21 January 2006

The Michael Bane Blog: Proof Positive That Michael Doesn't Know Everything

The Michael Bane Blog: Proof Positive That Michael Doesn't Know Everything

Just when we were all having a good laugh at non-shooting experts and new guns and such. Mr, no dare I say, Sir John Moses Browning is rolling over in his grave at about 5,600 rpm.

Yes folks, that's Kimber, a major player in the 1911 bastion of all things really old and heavy. Is introducing a striker fired, polymer full sized gun in, are you ready for this, .40 S&W. With what it looks like a possible entry into the US Military trials.

I will pause now so all JMB followers can take a deep breath and get their heart to start beating again. I guess it's going to be an interesting SHOT show this year.

19 January 2006

So, you wanna buy your first pistol?

As a public service to our readers, I thought I’d take a moment to tell you what you should do when you’re out looking for your first pistol. The usual disclaimers apply - you may buy one of the pistols I recommend and wind up with a piece of crap built on Friday afternoon when all the builder wanted to do was go out and grab a beer. And, you and you alone are responsible for your behavior. Don't come here whining to us because you did somthing stupid.

But, if you take my advice, chances are you’re going to be in pretty good shape.

Now, to the good stuff.

In my opinion, if you’re carrying a pistol for personal defense, there’s a few characteristics to take into consideration:

- Reliability. Probably the most important quality in your new pistol. Buying a reliable pistol will cost you more than a Saturday night special but hey - how much is your life worth? Your pistol should reliably feed a variety of ammunition - including ball ammo (cheap to shoot) or self defense ammo (more expensive to shoot but again, how much is your life worth?) The pistol should function whether it’s clean or dirty, wet or dry, etc etc etc. It should also do so with no or a very minimum of reliability work done to it. A bare minimum of maintenance should be required so that if you were to leave your pistol sitting on your bed stand for a month or two, it would work the first time you picked it up.

- Ergonomics. You want a pistol that you can comfortably carry and shoot and one that fits your hands. You also want a pistol that has simple, easy to understand and use controls. The controls such as your slide release, mag release, and any safeties need to be where your fingers naturally fall without any second guessing on your part. Another ergonomic feature that is of vast importance to the performance of the pistol is the height of the bore over your hand. You want a pistol that doesn’t raise the bore (the barrel) high over your hand. Generally speaking, the higher the bore is over your hand, the more the muzzle will flip when you shoot making rapid aimed shots difficult.

- High magazine capacity. Let’s face it. More bullets are good. Make sure your first defensive pistol has the capacity to carry 14-17 rounds. Hollywood has created the mythology that one shot from a pistol will kill or debilitate an attacker immediately. Sadly, that’s just not true folks. Statistics show us that over 80% of all people shot with a handgun live. So, if you have the ability to put multiple rounds into an attacker, you’re going to be better off. Period. That’s why I rely on carbines for my main defensive weaponry.

- The ability to mount a light. If you’re using your new pistol to protect your house, chances are if you ever have to use it, it will be at night. Having the ability to mount a light directly onto your pistol is an option you don’t want to be without.

Ok, so I’ve listed a few characteristics here. To review, you want something that’s reliable, fits your hand, has a high mag capacity, and can mount a light. That cuts out a LOT of pistols that the gun shop commandos will recommend.

For starters:
Sigs. Sigs are extremely well engineered guns. Over engineered would be a better way to say it. While Sigs ARE reliable, their controls are not intuitive and the bore sits way high over your hand. You’ll hear a bunch of smack about how this group or that carries Sigs blah blah blah but I’ll ask you: when was the last time a shooter using a Sig has won a pistol competition of any kind? Out of decades of action pistol shooting, I can think of ONE. Extra credit for you if you know who and when.
H&K. H&K’s tend to be very reliable as well, but again - controls are in the wrong place and the bore sits high over your hand. Also, the bigger calibers (as in .40 and .45) are simply huge pistols that won’t fit most people’s hands.
Beretta. For one thing, Berettas tend to blow up fairly early in their service life; they are also big and bulky and have awkward controls. Yuck.

