Letter From the Saratoga County Deputy Sheriff's Police Benevolent Association

I got this today from a cousin of mine who lives in Upstate NY. He's a former police officer, now disabled from an injury suffered while scuffling with some dirtbag. The link goes to a PDF scan of a letter from the Saratoga County Deputy Sherriff's Police Benevolent Association to Cuomo, a couple NYS senators, and the chair of the Republican New York State Committee. It really rakes all of them over the coals about the SAFE Act.

The letter is a PDF but was not OCRed, so to see it click on this link (shared from my Google Drive).

I'd say it hits pretty much all the points as to why the misnamed SAFE Act is a travesty.

Biden 2016?

No surprise, but it looks like Vice President Beavis is looking at running for president again in 2016.

Vice President Joe Biden has barely hidden his possible interest in running for president in 2016, and now, the loquacious former senator has begun to lay the groundwork for a potential campaign to succeed President Barack Obama.

Link.

This has some folks on the right looking forward to the fight, thinking that he'll be easy to beat. Don't get cocky, as Han Solo would say. Never underestimate the power of stupid, greedy people voting in large numbers.

Utah Sheriffs Letter to Obama: Back Off

The latest pronouncement from American law enforcement officers to President Obama regarding gun control doesn’t mince any words.

Make no mistake, as the duly-elected sheriffs our our respective counties, we will enforce the rights guaranteed to our citizens by the Constitution. No federal official will be permitted to descend upon our constituents and take from them what the Bill of Rights--in particular Amendment II--has given them.

The full text of the letter from the Utah Sheriffs’ Association is here. (PDF document)

Is it me, or does it smell like 1860?

{Hat tip to the Washington Examiner.}

Super Cheap Silent Pellet Trap

Yesterday I made a silent pellet trap to replace the old ammo crate stuffed with newspapers that I’d been using for my airguns and my daughter’s BB gun. My original intention was to make it from some 2x6 piece of wood, but without a table saw or a large enough miter box, I couldn’t get the straight cuts I wanted.

So, looking around my shed, I saw the box that the little electric space heater I use in the shed came in, and cut it to size. I cut all around the box about 3.5” up from the bottom. I then reinforced the bottom with two more layers of cardboard cut from the sides, and reinforced the whole thing with plenty of duct tape.

Here’s the front with a target pinned up:

(The target is one that I downloaded awhile ago from uspalma.com, and cut to fit this trap. The original file was a PDF but I converted it to a PNG and put it here, if you want to use it.)

And here’s what it looks like inside:

The dark grey putty like stuff is seven pounds of Gardner Bender Duct Seal compound. It comes in one pound bars. You can get it from that link to Amazon (and I’ll get a commission), or at Home Depot or Lowe’s in the electrical section. It should be near the cable ties.

The wide border made from duct tape is intended to catch any back splatter, and any pellets that fall out of the duct seal into the bottom of the trap.

This is what the duct seal packaging looks like. I had a little trouble finding it on the shelf at Home Depot.

As you can see in the second picture above, pellets from my Diana 27 air rifle don’t penetrate very far from 25 feet. Compared with a steel pellet trap it’s much quieter for indoor shooting. Once you’ve put a couple thousand pellets into this kind of a trap you can remove them then knead the Duct Seal back into place. The pellets I’m shooting are made from dead soft lead, so I’ll recycle them for bullet casting.

One layer of Duct Seal bars is enough to stop most air pistols and air rifles with MVs up to about 700 FPS. More than that and you should add at least one more layer. Also, if you’re shooting a magnum airgun, it would be prudent IMO to have a steel or thick wood back to the trap to eliminate the possibility of a passthrough.

The duct seal ran me $2.48 per pound + 6% sales tax, or $18.41. So, for less than $20, plus a scrounged box, and some duct tape, I now have a good pellet trap.

Googling for “silent pellet trap” brings up 393,000 hits. There are plenty of hits for nice looking traps made from wood, plus some less aesthetically pleasing traps made from buckets and electrical junction boxes.

Some of the nicer looking silent traps that I found are at Archer Airguns. In particular, I like the one sized for using 8.5x11 targets, which uses a cut-out clip board to hold the paper targets. It’s offered both completely finished and as a kit. If I stick with this airgunning I may order one of the kits.

