April 2009 Archives

I was reading Colin Goddard's op-ed where he pleads to keep everyone defenseless, because it worked so well for him, when something really stood out and compelled a rant out of me.

From the article:

"I barely had time to make the phone call. Anyone who thinks I could have gotten to a weapon and shot somebody I never fully saw watches too many movies."

Colin, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, that you aren't intentionally trying to spread misinformation, but this statement is ridiculous and insulting.

The time required to get your phone and dial it is arguably similar to drawing, aiming, and firing your gun. I say "arguably" because I think most people who have done both would say the phone is actually much slower to operate.

My personal experience in non-threatening situations shows that my gun operation is orders of magnitude faster than my phone operation. I have no reason to believe that relationship would change under other circumstances.

My father in law gave me a hunting rifle for Christmas about 5 years ago. I thanked him for it, but really had no intention of ever using it. I'm not against hunting by any means, but I had other priorities at that time.

I did some research and it was made in 1966 or 1967 according to the serial number, and the fact that it's a 760BDL left hand. (link, link)

The scope is on old Leupold that predates the serial number guide found here. It's a 4x, which is kind of just above useless and below worth the trouble on foo.c's scope utility scale. I'm sure lots of people like 4x fixed power scopes, but I find myself either wanting more magnification or missing the ease of iron sights depending on what kind of mood I am in.

There's a lot I like about this rifle. It feels like a Remington shotgun, so it's familiar. It's fairly light and compact. If you shoot left-handed, like I do, it's much faster than a right handed bolt-action and its got a left hand safety.

There's a lot I don't like about it. I can't get it to stay in the pocket for some reason. It kicks like the proverbial mule and has no recoil pad. It's a pain in the ass to shoot off a bench because you have to reset everything after every shot. It has no sling swivels. It's UGLY!!

So, I want to change some things about it, but I also want to be able to return it to original condition.

Here she is with new clothes:

I got a new scope for it as well, but I haven't put it on yet. I may not put it on at all though, and use it as my "brush gun."

I bought a new IWB (inside the waist band, for you folks not up on the jargon) holster from Tucker Gunleather.

This isn't really intended to be a review as I haven't used it long enough. I hate carrying IWB, but there are times when OWB just won't work. I got this for those times.

My friend Hsoi was asking me about it, so I snapped a few pics of it.

I shot my first .30-06 reloads this afternoon. Up to now I've reloaded mostly pistol rounds and .223, but I am planning on getting back into hunting after a decade or so away and figured since I'm a reloader now, I should work up my own load.

I'm an argumentative SOB by nature, and it seems like a good idea to have all my rants here.

I dunno.

Why the hell not?