How I became a gunnie

I was raised by my mom.  No guns, no hunting, no Boy Scouts.  Nothing.  Complete mama's boy.  I'm sure you're all surprised that I got beat up on in school.

After I moved out, I went with a friend to the local BLM land and shot his shotgun and Ruger Vaqero .44 mag revolver.  What a monster gun.  I don't recommend anybody every pick that as a first gun to shoot.  Damn thing nearly broke my wrist!

A couple of months later I bought my first pistol.  A Ruger P95 that had just come out that year.  The first and as far as I know only gun to ever have an all plastic frame.  Glocks have little metal inserts in the rails as does every other plastic gun that I've taken apart.  It's a tank and was probably a bad choice.  My hands are small and I had a lot of trouble keeping a good grip on the gun.  About that same time I picked up a Mauser '98 chambers in .308 and a Marlin Model 60.  Those were my guns for about 10 years.  I shot on occasion but never seriously.

Then I had kids.  Now kids are funny things.  They'll change your life.  All of a sudden there were creatures that depended on me 100% for safety, food, and shelter.  I had food and shelter pretty well figured out.  But safety?  I was, in my opinion, lacking.  I got serious about self defense.  I got my carry permit, added a shotgun and a mini 9mm to the arsenal.  I got a range membership and started toshoot regularly.  I started my 'box o'holsters.'   Once I got comfortable with my guns, carry became a daily activity.

About two years ago my Mauser started having trouble with the safety.  The hammer would drop when you took the safety off.  It was time for a new gun.  What to get?  Well, I didn't want a bolt gun.  This is a new century after all and I didn't want an AR.  To easy.  I ended up with an FNAR.  An ugly gun, most people will agree.  But it shoots far better than I ever will.  I always laugh when people talk about mediocre accuracy.  If you can shoot off hand or even prone and outshoot the gun, you should be on a team doing it for a living.

So now I had a 'hunting rifle' that could also double as a serious apocalypse gun.  The bug had a good grip on me now.  A Sig P239 that was just too good a deal joined the fold.  Another PF9 was added when the first one needed to go back to the factory.  Then an SD9, which is a good gun, but not for me.  It was rapidly traded off for a Sig P226, which may very well be the last pistol I buy for a very long time.

I also added a Rock River AR to the stable.  It's a cheater gun.  It just amazes me just how much gun you can get for so reasonable a price.  Easy to shoot, dead nuts reliable, and accurate to a fault.

So there you have it.  The making of this gunnie.

Adding a ping back to Jennifer, since she started this one.

Condition 3 carry

Wow, what a pretentious phrase!  Condition 3 means carrying your firearm without a bullet in the chamber but with a full magazine.  This is perfectly viable as long as you have both hands free.  Imagine a case where you end up in a scuffle and are holding off your attacker with one hand.  You can draw your firearm, but how are you going to shoot it?  Some fancy maneuver where you catch the rear sight on your holster and rack the slide one handed?  It could work, maybe.  Lots of people practice it for when one of their arms in injured  Condition 3 is great for people that are not ready to have a loaded gun on their belt.  Either because they don't trust their holster yet or mentally they just need more time.

The biggest proponent of condition 3 carry?  The military.  Their threat environment is very different than a civilain or a police officer.  Let's review:
1.  In a base.
2.  With armed soldiers on the wall.
3.  Overhead air support.
4.  Lots of noncombat speciality people running around that are supposed to have a gun but probably haven't shot one since basic training.

Loaded firearms in this environment just don't make sense.  The guys on the wall are going to take the immediate threat giving the rest of the base lots of time to arm up.  In short the threat of somebody mishandling a firearm is a far more likely than the threat of getting into an fire fight.

Of course if I had a rifle platoon taking care of my perimeter security I wouldn't need a loaded gun either.

Steel Challenge

There is a Steel Challenge match next weekend.  TOWMBO is going to be out of town, perhaps the boys and I can sneak out and I can shoot this one.

Day Camp 2011 p2

First day of Cub Scout Day Camp is complete.  I taught six groups of 12-14 kids the basic of map and compass use.  No wonder I'm tired.  Missed pistol practice last night.  With a match coming this weekend, I'm bummed about that.  Had some torandoes move through the area last night, glad I missed that.

*Political Statements Ahead*
I believe in global warming.

There, I said it.  When reading on the internet, you're going to have a hard time finding a gun blogger that thinks that global warming is real.

I guess I should state that global warming is just a catch phrase for 'the climate is changing.'  The gulf stream is not running like it has since we started keeping track of it.  Winters in the interior are getting colder and the summers are getting warmer.  We have seen above average rainfall for the past several years after receiving very little for the last twenty.

Now, what should we do about it is a completely different question.  First you have to start with the premise that we can do something about it.  Nobody has convinced me of that.  I do know that 'carbon credits' and other methods of taxing energy usage don't make a lot of sense.  This kind of thing actually hurts innovation by forcing the private sector to spend money on taxes to current usage instead of investing that money on increasing efficiency and energy savings.  Solar, wind, and other energy sources are more expensive that gas, coal, and natural gas.

This will not always be so.  When gas rises through six dollars a gallon and stays there, other forms of energy will step in to compete.  It won't be the good old days, but it will be more efficient.

And that is what change really is.

Until a new energy source comes along to truly compete with fossil fuels, do yourself a favor and work on conservation.  Insulate that house and drive less in a smaller car.  These things will save you money now and in whatever the future brings.

Summer

Summer has come to Montana with a vengeance.  It's hot and that means the snow is melting.  Grab your sandbags people.  It's coming.

Proud

Tomorrow my oldest son goes to Basic Training.  It's been a time for being with family and friends.  It will be nine weeks and a lifetime before I see him again.  I wish that I could go back and do everything again.  Some changes maybe, but mostly I'd like to go back and do it again.  Good times and bad, he's my son and I can hardly wait to see the man he is becoming.

Open Carry

So, around the intertubes.  People are talking about an open carry day.  I like open carry, it's more comfortable, it hopefully desensitizes people to guns, and if done right, it promotes gun owners and normal, friendly people.

I won't be participating this year.  I believe that if I am going to open carry, I need a retention holster.  Something with a thumb break, or a hidden button device.  And it shouldn't be black or menacing.

None of my holsters fit those requirements.  The Serpa is a good holster.  Which is good, but it's also used by a local PD and I don't want people to think I'm a cop.  It's also black.  With a black gun.  Not the impression I want to make.

Maybe next year, with a pretty gun in a nice brown holster.  Hopefully with some nice tooling so as to show off instead of looking menacing.