Tiananmen Square Activist Turned American Second Amendment Activist

Watch this and share it. This needs to go viral.



Here’s a transcript (the cameraman missed the first paragraph).

The past Monday I decided to visit the Minuteman Park in Lexington and pay tribute to Captain John Parker and his fellow minutemen. A thought came to my mind, that the founding fathers of the United States and Chairman Mao had one thing in common: they all realized that guns are important political instruments. Their similarities, however, ended there:

Chairman Mao wrote: ‘Political power grows out of barrel of a gun’, and he dictated: ‘The party shall command the gun’. James Madison and his compatriots, however, believing that the power of the state is derived from the consent of the governed, ratified that ‘the right to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed’.

23 years ago, I was a college freshman exercising my freedom of speech and assembly in Tian’anmen Square, much like we are doing here today. We grew frustrated by the restriction of personal freedoms and the corrupted Chinese government, and we thought peaceful protest would make the country better. Our young passion and patriotism was crushed by hails of full metal jackets out of AK47’s. (Some AK purists here would argue they were really type 56’s). We could not fight back, because we did not have an inch of iron in our hands, to borrow a Chinese expression: we were unarmed.

Gun owners like us often say: the Second Amendment is the protector against a tyrannical government. Some may argument that a man with a rifle is no match to the military machines of today, so such beliefs are no longer relevant. However, 20 million peaceful Beijing citizens in 1989, sure wished that they had a few million rifles in their hands!

Freedom is not free. Liberty has costs. We recognize that in this free society, criminals or mentally deranged could get weapons and murder the innocents. The answer, however, is not to disarm the law abiding citizens. Not only criminals and the deranged will violate the laws anyway, but more importantly, when a government turns criminal, when a government turns deranged, the body count will not be five, ten or twenty, but hundreds, like in Tian’anmen Square, or millions, counted in the 90-year history of the Chinese Communist Party.

Our constitutional republic may look fuzzy and loving today (if you think so, I’ve got a TSA agent you should meet), but keep in mind that absolute power corrupts absolutely! And when a government has monopoly on guns, it has absolute power!

Do you know that the Chinese Constitution guarantees almost all the nice things we have here? It is written that Chinese citizens enjoy freedom of speech and religion, they have human and property rights, and that such rights cannot be taken away without due process of the law. And do you know what? Chinese people do not have the right to keep and bear arms. I assure you all those nice guarantees, are not worth the paper they are printed on, because when the government has all the guns, they have all the rights.
I was not born a citizen of the United States, I was naturalized in 2007. In 2008, I became a proud gun owner. To me, a rifle is not for sporting or hunting, it is an instrument of freedom. It guarantees that I cannot be coerced, that I have free will, and that I am a free man.

Now suppose the 20 million Beijing citizens had had a few million rifles, how many rounds should they have been ALLOWED to load into their magazines? 10? 7? How about 3?

Never, never, never give up the fight, my friends. It may be a small step that you give up your rifle, or a 30-round magazine, but it will be a giant leap in the destruction of this great republic.

In closing I will quote the words of Captain John Parker: "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want to have a war, let it begin here."
(Link to transcript of this and other speeches from yesterday’s rally in Boston.)

Edit: Holy crap, @adamsbaldwin retweeted me on this! Welcome to everyone who came to this site via his link (and any other link, for that matter). Please check around, you'll find more of interest for pro-liberty folks here.

Edit 2: I see that I've been linked by Ace of Spades and Hotair. Wow! Thanks guys.

Edit 3: Please check out my other sites -- Survival & Emergency Preparedness, and The Shooters' Bar, the Internet's oldest free online list of pro-Second Amendment attorneys.

A Couple New Airguns

Well, not new, just new to me.

My father used to shoot airguns a lot, especially when he was mostly into shooting muzzleloading rifles. Airguns allowed him to take a break from shooting a gun requiring cleaning after each time out at the range. Of late, he hasn’t been shooting the air guns, and a few years ago gave my brother his Weirauch HW-55 target rifle.

This afternoon I called over to my parents’ house and jokingly told my mom that I’d be over later to steal one of Dad’s air pistols. When I got there he brought down his 1970s-vintage Geco Diana Model 27 air rifle for me to take home. Apparently, the message got garbled.

