Hiatus probable

I may be losing internet at some point today. I’m moving tomorrow anyway, but I don’t know if I’ll have access at my new place.

Depending on how much free time I have, I may keep writing posts and go by the free WIFI place and post them all at once. If so, they will naturally not be of the current affairs variety, but perhaps more abstract essay type stuff.

Trouble focusing & book endorsement

I’ve written seven drafts today, but have barely posted because I can’t seem to focus long enough to write a coherent post.

I suppose part of the problem was that I spent most of the day reading Neil Strauss’s new book, Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life.

I first heard of it via Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority. This was one of the few books where I had plenty else to distract me, but kept reading it straight through anyway.

Buy it, read it. You won’t regret it.

FUCKING PEANUT BUTTER THIEF

That’s right, the peanut butter thief strikes again. What the fuck kind of asstard steals someone’s fucking peanut butter right out of the kitchen? A mostly used jar at that?

I’m going to start doing fucked up shit to a peanut butter jar as a decoy and leaving it out. Sucks to be you if you eat my peanut butter cum earwax concoction because you’re too much of a dickbrain to go buy your own!

Upstate New York, fucked again

http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2009/04/28/assembly-passing-series-of-bills-on-guns/

Not that I needed any, but those are just a few more reasons never to move back to that shithole again. Thanks for wrecking my childhood home, NYC liberals.

And Upstate, maybe you could grab your balls and fight back? Please?

Update: Check this shit out.

I am not a lawyer. But:

A  person  is  guilty of criminal possession of a weapon in the second
   22  degree when SUCH PERSON:
   23    (1) [with intent to use the  same  unlawfully  against  another,  such
   24  person:
   25    (a)] possesses a machine-gun; or
   26    [(b)]  (2)  possesses  a  50-CALIBER  WEAPON  OR A loaded firearm WITH
   27  INTENT TO USE THE SAME UNLAWFULLY AGAINST ANOTHER; or
   28    [(c)] (3) possesses a disguised gun WITH INTENT TO USE THE SAME UNLAW-
   29  FULLY AGAINST ANOTHER; or
   30    [(2) such person] (4) possesses five or more firearms; or
   31    [(3)] (5) such person possesses any loaded  firearm.  Such  possession
   32  shall  not,  except  as  provided in subdivision one or seven of section
   33  265.02 of this article, constitute a violation of  this  subdivision  if
   34  such possession takes place in such person's home or place of business.
   35    Criminal  possession  of  a  weapon  in the second degree is a class C
   36  felony

O/T, WordPress, you need to fix your formatting issues. It just took me like three minutes to get my typeface back to normal.

So it would be criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree to possess five firearms outside your home. Wow. I regularly bring more than five weapons shooting, especially if I’m training on different types of weapons. I’m pretty sure I own more than five firearms in NY, so what happens when I move? If this passes, does that mean I can’t bring my long guns into the state because I would possess more than five firearms outside my home or business? Is intrastate transportation legal, or is there no exception for that? Federal law covers driving through NY, but the state police probably won’t let that stop them from harassing the fuck out of you and keeping you in jail overnight.

I guess I’m not bringing any guns into NY. I’m not sure what to do; maybe I’ll rent a storage unit in PA for a few months and store my NY-unfriendly stuff there while I’m doing the NY thing. I can fly my pistols to AK if necessary from TX. It’s cheaper than FFL transfers for sure, if I’m flying there anyway.

Fuck you, NY. I can’t believe I kept my NY residency this long.

New 10mm quote

Bob got back to me with a new quote of just under $1700. Awesome. C’mon taxes… hurryitup.

Springfield XD and thumbs

The grip I normally use on a semiautomatic pistol is a high, thumbs forward grip. This works well on most pistols I’ve owned. Revolvers get a thumbs down and locked grip, left thumb over right, for a more secure grip under heavy recoil and so I don’t bash my thumbs on the cylinder or cylinder release.

Well, I’d been using the thumbs forward grip on the XD, but it turns out that is causing the slide not to lock back on empty, because the pressure required to hold the magazine follower is very slight. Slight enough that even resting my thumb lightly on the slide release lever will not allow the slide to lock back. Clearly this is unacceptable.

Given the grip I need to use–thumbs down–I now wish this XD did not have a thumb safety. It adds one more little movement in establishing my grip while drawing, and since the thumb isn’t resting on the thumb safety, I’m just going to sweep the safety off as soon as I draw anyway. I could train to sweep it off with my left thumb, but I don’t want to complicate my training for a pistol I consider about third string in my arsenal.

Fusion 10mm

I got my quote back from Bob Serva, one of the gunsmiths at Fusion. I’m impressed with how quickly they got back to me: only about twelve hours after I sent the initial request.

They’re offering me the pistol for $1595 including shipping. That’s an awesome deal. They are giving me a huge military discount too… $295! It was $1890 before the discount. Holy shit! So far I’m impressed.

I have some additions to the order that will raise the price, like a spare fitted & tuned extractor and a couple spare magazines, but that should only add $150 or so to the final price.

