Cheap Pistol Gun Safe

See this link for an alternative to a traditional gun safe. Good idea!

Inexpensive Home Defense Shotgun

This looks like a pretty good deal.

Mossberg Maverick Shotgun

$169.99

Item#: 7848088
Style#: 31010
SKU: 0350-01883-5002

* Gauge: 12 or 20
* Barrel: 28" on 12 and 26" on 20, Vented Ribbed
* Chamber: 2 2/3" and 3"
* Choke: Accu-Choke, Modified
* Stock: Black Synthetic
* Made in Texas (Heck yeah!)

President Obama should emulate President Lincoln

From this article about President Lincoln:

"He encouraged weapons development and even tested some new rifles himself on the White House lawn."

Can you imagine?

Romarms / Century Draco Pistol Review (work in progress)

Ok, it's in. $369.95 shipped from Classic Arms. Included 2 new 30 rd mags, and a cleaning kit.

I found this on www.romarms.com:

That looks like the select fire version with stock on the left side. They call it a submachine gun.

This info is shown also:


To get an idea of how small this is, here's a CD and the run of the mill 30 rd clip next to the pistol.


Note that this is imported by Century, but I don't think they touch it as Romarms is shown as the manufacturer. So, you don't have to worry about how well the kit construction was done.

It's a little curious that there is a Tapco G2 trigger installed. Oh well, a free plus.

Overall for an AK, it looks pretty good. The lacquer on the wood is kind of gummy and the excess can be picked off with a finger. So refinishing should be easy, but it looks pretty good. The woodgrain is attractive.

The thread protector is fairly easily removed with a dremel and file so you can put a flash supressor, fake can, whatever on it. A good flash supressor is IMHO essential from what I've heard unless you like fireballs and a challenge to your hearing protection. (Ironically in Europe I hear 'silencers' (supressors) are cheap and easy to get). One up on us, Jacques. This pistol begs for one, so maybe we should look at repealing that rule.

A pin retains the reverse threaded protector. Lefty tighty righty loosey. Just be careful not to grind too much of the cleaning rod retainer away. It's so close it's nearly unavoidable.

* Click pics for HugeVision(tm) resolutions. *




I tried to show that it looks like everything is pretty well lined up. I see perhaps a little cant on the sights. More like a slight offset really. It feels and looks pretty straight. Appears to be a stainless piston. Top dust cover looks Parkerized. (Cleaning rod not shown.)





Wood looks pretty good. It's kind of a stain with a semi-satin lacquer.



Bluing throughout looks deep, and functional com-bloc quality.



Receiver looks like a decent Parkerization job.



I think the SAW type grips would look better.

Nitpick: The bolt cover rubs the charging handle a little. Just enough to take the bluing off. Oh well, reblue later after it breaks in. Or Park' the bolt.

Summary: Construction is decent, functional to nice with the best part being the pre-installed Tapco G2 trigger. It's smooth. It's a tight pistol with the only rattle being the mag and top cover, and those only a little.

Figure the shipping at $20, mags at $5 each, and this is a $340 weapon. Not bad. I remember paying $199 each for the MAK-90 in the early 90's and that IMHO was a much less attractive and less collectible (back then) firearm. With inflation, and today's political situation, $340 is a fair price.

German Sport Guns, GSG-5, etc.: The expensive 22LR Plinker

No offense, but if you want a cool military looking rifle, the prices on CETMEs, AKs of all flavors, etc. are decreasing. I don't see the logic of a plinker that costs $400-$500. www.classicarms.us has the Draco AK pistol for $369.95. A real weapon at an affordable price.

The internet says good things about them.

If the GSG and it's ilk were cheaper, or you really used it for live fire exercises or something, sure, but not at those prices.

If you have one and love it, I respect that. I just think it's overpriced unless you are using it for training, perhaps and you have the real counterpart to the 22LR version.