Anyway, the Diana Model 27 is a classic German made break barrel, spring piston air rifle that was produced for decades, from 1910 up until the 1980s. Dad’s – now my – Model 27 has a stock that looks different from most of the pics I’ve found online, more squared off and the trigger guard has a different shape.

Unlike most of the break barrel spring piston rifles you see nowadays, the Diana Model 27 is not a “magnum.” Muzzle velocity for .177 examples like mine should be around 650 – 700 FPS. For target shooting out to 25 yards this is fine. Back when we were kids, sometimes Dad would take us to the range and we’d just bring air rifles. The club we belonged to allowed you to shoot at stuff other than paper targets, so we’d gather up spent shotshells at the trap range, place them on the target frame at 25 yards, and plink at them with our air rifles. The Model 27 has plenty of power and intrinsic accuracy for that, it’s the shooter that is the limitation.

The rifle is more than 35 years old and probably had not been fired in 10 years before today, so before shooting it I did some preventive maintenance. First, the rubber butt pad looked like it needed a bit of rejuvenation, so I wiped it down with Armor All.

More importantly, I put two drops of silicone airgun oil on the breech seal O-ring, and two drops down into the compression chamber. The gun has a leather seal but it seems to still be in decent shape. At some point it would probably be good to have it inspected and probably replaced, though.

I only had time to put 10 rounds through the rifle this afternoon. My first shot was out in the 7 ring because the trigger was much lighter than I expected. Except for one shot that I yanked out into 8 ring my remaining shots were nicely clustered in the 10 ring. This rifle is a shooter!

The other airgun I brought home today is an RWS C225 pistol that Dad bought in 1998. RWS brought out this model in 1997 but it lasted only a few years on the market.

As you can see, it came in plastic case with fitted foam, two “magazines,” a CO2 cylinder, a hex key, tin of pellets, and the instruction manual.

The C225 is well made mostly from metal. In the hand it feels very much like my SIG P225 9mm.

As I understand it, the SIG-styled C225 is mechanically more or less the same as the Walther CP88. Although these CO2-powered pellet pistols look like semiautos, they are actually revolvers. The magazines are cylinders, as seen in the picture below.

To load the cylinder into the gun, you pull the latch above the trigger down, which allows the “slide” and barrel to move forward. The CO2 cylinder is contained in the grip. To replace it you press the “magazine release” button behind the trigger and the right grip panel comes off.

Pistols like the C225 and CP88 aren’t intended for formal target shooting, but more as fun guns or sub-caliber trainers for their centerfire counterparts. That said, the C225 should work well for practicing pistol marksmanship. I didn’t get to shoot it today but will surely do so tomorrow.

Along with the two guns, Dad let me take a couple tins of RWS Meisterkuglen wadcutter pellets, a box of 5 CO2 cylinders, some Beeman felt cleaning pellets, a .177 target scoring aid, and a small bottle of silicone airgun oil from the old Air Rifle Headquarters.

Airguns

With the currently high price and low availability of both rimfire and centerfire ammunition, I’ve been taking another look at my neglected airguns for maintaining my marksmanship skills. The other night I went to the closest Walmart on the off chance they had any .22 LR in stock, but all they had was rat shot. So, I picked up a box of 40 Crosman CO2 cylinders, thinking I’d break out my old Crosman 38T .177 revolver. (There are some nice pics of a 38T here.)

Tonight after work I dug out the 38T and put in a fresh CO2 cylinder. As soon as I did, it slowly leaked out all the gas. Apparently, after 25+ years, the seals deteriorated. I’m going to look into having it fixed. I still have the original box with the price tag – it cost me $34.88 plus tax at K-Mart, sometime back in the early 1980s. I’m sure the repair will cost more.

Anyway, not wanting to miss a chance to shoot, I put away the Crosman and got out my Benjamin HB-17 that I bought in the late 90s. (Here’s a link to it at Pyramid Air, although they list it as currently unavailable. I paid about $90 for mine.)

The HB-17 is a multi-pump pneumatic pistol. While it does not require CO2, it does require you to pump it up between each shot. For paper punching at 25 to 30 feet, 2 or 3 pumps are fine.

I haven’t shot it in years, and now I remember why. Pumping it is a pain, the trigger sucks, and the sights aren’t very good. Despite this, I was able to keep about half of my 20 shots in a group the size of a 50 cent piece, with the rest inside a couple inches at 20 feet. This was shooting with one hand.