There are more that I would never spend any money on, but I don’t want to lose you here….

That leaves you with basically two choices that I would not hesitate to recommend to the first time pistol buyer:
Glocks and the newish Springfield XDs. I’ve shot thousands of rounds through Glocks and about 2000 (so far) through my XD. Both meet all the requirements I detailed above. If I were you, and were picking my first pistol, I’d go to a gun range and rent them both and see which one fits your hand the best.

Disclaimer: I love 1911’s. I carry and shoot 1911’s a LOT. Buy in my opinion they are not necessarily suited to the first time shooter and I would not recommend one to a newbie.

As to where to buy your new pistol. I would at all costs generally avoid gun shops unless you know someone at the shop, or you know that the owner is a shooter. That’s an important concept. Guys that are shooters and not just salesmen will know what works, what’s most likely to work for you, and won’t try and sell you the latest and greatest piece of shit to come down the pike. Your average gun store salesman will only know what he’s read in the gun rags, or what the salesmen have told him when they’re dropping off product. If you’re not sure, ask the guy (or gal) behind the counter if they shoot any competition. If they don’t shoot any uspsa, idpa, bianchi cup, steel challenge, etc - then that store’s not worth your time. If the guy behind the counter talks trash and says something like “I shoot a lot - last year I shot over 500 rounds!” (true story I actually overheard) 500 rounds a year is squat. There are some days on the range we’ll shoot that many rounds before lunch. So keep in mind that the average gun shop guy likely doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. Some DO, but it has been my experience that most DO NOT.

A cheaper option is to (generally) buy your new pistol at a gun show. Word of warning though - gun shows are great (usually) for buying a new gun at a discount - but only if you know what you want and what it would cost you at the gun store itself. There are deals to be had, but you need to find them and be an educated shopper.

After you buy your new gun I would run as fast as you could to the range and find an action shooting club to begin shooting with. Chances are that someone will be there to help you learn to shoot your new wundergun and help you from doing stupid things that you learned from TV. Or, you can always drop us a line here at the Tattler. We’re here to help folks.

Now, any questions?

Cool Person Test

See if you are cool.

CIA confirms speaker on tape is bin Laden - International Terrorism - MSNBC.com

Oooh. Let me put on my boots, so I can shake in them.

I'm more surprised that the CIA believes UBLs dusty ass is still alive. All that aside, it does smack of the old UBL dependence on traditional American mainstream media's penchant for hyperbole:
Bin Laden said he was directing his message to the American people after polls showed that “an overwhelming majority of you want the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq but (Bush) opposed that desire.”

A NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll from last month does not support that. Two-thirds of Americans surveyed opposed an immediate withdrawal. But 60 percent believed the United States should reduce its troop levels in Iraq.
(Editorial: funny how the MSM uses the MSM to refute this claim, huh? Ah, the irony.) Considering that this goat-smelling, hut-dwelling mud-eater probably hasn't been out of a cave in a while, he might be surprised to learn that not everyone in the USofA buys the MSMs crapola anymore.
“The delay in similar operations happening in America has not been because of failure to break through your security measures. The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your homes the minute they are through (with preparations), with God’s permission.”
Well, I guess you don't have permission, donkey-balls. Suuuuure - you're not kicking our ass because you don't want to. Right.
“We do not mind offering you a long-term truce with fair conditions that we adhere to,” he said. “We are a nation that God has forbidden to lie and cheat. So both sides can enjoy security and stability under this truce so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan, which have been destroyed in this war.

“There is no shame in this solution, which prevents the wasting of billions of dollars that have gone to those with influence and merchants of war in America,” he said.
Take your "truce" and shove it, goatherd. The only peace you're going to get is the one that comes with death.