Sigh...bad quotes and media disinformation again

I know, we've heard it all before. And my prayers and best wishes go out to the officers injured in this:

http://wcbstv.com/breakingnewsalerts/jersey.city.shooting.2.1087890.html

But, on to the quotable quotes and disinformation:

"Pump-Action Automatic Shotgun Used Against Cops, 5 Wounded"

Well which was it? Pump or Auto? (I guess they mean SEMI-automatic) but you know the media. It's either a blunderbuss or a rotary cannon from an A-10.

"Jersey City looked more like a war zone early Thursday morning."

Wow, two people with small arms can make the whole town into a war zone. Either that's a really small town, or we need to send some of those weapons to Iraq and Afghanistan with our troops.

"It's a combat weapon. It's got a stock that's retractable. It had a strap on it where he had numerous shells on it. He was ready to battle," Jersey City Police Chief Thomas Comey said of Shakur.

And we always ask, how would a plain old pump shotgun be any different in lethality? If it was a pump? How did the stock make it more deadly? Was it really a combat weapon? Sooooo many types of firearms can and have been used in combat. But let's use that inflammatory language. It does sell papers and keep the website hits a' comin'.

"I don't know how many times a big city chief has to stand here and say we need help to stop these weapons from hitting the streets. This weapon is manufactured for no other reason than to hunt man," Comey said. "So we should stop being afraid of the NRA and start being afraid of our own rights."

Darn near 100% inflammatory rhetoric.

"Let's be afraid of our own rights"?

God help us if anyone ever really means that.

MPA930 Tidbits

In perusing the manual I found a couple of small pieces of information.

The manual shows a magazine loader, but none is included. $19.95 from MPA.

It mentions 9mm ammo, but nothing about +P or +P+ suitability. I emailed the company and they said they do not recommend +P or higher.

Partial review: Masterpiece Arms MPA930-SST-X

Just got one in yesterday, and it looks pretty good overall. Just under $500 shipped.

The flashlight and optics are both NcStar. Both appear to me to be of reasonable quality. Not great, but considering the price they're ok. The finish the safety extension for the barrel is a bit darker than the pistol. The extension and flashlight mount looks anodized, while the pistol is Parkerized.


A few not so awesome welds but they appear quite functionally fine:


Fit and finish seem pretty good overall. Mags click in and drop out positively and easily. An aftermarket paddle release is available.


The sight is the D4B model.

• 33mm lens
  
• 7 brightness settings
  
• 4 reticle patterns (1-crosshairs w/circle, 2-large circle around small dot, 3-small dot, 4-crosshairs w/small dot )
  
• Comes with a sight cover
  
• Extra battery

Flashlight is a nice mostly metal NcStar; I think it's the AQPTF. The body is anodized aluminum. A sturdy plastic or composite here and there. Hey, it's a light. Runs on a single CR123A lithium battery (3 volts, 1 diode for light) that mounts on a rail on the bottom of a ring retained by the trigger guard and safety extension.


40 (or 35 depending on who you ask) lumens, 1 watt. Quick release weaver mount, ambidextrous sliding switch to turn it on. The switch ends up right at trigger fingertip when you put your finger alongside the pistol body. If you're a lefty though, you'll have to use a different finger, as your trigger finger will turn the light off; not useful if you want it on.

I'm not sure you could use the bottom rail for much besides a flashlight as it can wiggle back and forth about 4mm. I guess a laser might be reasonably accurate at close ranges, but you could probably get a low profile laser on the top rail, mounted in front of the sight.

See the gaps above that let it move a little on the back end next to the guard.


It's a heavy sucker! 5 lbs unloaded with all accessories. Well, that will keep recoil low and the sights on target. And of course the bolt is huge, which will absorb a lot of the recoil.

You can buy MOST pieces of this separately from MPA. The pistol can be bought with the top rail mounted. And you could by the scope elsewhere too.

Lets price it out separately. Prices are from the MPA website.

MPA930SST-A Pistol, sidecocking. $499.95
Mini 9 Flashlight rail, flashlight, and Barrel Extension. $89.95
NcStar D4B. $40+ from various places, MPA doesn't sell it separately. If they did, it might be a bit more.

The MPA930-SST-X is $630.95 MSRP.