Since I now have a big box of Co2 cylinders and nothing to use them in, I may pick up something like a Crosman 2240. It seems to be getting rave reviews at both Amazon and Pyramid Air, and there are many aftermarket accessories available for it.

A few nights ago I put 20 shots through my RWS-24 break barrel spring piston air rifle. I bought this back when I was in high school, as an upgrade to a Daisy Powerline 881 that I got when I was 12, and put a lot of pellets through it in my parents’ home, shooting into a steel trap. It’s a nice gun for indoor shooting because unlike most modern air rifles, it’s not a “magnum.” It has plenty of power for paper punching but is much quieter than the magnum air rifles. Unfortunately, it’s a lot harder to see the barleycorn front sight now that I’m 44, than it was when I was 15.

In the back of my closet I also have a Chinese XS-B3 air rifle that looks like a folding stock AK. It uses a side lever to cock it and is fairly powerful for an older air rifle. I’ll probably dig it out and put some pellets through it.

DIY Speedloader for .22 Rifles with Tubular Magazines

Having recently bought a Norinco ATD semiautomatic .22 rifle with a tubular magazine, I wanted a way to load it more quickly than dropping in single rounds. The commercially made Spee-D-Loader is available from several vendors, e.g. MidwayUSA and Cablea’s, and by most accounts works well.

I was interested in a DIY-solution, however, and did some googling to see what other people have come up with. Basically, you need a tube with the right internal diameter plus a couple end caps. Several folks mentioned using old aluminum arrows. I didn’t have laying around that I wanted to sacrifice, though. Eventually, I came across this post at the Marlin Owners Forum. “O1Sporty” described making his own speedloaders from lengths of 4’ long by 0.28” internal diameter clear polyethylene tubing and push on vinyl caps obtained from McMaster-Carr. The tubing was only $0.86 for each piece, while the caps were $3.76 for a bag of 100. After shipping my order was about $14.00.

I got my order of 6 tubes and a bag of caps today and made up a few speedloaders for the Norinco ATD tonight. Each one holds 11 rounds of .22 LR. I measured by capping one end of the full-length tube, dropping in 11 Remington Golden Bullet .22s, and marking it with a Sharpie. I then used the first cut piece as a template. You can cut this tubing with scissors.

I made the tubes a little longer than needed for the Golden Bullets, in case I used them with other .22 LR ammo with a slightly longer overall length.

I had a piece about 5” long leftover. I capped it and filled it with BBs for my daughter’s Red Ryder.

My Winchester 9422 holds up to 18 .22 LRs, if I remember correctly. I plan to make up some longer speedloaders to with it.

These should work well. They are cheap and easy to make, and are water resistant. I can have several of them loaded up ahead of time and then spend less time loading at the range.

More Progressive Tolerance

I thought it was the conservatives and libertarian gun owners who are supposed to be the dangerous one. Check out what the d-bag Bill Palmer at BeatWeek tweeted to a fellow Arfcommer:

When called on it, Palmer deleted the tweet, but as you can see, once it’s on the Internet, it’s forever.

Norinco ATD .22 Rifle Pictures

I took the ATD out to my shop tonight to clean it and took some pictures.

Looking into the underside of the action, you can see the cartridge-shaped magazine follow up against the top of the receiver. The latch at the rear of the forearm keeps the barrel indexed when the rifle is assembled.

Here’s the magazine tube insert partially withdrawn for loading. You can also see the funnel-shaped port on the right side of the butt. That’s where you drop cartridges into.

Here’s the buttplate and the end of the magazine tube insert. Norinco left some wood unfinished there. I need to seal it.

Here’s the mag tube insert pulled out of the gun, along with the trigger guard/bolt group.

Norinco ATD .22 Semiauto Rifle

Recently I came to the conclusion that having a takedown .22 autoloading rifle that uses a tube magazine could come in handy. Most .22s with tubular magazines have them mounted under the barrel, with a few notable exceptions such as the Remington Nylon 66, some older Winchesters, and the Browning Semi Auto .22, all of which have the magazine concealed within the butt stock.