18 January 2006

U.S. Strike Killed al Qaeda Bomb Maker

Good news on the war front. Looks like the Pakistani strike earlier this week was pretty useful after all. Took out a major al qaeda bomb maker; all in all not a bad day's work.

For those sniveling whiney liberals who will lament the loss of so called "innocent" life in this strike, here's a little message - you don't want to get killed when we take out scumbags like this? Then perhaps it would be in your best interest to not associate with known scumbags.

Self-proclaimed vampire running for governor of Minnesota

See what happens? First they elect (of all things) a pro wrestler for governor, now look who's coming out to play:

“Politics is a cut-throat business,” said Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey, who said he plans to announce his bid for governor on Friday on the ticket of the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party.


Freakin' weirdos. Must be all that cold weather.

N.Y. Man Gets Corvette Back After 37 Years

What a great story. The 68-72 Vette has always been a car I have coveted. I can't imagine getting something stolen like that and getting it back 37 years later. Hell, I was ecstatic when I got my $100 bicycle back after being stolen. Check out the picture. The car is a different color than it was originally, but it is beautiful.
Poster was living in New York in January 1969, when the car he'd bought for $6,000 three months earlier was stolen from a parking garage. Poster had not insured it against theft because he could not afford to do so.

17 January 2006

The Hildabeast on the attack

Over the MLK/Bash Bush holiday, the Hildabeast came out swinging. In typical libby style, she wants us all to believe that history started today.

She screeched:

''I predict to you that this administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country.''

Wow. How soon we all forget. Or, should I say, how soon she'd like us to forget:

Travelgate.
Waco.
Ruby Ridge.
Mogadishu.
Brady Bill.
Elian Gonzales.
Whitewater.
Chinese fundraising.
Loran giving technology to the Chicoms.
Rwanda.
No controlling legal authority.
North Korean Nukes.
Passing up a chance to bag Bin Laden.
The Kole.
Kohbar Towers.
Socialized Health Care.

I could go on. And on. And on.

If you want to see a fairly comprehensive list of scandals belonging to the scumbag otherwise known as President Clinton, check out this link.

And Hillary just wants us to forget it all.

Tom Daschle considers bid for president

If the Democratic party calls, I'm going to give money to Daschle's election campaign. If the Democratic Party can do for Tom Daschle what they did for John Kerry and what's-his-name (you know, the Vice-Presidential candidate...what IS his name?), then I want to do my part for America.

New Orleans Mayor Apologizes for Remark

On Tuesday, Nagin said his comments about God were inappropriate and stemmed from a private conversation he had with a minister earlier. "I need to be more sensitive and more aware of what I'm saying," he said.
Oh, Ray. Don't be so hard on yourself. Let me break it down for you: you simply need to pull your head out of your ass, resign, and apologize to the City of New Orleans. Then, go jump in Lake Ponchartrain with pork chops tied around your neck, and let the sharks eat you. I think that would pretty much set things right for most people.

Brittany Murphy Is Reportedly Engaged

It's old farts like Bruce Willis, bedding down young things like Brittany Murphy, that make normal, everyday, ordinary guys go buy red corvettes, have comb-overs, and use Viagra. Has Hollywood no shame?

I heard the Olsen twins turned 18 recently...

16 January 2006

MSM: "What, us lie?"

In another typical week for the MSM, (and it's only Monday night) two major media outlets are caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Story #1 involves our old friend the New York Times. I'm sure you're surprised. The NYT attempts to use a lovely picture to capture our heart strings and feel the pain of a Pakistani family ruined by the recent American airstrikes that were hunting an alqaeda thugs. The problem is that the image shows us not a missile, as the Times originally waned, but an old unexploded artillery shell. I'm sure the picture was not staged. You kind of have to wonder if the Times was not caught with its pants down (again) would they have offered the retraction?