Strangely, the total price adds up to about what you'd pay for the package deal. I suppose you save a tiny bit, plus a little shipping.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

Next: Documentation included? And how about that warranty fine print?

Top 40 Reasons to Support Gun Control

From here an excerpt:

"2. Washington DC’s low murder rate of 80.6 per 100,000 is due to strict gun control, and Arlington, VA’s high murder rate of 1.6 per 100,000 is due to the lack of gun control."

A funny and thought provoking read.

Summertime, and the ammo's here

Looks like some easing is on for the summer. I was in my local Academy store, and they actually had 9mm, 7.62x51 (!), and some other hard to find calibers in reasonable quantity. Now only if the Winchester white box NATO wasn't 90 cents a round...(!)

Gun Prices on the Way Down

Check out www.classicarms.us

That CETME for example has been marked down $100 since I bought one a month or so ago. DANGIT!

That's a good thing, personal 'loss' aside.

Join the NRA

Membership application.

This included a pretty good magazine and a number of benefits like:

• Official NRA members - only shooter's cap *
• Your choice of monthly NRA magazines
• Membership card and decal
• Insurance for you and your guns
• Invitations to "Friends of NRA" dinners, other special events and more...

The biggest benefit you get as a gun owner is showing the politicians in Washington that we are a big enough demographic to warrant their attention.

There are a lot more firearm owners than members. And if Washington has it's way, I believe we won't have either any more.

I don't understand

From the NRA Institute for Legislative Action:

"This week, in a typically misleading move designed to bolster their political agenda rather than reduce violent crime, the Brady Campaign released a report calling for background checks on "all gun sales in America, including at gun shows." The Brady report was intentionally designed to correspond with, and bolster, a "gun show loophole" bill (S. 843) introduced this week by fanatical anti-gun Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). In fact, the Brady report was released at the press conference Lautenberg held earlier this week.

Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign, said in the group's press release, "We can do this. It will have no impact on any law-abiding gun owner in the country." Of course, that is absolutely false-the proposal will ONLY impact law-abiding gun owners, including any law-abiding person selling a firearm to a law-abiding buyer. Does Helmke really think that criminals, drug cartel members, and violent gang thugs are going to start legally purchasing firearms and submitting to a background check? Law-breakers, by definition, break the law. They are criminals; they are predatory, they operate outside of the law. You know that, we know that, Lautenberg knows that, even Helmke knows that."

I can't even begin to imagine the mindset behind getting rid of guns. Oh wait, yes I can. They somehow think they can eventually make enough laws to where they can get rid of guns altogether or make it so hard to own one, you won't bother and the criminals' supply will magically dry up.

This is a misguided attempt to control the tools criminals misuse. They only problem is that the tools in questions have legitimate uses, including protecting you from the bad guy who didn't turn in his gun when the law was made to tell us all to do so. Oops.

Firearms will gradually be taken away or regulated to such a degree that only criminals will have them, and guess what, formerly law-abiding owners will be legislated to criminal status if they don't turn them in.

This has happened to other countries, and it will happen here IF WE LET IT. Don't fool yourself into thinking it can't.

Let's look at some death rates. These are from the Center for Disease control. I found them at this link.

This is the death rate per 100,000 people. Both sexes, all races.

Transport accidents 16.3
Nontransport accidents 23.4
Accidental discharge of firearms 0.3
Assault (homicide) by discharge of firearms 4.2
Assault (homicide) by other and unspecified
means and their sequelae 1.9
Events of undetermined intent 1.6
Discharge of firearms, undetermined intent 0.1
Complications of medical and surgical care 0.9
Intentional self-harm (suicide) by other and
unspecified means and their sequelae 5.3
Intentional self-harm (suicide) by discharge of
firearms 5.7
All causes 825.9

You're roughly 4 times as likely to die in some sort of accident as you are to by firearms. And that's INCLUDING suicide by firearm. Again, this also ignores the fact that firearms can be used like any other tool, and in the absence of that tool, people will use something else for suicide or homicide. For suicide it's roughly 50/50 for firearm or not, and 1/3 of homicides do not involve a firearm.