The Browning SA-22 was introduced in 1914 and produced by FN in Belgium until 1976, when production was moved to Miroku in Japan. It was also produced in the United States by Remington, as the Model 24 and Model 241. Finally, it's also been made by Norinco in China as the ATD and JW-20. Interarms imported the ATD into the US in the late 1980s/early 1990s, until all Norinco imports were banned by Clinton in 1994. Canadian shooters can still buy the JW-20 (see Marstar.ca).

Having researched a number of the older tube-fed .22 takedowns over the past week, today I picked up a NIB Norinco ATD at Sarco in Easton, PA.

Apparently, Sarco found a bunch of Norinco ATDs in their warehouse last Fall. I found about them from a link to Sarco's website on Slickguns.com. I called Sarco Friday afternoon and they had one left in the showroom. The salesman I spoke with agreed to set it aside for me. Yesterday morning I drove up to Easton and bought it. After getting it home, I field stripped, cleaned, and oiled it. It was pretty clean, without too much oil or grease.

The Norinco is a very close copy of the FN and Miroku-made guns. From what I've read, most Browning parts are interchangeable, although some fitting may be required. Compared with a Browning, the Norinco's fit and finish is much cruder, but by most accounts they work well. My rifle's blueing is well done and the wood is decent, if not up to Browning's standards.

Aside from the tubular magazine which is protected within the butt stock, the Browning/Norinco has a few features which made it desireable for me:

First, the bottom ejection means that as a lefty, I don't need to worry about getting empty cases or gas in my face. My daughter and wife are also left eye dominant, so even though they are right handed they shoot portside. Last weekend my daughter shot my Remington Apache 77 and called it quits after getting hit on the cheek by an unburned powder granule. (This is one reason why we all wear safety glasses when shooting.) Also, the crossbolt safety is reversible for left handed operation. I'm still figuring out exactly how to do this, since the manual merely states that you can have a gunsmith perform the switch.

The gun takes down into two halves less than 20" long in just a few seconds, with no tools. I may pick up a cheap camera tripod case to hold the rifle when broken down. I got one for my Stoeger coach gun and it's great for holding the gun, a Boresnake, and some ammo.

Likewise, field stripping the rifle requires no tools. Finally, it weighs less than five pounds, which makes it easy to pack, and easy for my daughter to hold up.

To load the rifle, you twist the end of the magazine tube insert (accessible via a hole in the buttplate) and pull it out until it stops. Then, with the rifle pointing muzzle down, drop up to 11 .22 LR rounds into the funnel-shaped port on the right side of the butt. Then push in the mag insert and twist about a quarter turn to lock it in place. Finally, charge the rifle by pulling back the bolt handle and letting it go.

Last night I was able to shoot the Norinco on an indoor range. I put about 245 rounds through it, with a few malfunctions. So far it seems to prefer CCI Mini Mag solids over Federal 550 pack HPs. There was one failure to eject with the CCIs between the 40 and 50 round marks, but several with the Federals. .22s in general can be finicky when it comes to ammo, and semiautos in particular may have a strong preference for one kind or another, so this came as no surprise. I'm also hoping that once I get a few hundred more rounds through the gun it breaks in better, and functions better with the Federal ammo.

I also tried some CCI CB Longs, to see if the Norinco would handle them if manually cycled. No joy. With any of the CB Longs in the mag you cannot pull back the bolt. OAL must be jamming the feed mechanism. Once the first round gets into the chamber it'll fire and eject though, which surprised me. Last week I tried the CB Longs in my Remington Apache 77. They fed and ejected fine from the Remington's box magazine when manually cycled.

One thing you need to be careful of with these bottom ejectors is having hot brass eject out of the gun and go into your sleeve. Move your hand forward on the forearm to avoid this. I'd also avoid shooting one of these while wearing sandals. Hot brass between your toes will leave a scar.

The Norinco's trigger is good. There's little takeup, no grittiness, and the weight is probably 4 to 5 pounds.

The Browning and Norinco copies lack any kind of a bolt hold open device. So, if you're on a range that requires actions to be locked open during ceasefires or when the rifle is benched, you'll need to either use a chamber flag or stick and empty case in the ejection port so as to hold it open.

The bead front sight + rear open sights weren't working so great with my middle aged eyes, so I'm going to look into a barrel mounted red dot. Something like a Bushnell TRS-25, Primary Arms Micro Dot, or a Burris Fast Fire would greatly improve the sighting arrangement without messing up the svelte gun's balance.