As soon as I get my taxes in or the 14th of May, whichever comes sooner, I’ll send off my deposit. If I’m as happy with the pistol as I think I will be, considering the utterly glowing reviews I’ve read online, Fusion will have captured my custom 1911 business in perpetuity.

No self discipline

Remember how, about fifteen posts ago, I said I was done buying guns once I got my 45/70 and a 22LR rifle?

Well…

I discovered Fusion Firearms today. More specifically, I discovered their custom bobtail commander 1911 in 10mm, for a very reasonable price. I shot off an e-mail asking for a quote, wait time, etc this morning.

If they offer me a good price with the minor mods to their basic design I want, especially since my mods will probably require less work, I’m going to put down the deposit the day my taxes come in. I’m willing to pay $1600 or so.

I haven’t heard anything back yet, but I’m sure they’re busy. If I don’t hear anything by friday, I’ll try again.

If I end up buying this pistol, I’ll buy the 22LR rifle in NY and pass on the 45/70 until spring.

Blog maintenance… again

See, I’m doing it! I’ve added all kinds of new links, updated my background page, added the archives again…

Holy crap, I might even make a banner and go with a three column template next! Watch out!

Aw shit. I still have to categorize all my posts. This is post #165. Fuck.

WordPress is really easy to use, even if they do update and kill my widgets every so often. A lot of what I did today was restore stuff I had originally set back in the fall.

Truck pistol

Every time I felt close to a conflict requiring the drawing of my sidearm in this city, I was in my car. I’m not sure why, but maybe because I’m obviously a soldier, I’m a larger guy, apparently have a perpetually pissed off look on my face, and don’t display submissive behavior, none of which is obvious when I’m still in a car. That’s my guess, anyway.

As you may know, drawing a pistol from a strongside IWB holster seated, with a seatbelt on, is well nigh impossible. There are a few solutions to this problem: keeping a second pistol in the car somewhere accessible; having a spare paddle holster you can clip on for crossdraw while driving; and using a shoulder holster.

I have a spare paddle holster I can use for this purpose, but it’s not the solution I’d prefer, since it means constantly moving your pistol from one holster to the other. A shoulder holster is out for me, simply because the only time I would use a shoulder holster is on a motorcycle, inside my jacket, probably left hand draw.

We’re down to keeping a second pistol in the car. How to do that safely, and where do I consider accessible?

Well, safety is simply addressed. You want some way of securing the pistol when you’re not in the car, like a small gun safe you can bolt to the floor or one of those cable-lock boxes. A bolt down box would be more secure, but necessarily more visible simply because you can’t hide a box with a top-opening lid under your seat. The cable lock boxes are easily removed with bolt cutters, but you can take them with you into a hotel room or your house without overtly carrying a pistol.

As for accessibility, well, in my case I can go three ways: fasten a holster somewhere in my car, just toss the pistol in my console, or keep the previously mentioned paddle holster and pistol in the vehicle and clip it on, never touching my regular carry pistol.

Grassburr, Fobus, and SSHMI all offer options for mounting a pistol to the surface of a vehicle. There are plenty of DIY options as well; if you have a spare belt holster, a little ingenuity is all it takes to secure it somewhere in your vehicle. Make sure you use a holster with good retention, since you don’t need your spare handgun to go flying around under hard braking or an accident.

My Jeep Cherokee is kind of difficult to work with, since it’s a compact SUV and there isn’t a lot of spare room in the vehicle. I’ve got a few locations in mind, like between my driver’s seat and the console, under the steering column, or between my knees somehow (maybe with one of the SSHMI mounts bolted to the floor, or a holster stitched to the seat cover). I don’t recommend using a really nice handgun for this, naturally. Your holster will accumulate dust or grit, and it will wreck the finish on your pistol.

Throwing the pistol in the console is a bad idea, since I keep my insurance and registration in there. I doubt a cop would be happy about my opening a console with a loaded handgun in it to get my insurance and registration out, even with notification. The pistol would get banged around too much for my taste anyway.

I think I’m going to go with the paddle holster crossdraw and spare pistol option, stored in a cable-equipped Gun Vault 1000 Deluxe. If I had a larger vehicle, I could swing the holster mounted to the dash idea, but the Cherokee just doesn’t have the room for me to be 100% confident of good accessibility/no interference with my driving. But what pistol do I use? All of my 1911s are nice. Kimber SIS Pro I guess.

It’s too bad some fuckstain stole the top half of my Para Ordnance SSP… this would be the perfect job for that pistol, since it’s already beat up, scratched, and worn. I’ll have to hand that frame off to a gunsmith for a rebuild some day; maybe I’ll build a 45 Super gun or something.

I don’t consider it worthwhile to go to all this trouble for short trips. A trip across the state or running errands all day? Yeah, I’d do this. Driving to the corner store? Too much trouble.

Obviously some states are retarded and don’t allow open carry in vehicles, so you’re screwed if that is the case. Texas is one of those states. Be aware of the applicable laws in your area and anywhere you travel to. Nobody needs a felony charge for accidentally carrying his weapon in an unapproved manner.