Story #2 involves CNN. Again, I'm sure your surprised. I mean, after all, the network that stayed in Iraq at the whim of Saddam can't be expected to do anything else but get the little details wrong. After all, they've made a business out of stretching the truth. In this case, while covering a speech by the thug in chief of Iran they confused the word "weapon" for the word "power". Oops. Minor detail, right? Kind of like "10,000 dead in New Orleans"....

And oh yes, should anyone be confused of where I stand: to the thug in chief of Iran, you're still a punk ass thug.

Wow, I wonder what they'll screw up by the end of the week!

Mayor Nagin: New Orleans Will Be 'Chocolate' Again

Ow, my tongue. It hurts from biting it.

15 January 2006

My Suicide

As the regular readers of this blog know, I took the plunge over the holidays and bought all the requisite equipment to start loading my own ammunition (read my saga). I've made about 500 rounds so far, and all is well - I'll reach ROI on this baby in no time. But I digress...

I live in an adorable little apartment - it's a 2-story, with my own 1-car garage downstairs and the living quarters upstairs. So this morning I go downstairs and load up about 150 rounds of ammo, then I throw some cases in the tumbler for cleaning while I come back upstairs to case gauge my picture-perfect rounds. Then it's back downstairs, where I decide to use the bullet-puller to dismantle a few not so perfect rounds. It's the kinetic kind, where you put the round in the thingy then pound it on the floor to dislodge the bullet and recover the components. Over all the noise of the tumbler I hear pounding (other than my own) - sounds like it's my front door, so I go out to the front entryway and look through the peephole (safety first!) - I see nothing. Then I hear my garage door going up - WTF? I go out the front door and come face to face with my new neighbor - an elderly woman who has a horrified look on her face. I look in my garage, and the leasing lady is in there opening my car door. I'm like "Hellooo, can I help you?", and she's got that same horrified I've-just-seen-a-ghost look that my neighbor was sporting.

Turns out that my new neighbor thought that I was trying to kill myself by running my car inside the garage, and that I had changed my mind and was banging on the wall for help. At least she just called the leasing office and not the police. They were both so shocked to find me alive and well that neither one ever asked me what the hell I was doing in there, or what all the strange equipment was for. I'm still expecting the police to come by and check out my "meth lab". Oh yeah - not once did they ring my doorbell or try to call me on the phone.

As I'm writing this, I'm hearing a strange arrhythmic thumping noise coming from one of the other apartments. Ohmygosh, someone has taken the entire family next door hostage! They're being systematically dismembered by a band of axe-wielding psychopaths! Call someone quick!! Or maybe it's just tennis shoes in a dryer. Nah....

P.S. JR gets credit for the title of this post - thanks!

Florida 8th-grader wielding pellet gun shot down

Leave it to a California news source to dance in the blood of children.

Make no mistake - this is a tragic story. A kid brought an air-soft gun to school, apparently to impress, intimidate, or whatever. He took it WAY too far, as evidenced by painting over the orange barrel tip in an effort to make the pistol appear real.

It worked.

The kid created a situation. He waved the gun around like it was real. A SWAT officer had to shoot him. I read an account where the officer even rode in the ambulance with the kid, talking to him all the way. The kid died today. I expect that police officer will have a very hard time of this.

Now, enter our media. Look at the hyperbole they put on this:
Last week, a fourth-grader in San Bernardino brought a similar gun to school and sprayed plastic pellets at his classmates during recess. No lives were lost, but some of the students hit had bruises.

There's no waiting period, no background check, no license needed to own one of these guns -- but even retailers say they should not be considered toys. They look, feel and operate like the real thing. The difference is, these guns aren't lethal -- although some say they are still dangerous.
"No lives were lost." Mercy. They are toys that shoot plastic pellets. Plain and simple. They sting a little, but are not capable of lethal damage.

There's no doubt that some toys can look like the real thing. However, bad intent is just that: bad intent.

This incident will serve as the nexus for a much more insidious movement: let's ban toy guns. It'll make banning the real thing that much easier.

Don't be fooled, folks.