I like the Norinco a lot. Once I improve the sights, I'll like it even more.

Many Updates to The Shooters' Bar

Over the past couple of days I've made many updates to The Shooters' Bar, the Internet's oldest free list of pro-gun rights attorneys. I got caught up with a backlog of new additions and updates, and this morning sent out an email blast, and received many updates in return.

If you are an attorney who is pro-gun rights but you're not listed in The Shooters' Bar, head on over, check out the site, and click the link to get listed. It's free and you don't have to be a "gun lawyer." This is a free service that I started back in 1997 as a way for Second Amendment advocates to keep their money within the pro-gun community.

Remington Nylon 77 .22 Semiauto Rifle

Yesterday I decided to brace the crowd and drove up to Cabela’s, where I saw on the used gun rack a Remington Nylon Apache 77 for $249 + tax. The exterior showed minimal handling marks and the bore looked good. The price was right and I’ve long thought the Nylon-series rifles were neat, so I bought it.

(Crummy low light iPhone pic. It’s not really clear, but the gun is mostly green.)

Remington came out with the tube fed Nylon 66 in 1959 and made it for 30 years. During that time they developed a reputation for being extremely reliable and durable. With the reciprocating parts riding on nylon, they don’t require lubrication, which is a nice feature if they rifle is going to be used in a very cold or dusty environment.

The box mag fed Nylon rifles were made in much fewer numbers than the 66. My father had a Nylon 11 bolt action in the early 1970s, but they are very uncommon nowadays. The box mag fed semiautos were not nearly as popular as the tube fed 66, which is a shame, in my opinion. Personally, I find a box mag to be more user friendly and facilitates loading and unloading much more quickly. Also, most .22 rifles with tube mags have them located under the barrel, where they can be dented. The 66’s internal tube mag is better protected.

The Nylon 66 and 77 have a tang safety, which helps make the rifle ambidextrous. Since I’m a lefty, this is a big bonus point.

I found a nice writeup of the Apache 77 and the other box mag fed Nylons over on Nylonrifles.com, here.

The Apache 77 was only made from 1987 through 1989, and sold exclusively through K-Mart. It’s a semiautomatic rifle chambered for .22 LR, feeding from a detachable 5 or 10 round box magazine. The more common Nylon 66 feeds from a 14 round tube mag concealed in the butt.

Having read horror stories by owners who detail stripped Nylon 66s, and couldn’t reassemble them, I limited my action cleaning to removing the steel receiver cover and using a solvent-soaked toothbrush to cleaning the easily accessible dirty part. The rifle came with a single 10 round plastic mag, which was showing some oxidation, so I wiped it down with an Armor-All wipe. Finally, I ran a few solvent-soaked patches through the bore, then followed up with a few dry patches.

Today I took it over to a friend’s house. He has some acreage with a good backstop, so I was able to put 50 – 60 rounds through it. Most were Federal bulk pack high speed 36 grain hollow points, but I also put 9 or 10 CCI CB Longs through it.

The Federals functioned well, although I did have a couple malfunctions, including one failure to fully eject. As expected, the CB Longs did not cycle the action, but they fed fine from the magazine when I worked the action as a straight pull bolt action. Noise-wise, they are very quiet from the Remington’s 19” barrel, about as loud as a Sheridan Blue Streak air rifle with 8 pumps. If they shoot accurately in your gun, the CB Longs would be good for small game hunting or pest control in an area where noise is a concern.

The gun has a pretty good trigger pull, I’d guess about 4 to 5 pounds with minimal slack or creep. It’s certainly better than the trigger my Ruger 10/22 originally came with, which was atrociously heavy and creepy.

We didn’t’ shoot at any paper targets, just at a bunch of tin cans but the sights appear to be pretty close to zeroed for me.

Even though the Nylon Apache 77 hasn’t been made since 1989, Remington still lists magazines for it, so I ordered a few last night. (All the box mag fed Nylon rifles use the same mag, which they also share with the Remington 541 and 581 bolt actions.)

Compared with the robust Ruger 10/22 magazines, or the metal magazines for my Savage rimfire rifles, the Nylon 77’s mags are flimsy. That said, I used to own a Remington 581 and the mag never gave me any trouble, so I’m hoping the ones I get for the 77 are OK.