So, that firearm death rate is starting to look figuratively small.

So what do most people die of? Heart disease or cancer.

Major cardiovascular diseases 288.8
Malignant neoplasms 188.7

By my math, that's 470+ which is roughly 47 TIMES greater than the firearm related death rate (figured at 10.3 for all firearm deaths, even accidental). Where's the big push to spend money on preventing those? Not as exciting as 'guns are bad, mmm-?' I guess.

You really wanna save lives? Outlaw McDonald's and tobacco products.

Century CETME Current State of the build Review

This is a Century built CETME in the 5xxxx serial number range. My FFL's CETME is in the 4 digit range by contrast. Mine is engraved .308 while his says 7.62.

On the whole it's a nice looking weapon. Let's dig in.

From http://www.militaryfirearm.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=236 a checklist:

1. Bolt gap: .010 to .011 inches. I'd prefer a little higher, but it's right in the middle of the range. Rollers mic'd at between 8.01 to 8.02.
2. Ground Bolt- "Take the bolt off the carrier and look at the rear of it. Make sure it hasn't been ground. An unground bolt should have a nice clean chamfer around the edges." Looks good to me! Chamfer edged looks regular all the way around.
3. Sight alignment: Looks good, feels good. One of the photos has an optical illusion.
4. Bolt carrier is not resting on the cocking tube stop. Slight bit of space in mine between the carrier and stop. But not much! Less than 1mm when the bolt slides home in a normal release.
5. Ejector: Looks ok, I'm not sure what 'riding high' in the above post means?
6. Barrel looks clean and shiny.
7. Bolt parts look like they have very little wear. Shiny unfinished edges here and there.
8. Fire Control Group is either new or just has shiny unfinished bits from metal to metal contact.

The stock and trigger/handgrip assembly fit tightly but not excessively so to the receiver. I used a hammer knocking on a bit of PVC pipe to get the stock off after removing the retaining pins. It only shaved a little plastic off the pipe a bit, so not much force required at all. Hitting the pistol grip a few times with the heel of my hand removed the trigger housing. The stock retaining pins pressed out easily.

Gripes: a small bit of rust and pitting on a thick portion of the firing pin. Nothing that will affect it, but I might see if I can get a replacement. It didn't have any cosmoline on that area.

To me so far, everything looks pretty good for what I paid considering the current environment.

To the pics!






Looks canted but it's an illusion. Don't make fun of my LSU socks.

A little grinding here and there for fit, but just a little.














Please comment or ask questions! And yes, I need to clean the dust bunnies up.

I like this rough quote regarding the .308 (7.62x51) caliber:

"It turns cover into concealment."

Too True

First Post, and let's get right to it!

I got a letter from Sen. John Cornyn today, thanking me for contacting him about firearms issues.

Probably to urge him to vote against some liberal scheme designed to take away our icky, scary guns that can cause boo boos. Or blow up cars with one shot, depending on who you ask.

It contained troubling verbiage such as "It is essential to safeguard the law-abiding citizen's constitutional right to own and use firearms designed for legitimate purposes such as hunting, target shooting, collecting, and self protection."

I'd like to remove that bit about "designed for legitimate purposes". I'm going to ask the fine Senator from Texas (and a Republican) what a gun designed for an illegitimate purpose might look like. This is a very slippery slope. Don't give the other side any leeway! They will exploit it relentlessly, heedless of facts.

It's also not very well thought out, because if you're "collecting" then that's all the legitimate purpose you would need for ANY firearm. Ergo, if collecting is a legitimate purpose then the firearms designed for illegitimate purposes (which I'd like to see) would be allowed under the auspices of collecting.

Finally, that language also smells a bit like pandering to the gun control crowd. If I were a politician, I could then say "See, I'm in favor of firearms for *legitimate* purposes, so you can work with me not against me."

Hopefully that's just smokescreen so the libs will leave him alone.

Having now typed some legal-like gobbledygook, I will now retire to clinging to my gun and Bible.

Disclaimer: I'm happy the senator is pro-gun, but as a Republican from Texas, how could you not be? He has my support.