) take a look at Montana Gold…

http://www.montanagoldbullet.com/

I first heard of them because one of my local reloading supply stores started stocking them. Their bullets are reasonably priced and the .45 auto FMJ (the only ones I’ve shot of theirs so far) work perfectly well.

I just order 1,000 .380 bullets for my Ruger LCP which I can’t find ammunition for. The box arrived and the rounds look good. But most importantly you can actually get bullets from these guys. There was no back order for the .380s which surprised me greatly. The only bummer for many is that you have to order quantities of 1,000 or more.