The 77’s steel receiver cover is grooved for regular rimfire scope mounts. I have a Nikon 4x32mm Prostaff rimfire scope that’s currently not mounted on anything, so I give it a try on the Remington after I verify the iron sight zero.

The 77 was a boatload of fun to shoot and I look forward to shooting it a lot more.

Calling All Pro-Gun Attorneys

I received the following from fellow pro-gun attorney Randon S. Loeb of Florida. It is also running at The Truth About Guns.

Dear colleagues,

Throughout the history of this country and others, groups of lawyers have occasionally organized themselves to speak out with a unified voice against oppressive government action.  Although we lawyers are (rightfully) the butt of many a joke, our voices are always taken seriously in troubling times.  With respect to the current push for new restrictions on private firearms ownership, troubling times are now.

 

I am aware that there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of American lawyers who are lawful gun owners and proud supporters of the Second Amendment, notwithstanding the fact our practices do not directly serve the cause.  However, I am aware of no formal or informal bar association which allows us to speak out with a unified voice.  That needs to immediately change, and our voices must be heard prior to a vote on whatever federal legislation Diane Feinstein proposes.

 

I propose:

1) the immediate drafting of a short petition or letter to be distributed or available on-line, to which lawyers who agree may affix their signature of approval.  The crux of the petition/letter will be opposition to a renewed AWB, specifically addressing Feinstein's bill once the full text of it is published.

2) in the medium and longer term, the establishment of a group or "bar" to which lawyers may contribute time, funds, or merely just encouragement.. 

 

Any other proposals are gladly welcomed.

 

My practice is not heavily related to firearms or firearms law, and as a solo practitioner I am perhaps not ideally suited to organize these efforts.  I realize there are indeed lawyers and firms already deeply involved and committed to Second Amendment rights, and encourage them to lead these efforts.  I will endeavor to do so if necessary, but would gladly share those duties with others, especially those whose practices would be synergistic with such efforts.  As a starting point, I volunteer to serve as a contact point for early organization efforts, and based on the volume and nature of responses to this posting, decide a course of action from there.  Reach me at lawyersfor2a@randonloeb.com.

 

Finally, if I am mistaken and simply failed to notice the efforts of others already organizing lawyers for this cause, I sincerely apologize.  Nonetheless, I suggest those efforts need to be more visible, now more than ever.  Let us lead the way NOW!

Thank you,

Randon E. Loeb, Esq. (Florida)

Please contact Randon directly if you want to help.

A Society Preparing for War?

Blogger Bob Owens makes an interesting observation after visiting a gun shop yesterday, which mirrors my own observations:

They didn’t know when they’d be getting anything back in stock, from magazines to rifles to pistols. Manufacturers were running full-bore, but couldn’t come close to keeping up with market demand.It wasn’t just the AR-15s, the AK-pattern rifles, the M1As, and the FALs that were sold out. It really hit me when I realized that the World War-era M1 Garands , M1 carbines, and Enfield .303s were gone, along with every last shell. Ubiquitous Mosin-Nagants—of which every gun store always seems to have 10-20—were gone. So was their ammo. Only a dust free space marked their passing. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Every weapon of military utility designed within the past 100+ years was gone. This isn’t a society stocking up on certain guns because they fear they may be banned. This is a society preparing for war.

But instead of tackling the real roots of violence, the the Democrat leadership keeps poking the hornet’s nest by advocating civilian disarmament.

On top of that, you have the media, which nowadays is no more than the propaganda wing of the Democratic Party, running op-eds in a major newspaper advocating shit like this:

Declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal. Hey! We did it to the Communist Party, and the NRA has led to the deaths of more of us than American Commies ever did. (I would also raze the organization’s headquarters, clear the rubble and salt the earth, but that’s optional.) Make ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony. If some people refused to give up their guns, that “prying the guns from their cold, dead hands” thing works for me.

Then I would tie Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, our esteemed Republican leaders, to the back of a Chevy pickup truck and drag them around a parking lot until they saw the light on gun control.

Can you imagine the uproar if someone printed a piece like this advocating restrictions on the First Amendment? And liberals wonder why we “cling to our guns?”

Happy New Year.